E´QUITES
E´QUITES The traditional account of the origin of
the Roman
equites is as follows:--Livy (
1.13) relates that Romulus raised three centuries
of horsemen, called
Ramnenses, Titienses, and
Luceres. Dionysius (
2.13) asserts that these were elected,
like the senators, by the curies, each of the thirty curies choosing ten
men. He also says that the three centuries were divided for military
purposes into ten
[p. 1.754]turmae, each consisting of 30 men, viz. 10 Ramnes, 10 Tities, and
10 Luceres, the group of ten being commanded by its own
decurio. This account is hardly consistent with Livy's; nor
is Livy's view in harmony with his own remark elsewhere (10.6), borne out by
the language of Cicero (
Rep. 2.8, 14) and Varro (
L.
L. 5.55, 81, 89, 91), which speaks of the Ramnes, Titienses, and
Luceres as tribes into which the whole nation was divided. Dionysius further
says that these horsemen were called
Celeres,
and formed the body-guard of the king: Livy (
1.15) appears to regard the Celeres as a distinct body. Next Livy
states that ten
turmae of Albans were added by
Tullus Hostilius (1.30); the number would thus reach 600. Then he tells us
that Tarquinius Priscus did not make any other change in the centuries of
horse, but doubled the number, making the three centuries to consist of 1800
men. He is thus inconsistent with himself, and appears to have drawn from
some different authority here. Some editors have wished to read, without any
authority, MCC for MDCCC, but the alteration is quite unwarranted, the carelessness being
characteristic of Livy. Besides, it is clear that there was some authority
for this number of 1800, for it is restored to the text of Cicero (
de
Rep. 2.20, 36) by a certain emendation of C. T. Zumpt's, adopted
by all recent critical editors. It is plain that this authority transferred
to the time of Tarquinius Priscus the number of the equites, as it existed
afterwards under the constitution of Servius Tullius. Mommsen holds it to be
certain that there were originally 3 (
H. R. 1.78), then 6
(1.88), and after the Servian reform 18 (1.97) equestrian centuries. Next
Livy states (1.43) that Servius Tullius “equitum ex primoribus
civitatis duodecim scripsit centurias,” and had also the six
other centuries (three having been instituted by Romulus) under the same
names by which they had been inaugurated. These last six were undoubtedly
patrician originally, but there is no evidence that they remained so
(Mommsen,
Röm. Forsch. 1.135): they were called
sex suffragia, and consisted of
primi secundique Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres.
Along with the added twelve, they formed the eighteen centuries of
equites equo publico, who long continued to be an
important body at Rome. It has commonly been supposed that the centuries
were of double strength, as is implied in Livy's narrative, but Mommsen has
shown that there is no reason to accept this, and that the number of horses
supplied by the community was always limited to 1800 (
Hist. 2.319).
Both Livy and Cicero agree in stating that each of the equites received a
horse from the state (
equus publicus), or money
to purchase one (or rather a pair, one being needed for the attendant; cf.
Festus, s. v.
Pararium), as well as a sum of
money for its annual support; and that the expense of its support was
defrayed by the orphans and unmarried females; “since,” says
Niebuhr (
Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 461), “in a military
state it could not be esteemed unjust, that the women and the children
were to contribute largely for those who fought in behalf of them and of
the commonwealth.” According to Gaius (4.27) the purchase-money
for a knight's horse was called
aes equestre, and
its annual forage
aes hordearium. [AES HORDEARIUM.] The former amounted, according to
Livy (
1.43), to 10,000 asses, and the latter to
2,000: but these sums are so large as to be almost incredible, especially
when we take into account that 126 years afterwards a sheep was only
reckoned at 10, and an ox at 100 asses in the tables of penalties (
Gel. 11.1). The correctness of these numbers has
accordingly been questioned by some modern writers, while others have
attempted to account for the largeness of the sum. Boeckh (
Metrolog.
Untersuch. 100.29) supposes that the sums of money in the
Servian census are not given in asses of a pound weight, but in the reduced
asses of the first Punic war, when they were struck of the same weight as
the sextans; that is, two ounces, or one-sixth of the original weight. [As.]
Zumpt considers that 1000 asses of the old weight were given for the
purchase of the horse, and 200 annually for its keep; and that the original
sum has been retained in a passage of Varro ( “equum publicum mille
assariorum,”
L. L. 8.71). But the view of Mommsen is the most probable,
that like the assessments of the Servian constitution generally, the
original estimate was made in land, and that it was transformed into a money
assessment only at a later time, when the value of landed property had
enormously increased (
Hist. 1.95).
All the equites, of whom we have been speaking, received a horse from the
state, and were included in the 18 equestrian centuries of the Servian
constitution; but in course of time, we read of another class of equites in
Roman history, who did not receive a horse from the state, and were not
included in the 18 centuries. This latter class is first mentioned by Livy
(
5.7) in his account of the siege of Veii,
B.C. 403. He says that during the siege, when the Romans had at one time
suffered great disasters, all those citizens who had an equestrian fortune,
and no horse allotted to them ( “quibus census equester erat, equi
publici non erant” ), volunteered to serve with their own horses;
and he adds, that from this time equites first began to serve with their own
horses ( “tum primum equis merere equites coeperunt” ). The
state paid them ( “certus numerus aeris est assignatus” ) as a
kind of compensation for serving with their own horses. The foot-soldiers
had received pay a few years before (
Liv. 4.59);
and two years afterwards, B.C. 401, the pay of the equites was made
threefold that of the infantry (
Liv. 5.12; see
Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 439). But whether this class of cavalry serving
equis suis was a permanent institution at
Rome, and they formed the ordinary legionary cavalry, or whether on the
other hand it was only resorted to under exceptional circumstances, is a
question which has long been a matter of keen controversy. Marquardt, who in
a special treatise (
Historiae equitum Romanorum libri iv.,
Berlin, 1840) defended the former view, has more recently abandoned it, and
holds (
Röm. Staatsv. ii.2 323)
that there is no evidence of a permanent body of cavalry receiving pay from
the state, except the 18 centuries. “This does not exclude the
possibility that at a later time men of equestrian position served
voluntarily with horses of their own, but they never formed a distinct
corps.” The only strong argument in favour of such a body is that
1800 horse--300 for each legion--would
[p. 1.755]hardly meet
all the requirements of military service. But it must not be forgotten that
the bulk of the cavalry serving in a Roman army was always furnished by the
allies. Our authorities are too incomplete to allow us to come to a very
positive conclusion; but at least there is no evidence to upset Marquardt's
latest results (cf. Belot,
Histoire des Chevaliers Romains, 2
vols. Paris, 1866-1873). Mommsen's most recent discussion of the question
(
Röm. Staatsr. 3.476 ff.) brings him to the
opinion that, as a considerable proportion of the
equites
equo publico served as officers, and as at an early date the
custom sprang up that an eques retained his horse, after he had ceased to be
qualified for active service, vacancies in the ranks of the normal cavalry
squadrons were filled up by allowing those who could afford it to serve with
their own horses, instead of on foot.
The Roman knights who received horses from the state are frequently called
equites equo publico (
Cic. Phil. 6.5), and sometimes
Flexumines (or more probably
Flexuntes: so
Detlefsen and Servius on
Verg. A. 9.606) or
Trossuli (
Plin.
Nat. 33.35; Festus, s. v.).
As vacancies occurred in the 18 centuries, the descendants of those who were
originally enrolled succeeded to their places, whether plebeians or
patricians, provided they had not dissipated their property; for Niebuhr
goes too far when he asserts that all vacancies were filled up according to
birth. independent of any property qualification. But in course of time, as
population and wealth increased, the number of persons who possessed an
equestrian fortune also increased greatly; and as the number of equites in
the 18 centuries was limited, those persons whose ancestors had not been
enrolled in the centuries could not receive horses from the state. It is
probable, therefore, that they were allowed the privilege of serving with
their own horses amongst the cavalry, instead of the infantry, if they were
called upon for active military service.
The inspection of the equites who received horses from the state belonged to
the censors, who had the power of depriving an eques of his horse, and
reducing him to the condition of an aerarian (
Liv.
24.43), and also of giving the vacant horse to the most
distinguished of the equites who had previously served at their own expense
(
Liv. 39.19,
4).
For these purposes they made during their censorship a public inspection, in
the forum, of all the knights who possessed public horses (
equitatum recognoscunt,
Liv. 39.44;
equitum centurias
recognoscunt, Valer. Max. 2.9.6). The tribes were taken in
order, and each knight was summoned by name. Every one, as his name was
called, walked past the censors, leading his horse. This ceremony is
represented on the reverse of many Roman coins struck by the censors. A
specimen is annexed.
 |
|
Inspection of Equites by the Censors. (Roman coin.)
|
If the censors had no fault to find either with the character of the knight
or the equipments of his horse, they ordered him to pass on (
traduc equum, Valer. Max. 4.1.10); but if on the
contrary they considered him unworthy of his rank, they struck him out of
the list of knights, and deprived him of his horse (
Liv. 39.44) or ordered him to sell it (
Liv.
29.37; Valer. Max. 2.9.6), with the intention no doubt that the
person thus degraded should refund to the state the money which had been
advanced to him for its purchase (Niebuhr,
Hist. of Rome,
vol. i. p. 433). If he appeared to have neglected his horse, he might be
fined (
Gel. 4.12,
2;
Festus, p. 108) or deprived of his allowance. At the same review, those
equites who had served the regular time, and wished to be discharged, were
accustomed to give an account to the censors of the campaigns in which they
had served, and were then dismissed with honour or disgrace, as they might
have deserved (
Plut. Pomp. 22).
This review of the equites by the censors must not be confounded with the
Equitum Transvectio, which was a solemn
procession of the body every year on the Ides of Quintilis (July). The
procession started from the temple of Mars outside the city, and passed
through the city over the forum, and by the temple of the Dioscuri. On this
occasion the equites were always crowned with olive chaplets, and wore their
state dress, the trabea, with all the honourable distinctions which they had
gained in battle (
Dionys. A. R. 6.13).
According to Livy (
9.46), this annual procession
was first established by the censors Q. Fabius and P. Decius, B.C. 304; but,
according to Dionysius (l.c.), it was instituted after the defeat of the
Latins near the lake Regillus, of which an account was brought to Rome by
the Dioscuri.
It may be asked, how long did the knight retain his public horse, and a vote
in the equestrian century to which he belonged? On this subject we have no
positive information; but as those equites, who served with their own
horses, were only obliged to serve for ten years (
stipendia,
στρατείας) under the age of forty-six
(
Plb. 6.19.2), we may presume that the same
rule extended to those who served with the public horses, provided they
wished to give up the service. For it is certain
that in the earlier times of the Republic a knight might retain his horse as
long as he pleased, even after he had entered the senate, provided he
continued able to discharge the duties of a knight. Thus the two censors, M.
Livius Salinator and C. Claudius Nero, in B.C. 204, were also equites (
Liv. 29.37), and L. Scipio Asiaticus, who was
deprived of his horse by the censors in B.C. 185 (
Liv.
39.44), had himself been censor in B.C. 191. This is also proved
by a fragment in the fourth book (100.2, 2) of Cicero's
De Republica, in which he says, “equitatus, in quo
suffragia sunt etiam senatus;” by which he evidently means, that
most of the senators were enabled to vote at the Comitia Centuriata in
consequence of their belonging to the equestrian centuries. On the other
hand, a man might be deprived of his horse without disgrace, if he were no
longer physically fitted for active service (
Gel.
6.32). A passage in
Liv. 26.36,
6, proves that it was quite usual for anyone who
had held a curule office to have a horse from the state. During the later
times of the Republic the knights were obliged to give up their horses on
entering the senate, and consequently ceased to belong to the equestrian
centuries. This regulation
[p. 1.756]is alluded to in the
fragment of Cicero already referred to, in which Scipio says that many
persons were anxious that a plebiscitum should be passed, ordaining that the
public horses should be restored to the state, which decree was in all
probability passed after-wards; “since,” as Niebuhr observes
(vol. i. p. 433, note 1016), “when Cicero makes Scipio speak of any
measure as intended, we are to suppose that it had actually taken place,
but, according to the information possessed by Cicero, was later than
the date he assigns to Scipio's discourse.” This seems to have
been the rule after the time of C. Gracchus, as a result of his policy of
making the equites a power in the state to counterbalance the senate (cp.
Madvig,
Opusc. 1.74 ff.). That the greater number of the
equites equo publico, after the exclusion
of senators from the equestrian centuries, were young men, is proved by a
passage in the work of Q. Cicero,
de Petitione
Consulatus (8, 33), the genuineness of which Prof. Tyrrell has
well established (cf. Hor.
A. P. 341).
The equestrian centuries, of which we have hitherto been treating, were only
regarded as a division of the army; they did not form a distinct class or
ordo in the constitution. The community, in a political point of view, was
only divided into patricians and plebeians; and the equestrian centuries
were composed of both. But in the year B.C. 123, a new class, called the
Ordo Equester, was formed in the state by the Lex Sempronia, which was
introduced by C. Gracchus. By this law all the judices had to be chosen from
those citizens who possessed an equestrian fortune (Plut.
C.
Gracch. 5; Appian,
de Bell. Civ. 1.22;
Tac. Ann. 12.60). We know very little
respecting the provisions of this law; but it appears from the Lex Servilia
repetundarum, passed eighteen years afterwards, that every person who was to
be chosen judex was required to be above thirty and under sixty years of
age, to have either an
equus publicus or to be
qualified by his fortune to possess one, and
not to
be a senator. Mommsen however holds that the judices were always
equites equo publico, possibly including also those
who had surrendered the horse (3.530). The number of judices who were
required yearly was chosen from this class by the praetor urbanus (Klenze,
Lex Servilia [more properly
Acilia], Berl. 1825: cf. Mommsen in
C. I.
L. 1.54-57; Bruns,
Fontes,5 p. 53 ff.).
As the name of
equites had been loosely extended
from those who possessed the public horses to those who served with their
own horses, it now came to be applied to all those persons who were
qualified by their fortune to act as judices, in which sense the word is
usually used by Cicero. Pliny (
Plin. Nat.
33.30) indeed says that those persons who possessed the equestrian
fortune, but did not serve as equites, were only
judices, and that the name of
equites was always confined to the possessors of the
equi publici. This may have been the correct use of
the term; but custom soon gave the name of
equites to the judices chosen in accordance with the Lex
Sempronia. After the date of Sulla's changes in the constitution, the
censorship practically fell into abeyance, and the census was only once
taken (B.C. 50) between this time and that of Augustus. Hence there can have
been during this period no
equites equo publico
in the proper sense of the term. We are. left to conjecture as to the means
by which the ranks of the equites were filled. Under Augustus the sons of
senators took their places of right among the equites. Although we find this
custom in existence, we are not informed that it was introduced by Augustus.
Hence it is a probable conjecture of Mommsen's, that Sulla introduced with
regard to the equites a self-acting regulation like that which he
established for the senate.
The reforms of Sulla entirely deprived the equestrian order of the right of
being chosen as judices, but in B.C. 70 the Lex Aurelia ordained that the
judices should be chosen from the senators, equites, and tribuni aerarii. It
seems pretty clear that the last group must have always possessed the
equestrian census, and so have been equites in the wider sense. Hence
Velleius (2.32) speaks of this law as dividing the
judicia between the senate and the equites; and Livy
(
Ep. 97) even of its restoring them to the equites [
JUDICES]. The statement that.
Caesar (
Suet. Jul. 41) limited the judicia to
the two classes of senators and equites is probably to be understood as
implying that he made the second as well as the third decuria consist of
equites equopublico; for we find that the three
decuries continued to exist after this change. The influence of the order,
says Pliny, was still maintained by the publicani (
Plin. Nat. 33.34), or farmers of the public
taxes. We find that the publicani were almost always called equites, not
because any particular rank was necessary in order to obtain from the state
the farming of the taxes, but because the state naturally would not let them
to any one who did not possess a considerable fortune. Thus the publicani
are frequently spoken of by Cicero as identical with the equestrian order
(
ad Att. 2.1.8). [
PUBLICANI] The consulship of Cicero, and the active
part which the knights. then took in suppressing the conspiracy of Catiline,
tended still further to increase the power and influence of the equestrian
order; and “from that time,” says Pliny (
l.c.), “it became a third body (
corpus) in the state, and, to the title of
Senatus Populusque Romanus, there began to be added
Et Equester Ordo.” (Cf., however, Madvig,
Röm. Verf. 1.156, note.)
In B.C. 63 a distinction was conferred upon them which tended to separate
them still further from the plebs. By the Lex Roscia Othonis, passed in that
year, the first fourteen rows of seats in the theatre behind the orchestra
were given to the equites (
Liv. Epit. 99);
which, according to Cicero (
pro Mur. 19, 40) and Velleius
Paterculus (2.32), was only a restoration of an earlier privilege which may
have dated from the time of Gracchus. No importance is to be attached to the
statement of Livy (
1.35), who says that special
seats were set apart in the Circus Maximus for the senators and equites.
They also possessed the right of wearing the Clavus Angustus [
CLAVUS]; and subsequently
obtained the privilege of wearing a gold ring, which was originally confined
to the
equites equo publico, and probably only
granted to these after the time of Gracchus. But the military organisation
of the equites was still kept up; and whenever they took part as a
[p. 1.757]body in public functions, as for instance in
funerals (cf. Mommsen, 2.522), they were formed into
turmae (
Tac. Hist. 2.83).
The number of equites increased greatly under the early emperors, and all
persons were admitted into the order, provided they possessed the requisite
property, without any inquiry into their character or into the free birth of
their father and grandfather, which had always been required by the censors
under the Republic. Property became now the only qualification; and the
order in consequence gradually began to lose all the consideration which it
had acquired during the later times of the Republic.
It is commonly asserted that Augustus formed a select class of equites,
consisting of those equites who possessed the property of a senator, and the
old requirement of free birth up to the grand-father; that he permitted this
class to wear the
latus clavus (Ovid.
Trist. 4.10, 35); and also allowed the tribunes of
the plebs to be chosen from them, as well as the senators, and gave them the
option at the termination of their office to remain in the senate or return
to the equestrian order (
Suet. Aug. 40;
D. C. 54.30). But it is not accurate to speak of
these wearers of the
latus clavus as
equites, still less to find a technical name for
them in the
equites illustres of Tacitus (
Tac. Ann. 11.4, with the note of Lipsius; cf.
Mommsen, 3.562-3). Like the other epithets,
splendidi,
primores, insignes, and the like, this is merely a descriptive
term; and in fact none of the
eq. illustres of
Tac. Ann. 11.4 can have worn the
latus clavus. A formal division of the equites into
classes was made first by Marcus Aurelius and Verus (cf. Madvig,
Röm. Verf. 1.171).
In the ninth year of the reign of Tiberius an attempt was made to improve the
order by requiring the old qualifications of free birth up to the
grandfather, and by strictly forbidding anyone to wear the gold ring unless
he possessed this qualification. This regulation, however, was of little
avail, as the emperors frequently admitted freedmen into the equestrian
order (
Plin. Nat. 33.34). When private
persons were no longer appointed judices, the necessity for a distinct class
in the community, like the equestrian order, ceased entirely; and the gold
ring came at length to be worn by all free citizens. Even slaves, after
their manumission, were allowed to wear it by special permission from the
emperor, which appears to have been usually granted provided the patronus
consented (
Dig. 40,
10,
3). [
ANNULUS]
Having thus traced the history of the equestrian order to its final
extinction as a distinct class in the community, we must now return to the
equites equo publico, who formed the
eighteen equestrian centuries. This class still existed during the latter
years of the Republic, but after the reforms of Marius it had entirely
ceased to serve as horse-soldiers in the army. The cavalry of the Roman
legions no longer consisted, as in the time of Polybius, of Roman equites,
but their place was supplied by the cavalry of the allied states. It is
evident that Caesar in his Gallic wars possessed no Roman cavalry (Caes.
Bell. Gall. 1.15). When he went to an interview with
Ariovistus, and was obliged to take cavalry with him, we are told that he
did not dare to trust his safety to the Gallic cavalry, and therefore
mounted his legionary soldiers upon their horses (Id. 1.42). The Roman
equites are, however, frequently mentioned in the Gallic and civil wars, but
never as common soldiers; they were officers attached to the staff of the
general, or commanded the cavalry of the allies, or sometimes the legions
(Id. 7.70;
Bell. Civ. 1.77, 3.71, &c.).
When Augustus took upon himself, in B.C. 29, the praefectura morum, he
frequently reviewed the troops of equites, and restored, according to
Suetonius (
Suet. Aug. 38), the long-neglected
custom of the solemn procession (
transvectio);
by which we are probably to understand that Augustus connected the review of
the knights (
probatio) with the annual
procession (
transvectio) of the 15th of July.
Dionysius (
6.13) tells us that as many
as 5,000 equites sometimes took part in this procession. From this time
these equites formed an honourable corps, from which all the higher officers
in the army (
Suet. Aug. 38,
Claud. 25) and certain of the chief magistrates in the state
were chosen. Admission into this body was equivalent to an introduction into
public life, and was therefore esteemed a great privilege; it was granted by
the emperor at pleasure through an office (
a
censibus), which was a branch of the department for petitions
(
a libellis) under a high official
(Mommsen, 3.490); and we find it recorded in inscriptions that such a person
was
equo publico honoratus, exornatus,
&c. by the emperor (Orelli,
Inscrip. Nos. 3457, 313,
1229). This rank was tenable for life. If a young man was not admitted into
this body, he was excluded from all civil offices of any importance, except
in municipal towns; and also from all rank in the army (
militia as opposed to
stipendium), with the exception of centurion.
All those equites who were not employed in actual service were obliged to
reside at Rome (
D. C. 59.9), where they were
allowed to fill the lower magistracies, which entitled a person to admission
into the senate. They were divided into six turmae, each of which was
commanded by an officer, who is frequently mentioned in inscriptions as
Sevir equitum Rom. turmae
I. II., &c., or commonly
Sevir turmae or
Sevir turmarum
equitum Romanorum. From the time that the equites bestowed the
title of
principes juventutis upon Gaius and
Lucius Caesar, the grandsons of Augustus (
Tac. Ann.
1.3; Monum. Ancyr.), it became the custom to confer this title,
as well as that of Sevir, upon the probable successor to the throne, when he
first entered into public life and was presented with an equus publicus
(Capitol.
M. Anton. Phil. 6; Lamprid.
Commod.
1).
It appears to have been the policy of Augustus to divide the administrative
functions between the senators and the equites. The government of Egypt was
always reserved to the latter, and senators were not allowed to enter it
without the emperor's express permission. The smaller provinces to the north
of Italy were similarly often placed under equestrian governors: the
commanders of the fleets were drawn from the same body; and so were many of
the prefects newly instituted by Augustus. Many posts in the general
administration were usually filled by knights, e. g. the receiverships of
customs, and the business of the
[p. 1.758]imperial
chancery. Those who held these were required, as a rule, to have completed
their time of service as officers in the army.
The practice of filling such offices in the state from the equites appears to
have continued as long as Rome was the centre of the government and the
residence of the emperor. They are mentioned in the time of Severus (Gruter,
Inscrip. p. 1001, 5; Papinian, in
Dig.
29,
1,
43), and
of Caracalla (Gruter, p. 379, 7); and perhaps later. After the time of
Diocletian, the equites became only a city guard, under the command of the
Praefectus Vigilum; but they still retained, in the time of Valentinianus
and Valens, A.D. 364, the second rank in the city, and were not subject to
corporal punishment. (Cod. Theodos. 6, 36.) Respecting the
Magister Equitum, see
DICTATOR
(Zumpt,
Ueber die römischen Ritter und den Ritterstand in
Rom, Berlin, 1840; Marquardt,
Historiae Equitum Romanorum
libri iv., Berlin, 1840; Madvig,
Opuscula, vol. i. p. 72, &c.; Becker,
Handbuch der
römischen Alterthümer, vol. ii. part i. p.
235, &c.; Marquardt,
Röm. Staatsverf. 5.337
ff. and 426 if., and especially Mommsen,
Röm.
Staatsr. 3.476-569; Madvig,
Röm. Verf.
1.155-181.)
[
W.S] [
A.S.W]
