The ''equites'' (; literally "horse-" or "cavalrymen", though sometimes referred to as "
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
s" in English) constituted the second of the
property-based classes of
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
, ranking below the
senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an ''eques'' ().
Description
During the
Roman kingdom
The Roman Kingdom (also referred to as the Roman monarchy, or the regal period of ancient Rome) was the earliest period of Roman history when the city and its territory were ruled by kings. According to oral accounts, the Roman Kingdom began wi ...
and the first century of the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...
,
legionary
The Roman legionary (in Latin ''legionarius'', plural ''legionarii'') was a professional heavy infantryman of the Roman army after the Marian reforms. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the late Republ ...
cavalry was recruited exclusively from the ranks of the
patricians, who were expected to provide six ''
centuriae'' of cavalry (300 horses for each consular legion). Around 400BC, 12 more ''centuriae'' of cavalry were established and these included non-patricians (
plebeians
In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins ...
). Around 300 BC the
Samnite Wars
The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe ...
obliged Rome to double the normal annual military levy from two to four legions, doubling the cavalry levy from 600 to 1,200 horses. Legionary cavalry started to recruit wealthier citizens from outside the 18 ''centuriae''. These new recruits came from the first class of commoners in the
Centuriate Assembly
The Centuriate Assembly (Latin: ''comitia centuriata'') of the Roman Republic was one of the three voting assemblies in the Roman constitution. It was named the Centuriate Assembly as it originally divided Roman citizens into groups of one hundre ...
organisation, and were not granted the same privileges.
By the time of the
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...
(218–202 BC), all the members of the first class of commoners were required to serve as cavalrymen. The presence of ''equites'' in the Roman cavalry diminished steadily in the period 200–88 BC as only ''equites'' could serve as the army's senior officers; as the number of legions proliferated fewer were available for ordinary cavalry service. After 88 BC, ''equites'' were no longer drafted into the legionary cavalry, although they remained technically liable to such service throughout the
Principate
The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...
era (to AD 284). They continued to supply the senior officers of the army throughout the Principate.
With the exception of the purely hereditary patricians, the ''equites'' were originally defined by a property threshold. The rank was passed from father to son, although members of the order who at the regular quinquennial (every five years) census no longer met the property requirement were usually removed from the order's rolls by the Roman censors. In the late republic, the property threshold stood at 50,000 ''
denarii
The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very ...
'' and was doubled to 100,000 by the emperor
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
(sole rule 30 BC – AD 14) – roughly the equivalent to the annual salaries of 450 contemporary legionaries. In the later republican period,
Roman senators and their offspring became an unofficial
elite
In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. ...
within the equestrian order.
![Caesar-augustus1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Caesar-augustus1.jpg)
Under
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
, the senatorial elite was given formal status (as the ''ordo senatorius'') with a higher wealth threshold (250,000 ''denarii'', or the pay of 1,100 legionaries) and superior rank and privileges to ordinary ''equites''. During the Principate, ''equites'' filled the senior administrative and military posts of the imperial government. There was a clear division between jobs reserved for senators (the most senior) and those reserved for non-senatorial ''equites''. But the career structure of both groups was broadly similar: a period of junior administrative posts in Rome or
Roman Italy
Roman Italy (called in both the Latin and Italian languages referring to the Italian Peninsula) was the homeland of the ancient Romans and of the Roman empire. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home promised by Jupiter to ...
, followed by a period (normally a decade) of military service as a senior army officer, followed by senior administrative or military posts in the provinces. Senators and ''equites'' formed a tiny elite of under 10,000 members who monopolised political, military and economic power in an empire of about 60 million inhabitants.
During the 3rd century AD, power shifted from the Italian aristocracy to a class of ''equites'' who had earned their membership by distinguished military service, often rising from the ranks: career military officers from the provinces (especially the
Balkan
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
provinces) who displaced the Italian aristocrats in the top military posts, and under
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
(ruled 284–305) from the top civilian positions also. This effectively reduced the Italian aristocracy to an idle, but immensely wealthy, group of landowners. During the 4th century, the status of ''equites'' was debased to insignificance by excessive grants of the rank. At the same time the ranks of senators were swollen to over 4,000 by the establishment of the
Byzantine Senate
The Byzantine senate or eastern Roman senate ( el, Σύγκλητος, ''Synklētos'', or , ''Gerousia'') was a continuation of the Roman Senate, established in the 4th century by Constantine I. It survived for centuries, but the senate's powers ...
, a second senate in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
and the tripling of the membership of both senates. The senatorial order of the 4th century was thus the equivalent of the equestrian order of the Principate.
Regal era (753–509 BC)
According to Roman legend, Rome was founded by its first king,
Romulus
Romulus () was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these ...
, in 753 BC. However, archaeological evidence suggests that Rome did not acquire the character of a unified city-state (as opposed to a number of separate hilltop settlements) until 625BC.
Roman tradition relates that the Order of Knights was founded by Romulus, who supposedly established a cavalry regiment of 300 men called the ''
Celeres
__NoToC__
The ''celeres'' () were the bodyguard of the Kings of Rome. Traditionally established by Romulus, the legendary founder and first King of Rome, the celeres comprised three hundred men, ten chosen by each of the curiae.Livy, i. 15. Th ...
'' ("Swift Squadron") to act as his personal escort, with each of the three Roman "tribes" (actually voting constituencies) supplying 100 horses. This cavalry regiment was supposedly doubled in size to 600 men by King
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, or Tarquin the Elder, was the legendary fifth king of Rome and first of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned for thirty-eight years.Livy, ''ab urbe condita libri'', I Tarquinius expanded Roman power through military conq ...
(traditional dates 616–578 BC). That the cavalry was increased to 600 during the regal era is plausible, as in the early republic the cavalry fielded remained 600-strong (two legions with 300 horses each). However, according to Livy, King
Servius Tullius
Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned from 578 to 535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, ...
(traditional reign-dates 578–535 BC) established a further 12 ''centuriae'' of ''equites'', a further tripling of the cavalry.
Yet this was probably anachronistic, as it would have resulted in a contingent of 1,800 horse, incongruously large, compared to the heavy infantry, which was probably only 6,000 strong in the late regal period. Instead, the additional 12 ''centuriae'' were probably created at a later stage, perhaps around 400 BC, but these new units were political not military, most likely designed to admit plebeians to the Order of Knights.
Apparently, ''equites'' were originally provided with a sum of money by the state to purchase a horse for military service and for its fodder. This was known as an ''equus publicus''.
[Livy I.43]
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th centur ...
argues that the royal cavalry was drawn exclusively from the ranks of the
patricians (''patricii''), the aristocracy of early Rome, which was purely hereditary. Apart from the traditional association of the aristocracy with horsemanship, the evidence for this view is the fact that, during the republic, six ''centuriae'' (voting constituencies) of ''equites'' in the ''
comitia centuriata
The Centuriate Assembly ( Latin: ''comitia centuriata'') of the Roman Republic was one of the three voting assemblies in the Roman constitution. It was named the Centuriate Assembly as it originally divided Roman citizens into groups of one hundr ...
'' (electoral assembly) retained the names of the original six royal cavalry ''centuriae''.
These are very likely the "''centuriae'' of patrician nobles" in the ''comitia'' mentioned by the lexicologist
Sextus Pompeius Festus
Sextus Pompeius Festus, usually known simply as Festus, was a Roman grammarian who probably flourished in the later 2nd century AD, perhaps at Narbo (Narbonne) in Gaul.
Work
He made a 20-volume epitome of Verrius Flaccus's voluminous and encyclop ...
. If this view is correct, it implies that the cavalry was exclusively patrician (and therefore hereditary) in the regal period. (However, Cornell considers the evidence tenuous).
Early Republic (509–338 BC)
It is widely accepted that the Roman monarchy was overthrown by a patrician coup, probably provoked by the
Tarquin dynasty's populist policies in favour of the plebeian class. Alfoldi suggests that the coup was carried out by the ''celeres'' themselves. According to the Fraccaro interpretation, when the Roman monarchy was replaced with two annually elected ''praetores'' (later called "consuls"), the royal army was divided equally between them for campaigning purposes, which, if true, explains why
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
later said that a legion's cavalry contingent was 300 strong.
The 12 additional ''centuriae'' ascribed by Livy to Servius Tullius were, in reality, probably formed around 400 BC. In 403 BC, according to Livy, in a crisis during the
siege of Veii
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...
, the army urgently needed to deploy more cavalry, and "those who possessed equestrian rating but had not yet been assigned public horses" volunteered to pay for their horses out of their own pockets. By way of compensation, pay was introduced for cavalry service, as it had already been for the infantry (in 406 BC).
The persons referred to in this passage were probably members of the 12 new ''centuriae'' who were entitled to public horses, but temporarily waived that privilege. Mommsen, however, argues that the passage refers to members of the first class of commoners being admitted to cavalry service in 403 BC for the first time as an emergency measure. If so, this group may be the original so-called ''equites'' ''equo privato'', a rank that is attested throughout the history of the republic (in contrast to ''equites'' ''equo publico''). However, due to a lack of evidence, the origins and definition of ''equo privato'' ''equites'' remain obscure.
It is widely agreed that the 12 new ''centuriae'' were open to non-patricians.
[Online 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica ''equites''] Thus, from this date if not earlier, not all ''equites'' were patricians. The patricians, as a closed hereditary caste, steadily diminished in numbers over the centuries, as families died out. Around 450 BC, there are some 50 patrician ''
gentes'' (clans) recorded, whereas just 14 remained at the time of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
(dictator of Rome 48–44 BC), whose own
Iulii clan was patrician.
[Oxford ''Patricians'']
In contrast, the ranks of ''equites'', although also hereditary (in the male line), were open to new entrants who met the property requirement and who satisfied the
Roman censor
The censor (at any time, there were two) was a magistrate in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances.
The power of the censor was abso ...
s that they were suitable for membership. As a consequence, patricians rapidly became only a small minority of the equestrian order. However, patricians retained political influence greatly out of proportion with their numbers. Until 172 BC, one of the two consuls elected each year had to be a patrician.
In addition, patricians may have retained their original six ''centuriae'', which gave them a third of the total voting-power of the ''equites'', even though they constituted only a tiny minority of the order by 200 BC. Patricians also enjoyed official precedence, such as the right to speak first in senatorial debates, which were initiated by the ''princeps senatus'' (Leader of the Senate), a position reserved for patricians. In addition, patricians monopolized certain priesthoods and continued to enjoy enormous prestige.
Later Republic (338–30 BC)
Transformation of state and army (338–290)
The period following the end of the
Latin War
The (Second) Latin War (340–338 BC)The Romans customarily dated events by noting the consuls who held office that year. The Latin War broke out in the year that Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus and Publius Decius Mus were consuls and ended ...
(340–338 BC) and of the
Samnite Wars
The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe ...
(343–290) saw the transformation of the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...
from a powerful but beleaguered city-state into the hegemonic power of the Italian peninsula. This was accompanied by profound changes in its
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
and
army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
. Internally, the critical development was the emergence of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
as the all-powerful organ of state.
[Cornell (1995) 369]
By 280 BC, the Senate had assumed total control of state taxation, expenditure, declarations of war, treaties, raising of legions, establishing colonies and religious affairs, in other words, of virtually all political power. From an ''ad hoc'' group of advisors appointed by the consuls, the Senate had become a permanent body of around 300 life peers who, as largely former
Roman magistrates
The Roman magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome.
During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate.Abbott, 8 His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judg ...
, boasted enormous experience and influence.
At the same time, the political unification of the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
nation, under Roman rule after 338 BC, gave Rome a populous regional base from which to launch its wars of aggression against its neighbours.
The gruelling contest for Italian hegemony that Rome fought against the
Samnite League
The Samnites () were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy.
An Oscan-speaking people, who may have originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they f ...
led to the transformation of the Roman army from the Greek-style ''
hoplite
Hoplites ( ) ( grc, ὁπλίτης : hoplítēs) were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Polis, city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers used the phalanx formation to be effective in war with ...
''
phalanx
The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly use ...
that it was in the early period, to the Italian-style
manipular army described by Polybius. It is believed that the Romans copied the manipular structure from their enemies the Samnites, learning through hard experience its greater flexibility and effectiveness in the mountainous terrain of central Italy.
[Cornell (1995) 354]
It is also from this period that every Roman army that took the field was regularly accompanied by at least as many troops supplied by the ''
socii
The ''socii'' ( in English) or ''foederati'' ( in English) were confederates of ancient Rome, Rome and formed one of the three legal denominations in Roman Italy (''Italia'') along with the Roman citizens (''Cives'') and the ''Latin Rights, Latin ...
'' (Rome's Italian military confederates, often referred to as "Latin allies"). Each legion would be matched by a confederate ''ala'' (literally: "wing"), a formation that contained roughly the same number of infantry as a legion, but three times the number of horses (900).
Legionary cavalry also probably underwent a transformation during this period, from the light, unarmoured horsemen of the early period to the Greek-style armoured
cuirassier
Cuirassiers (; ) were cavalry equipped with a cuirass, sword, and pistols. Cuirassiers first appeared in mid-to-late 16th century Europe as a result of armoured cavalry, such as men-at-arms and demi-lancers, discarding their lances and adoptin ...
s described by Polybius. As a result of the demands of the Samnite hostilities, a normal consular army was doubled in size to two legions, making four legions raised annually overall. Roman cavalry in the field thus increased to approximately 1,200 horses.
This now represented only 25% of the army's total cavalry contingent, the rest being supplied by the Italian confederates. A legion's modest cavalry share of 7% of its 4,500 total strength was thus increased to 12% in a confederate army, comparable with (or higher than) any other forces in Italy except the Gauls and also similar to those in Greek armies such as Pyrrhus's.
Political role
Despite an ostensibly democratic constitution based on the sovereignty of the people, the Roman Republic was in reality a classic
oligarchy
Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...
, in which political power was monopolised by the richest social echelon. Probably by 300 BC, the ''centuriate'' organisation of the Roman citizen body for political purposes achieved the evolved form described by Polybius and Livy. The ''comitia centuriata'' was the most powerful people's assembly, as it promulgated
Roman laws
This is a partial list of Roman laws. A Roman law (Latin: ''lex'') is usually named for the sponsoring legislator and designated by the adjective, adjectival form of his ''gens'' name (''Roman naming convention, nomen gentilicum''), in the feminine ...
and annually elected the
Roman magistrates
The Roman magistrates were elected officials in Ancient Rome.
During the period of the Roman Kingdom, the King of Rome was the principal executive magistrate.Abbott, 8 His power, in practice, was absolute. He was the chief priest, lawgiver, judg ...
, the executive officers of the state: consuls, ''
praetor
Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vario ...
s'', ''
aedile
''Aedile'' ( ; la, aedīlis , from , "temple edifice") was an elected office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings () and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enf ...
s'' and ''
quaestor
A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.
In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...
s''.
[Cornell (1995) 379-80]
In the assembly, the citizen body was divided into 193 ''centuriae'', or voting constituencies. Of these, 18 were allocated to ''equites'' (including patricians) and a further 80 to the first class of commoners, securing an absolute majority of the votes (98 out of 193) for the wealthiest echelon of society, although it constituted only a small minority of the citizenry. (The lowest class, the ''proletarii'', rated at under 400 ''drachmae'', had just one vote, despite being the most numerous).
As a result, the wealthiest echelon could ensure that the elected magistrates were always their own members. In turn, this ensured that the senate was dominated by the wealthy classes, as its membership was composed almost entirely of current and former magistrates.
Military officer role
In the "''polybian''" army of the mid-republic (338 – 88 BC), ''equites'' held the exclusive right to serve as senior officers of the army. These were the six ''tribuni militum'' in each legion who were elected by the ''comitia'' at the start of each campaigning season and took turns to command the legion in pairs; the ''praefecti sociorum'', commanders of the Italian confederate ''alae'', who were appointed by the consuls; and the three ''
decurions'' that led each squadron (''
turma
A ''turma'' (Latin for "swarm, squadron", plural ''turmae''), (Greek: τούρμα) was a cavalry unit in the Roman army of the Republic and Empire. In the Byzantine Empire, it became applied to the larger, regiment-sized military-administrative ...
'') of legionary cavalry (a total of 30 ''decurions'' per legion).
Cavalry role
As their name implies, ''equites'' were liable to cavalry service in the legion of the mid-republic. They originally provided a legion's entire cavalry contingent, although from an early stage (probably from c. 400 and not later than c. 300 BC), when equestrian numbers had become insufficient, large numbers of young men from the first class of commoners were regularly volunteering for the service, which was considered more glamorous than the infantry.
The cavalry role of ''equites'' dwindled after the
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...
(218–201 BC), as the number of equestrians became insufficient to provide the senior officers of the army and general cavalrymen as well. ''Equites'' became exclusively an officer-class, with the first class of commoners providing the legionary cavalry.
Ethos
From the earliest times and throughout the Republican period, Roman ''equites'' subscribed, in their role as Roman cavalrymen, to an ethos of personal heroism and glory. This was motivated by the desire to justify their privileged status to the lower classes that provided the infantry ranks, to enhance the renown of their family name, and to augment their chances of subsequent political advancement in a martial society. For ''equites'', a focus of the heroic ethos was the quest for ''
spolia opima
The ''spolia opima'' ("rich spoils") were the armour, arms, and other effects that an ancient Roman general stripped from the body of an opposing commander slain in single combat. The ''spolia opima'' were regarded as the most honourable of the ...
'', the stripped armour and weapons of a foe whom they had killed in single combat. There are many recorded instances. For example,
Servilius Geminus Pulex, who went on to become Consul in 202 BC, was reputed to have gained ''spolia'' 23 times.
The higher the rank of the opponent killed in combat, the more prestigious the ''spolia'', and none more so than ''spolia duci hostium detracta'', spoils taken from an enemy leader himself. Many ''equites'' attempted to gain such an honour, but very few succeeded for the reason that enemy leaders were always surrounded by large numbers of elite bodyguards.
One successful attempt, but with a tragic twist, was that of the decurion
Titus Manlius Torquatus in 340 BC during the Latin War. Despite strict orders from the consuls (one of whom was his own father) not to engage the enemy, Manlius could not resist accepting a personal challenge from the commander of the
Tusculan cavalry, which his squadron encountered while on reconnaissance. There ensued a fiercely contested joust with the opposing squadrons as spectators. Manlius won, spearing his adversary after the latter was thrown by his horse. But when the triumphant young man presented the spoils to his father, the latter ordered his son's immediate execution for disobeying orders. "Orders of Manlius" (''Manliana imperia'') became a proverbial army term for orders that must on no account be disregarded.
Business activities
In 218 BC, the ''
lex Claudia
''The Lex Claudia'' () also known as the ''plebiscitum Claudianum'' or the ''lex Claudia de nave senatoris'', was a Roman law passed in 218 BC. Proposed at the start of the Second Punic War, the law prohibited senators and their sons from owning a ...
'' restricted the commercial activity of senators and their sons, on the grounds that it was incompatible with their status. Senators were prohibited from owning ships of greater capacity than 300 ''
amphorae
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
'' (about seven tonnes) – this being judged sufficient to carry the produce of their own landed estates but too small to conduct large-scale sea transportation.
From this time onwards, senatorial families mostly invested their capital in land. All other equestrians remained free to invest their wealth, greatly increased by the growth of Rome's overseas empire after the Second Punic War, in large-scale commercial enterprises including mining and industry, as well as land. Equestrians became especially prominent in
tax farming
Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from the contract ...
and, by 100 BC, owned virtually all tax-farming companies (''
publicani
In antiquity, publicans (Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the c ...
'').
During the late Republican era, the collection of most taxes was contracted out to private individuals or companies by competitive tender, with the contract for each province awarded to the ''publicanus'' who bid the highest advance to the state treasury on the estimated tax-take of the province. The ''publicanus'' would then attempt to recoup his advance, with the right to retain any surplus collected as his profit. This system frequently resulted in extortion from the common people of the provinces, as unscrupulous ''publicani'' often sought to maximise their profit by demanding a much higher rates of tax than originally set by the government. The provincial governors whose duty it was to curb illegal demands were often bribed into acquiescence by the ''publicani''.
[Encyclopædia Britannica Online ''Publicani'']
The system also led to political conflict between ''equites publicani'' and the majority of their fellow-''equites'', especially senators, who as large landowners wanted to minimise the tax on land outside Italy (''tributum solis''), which was the main source of state revenue.
[Talbert (1996) 341] This system was terminated by the first Roman emperor,
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
(sole rule 30 BC – 14 AD), who transferred responsibility for tax collection from the ''publicani'' to provincial local authorities (''civitates peregrinae''). Although the latter also frequently employed private companies to collect their tax quotas, it was in their own interests to curb extortion. During the imperial era, tax collectors were generally paid an agreed percentage of the amount collected. ''equites publicani'' became prominent in banking activities such as money-lending and money-changing.
Privileges
The official dress of equestrians was the
''tunica angusticlavia'' (narrow-striped tunic), worn underneath the
toga
The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...
, in such a manner that the stripe over the right shoulder was visible (as opposed to the broad stripe worn by senators.
[Talbert (1996) 326]) ''equites'' bore the title ''eques Romanus'', were entitled to wear an ''anulus aureus'' (gold ring) on their left hand, and, from 67 BC, enjoyed privileged seats at games and public functions (just behind those reserved for senators).
[Jones (1964) 8]
Augustan equestrian order (Principate era)
Differentiation of the senatorial order
The Senate as a body was formed of sitting senators, whose number was held at around 600 by the founder of the ''Principate'', Augustus (sole rule 30 BC – AD 14) and his successors until 312. Senators' sons and further descendants technically retained equestrian rank unless and until they won a seat in the Senate. But Talbert argues that Augustus established the existing senatorial elite as a separate and superior order ''(ordo senatorius)'' to the ''equites'' for the first time.
The evidence for this includes:
* Augustus, for the first time, set a minimum property requirement for admission to the Senate, of 250,000 ''denarii'', two and a half times the 100,000 ''denarii'' that he set for admission to the equestrian order.
* Augustus, for the first time, allowed the sons of senators to wear the ''tunica laticlavia'' (tunic with broad purple stripes that was the official dress of senators) on reaching their majority even though they were not yet members of the Senate.
* Senators' sons followed a separate ''
cursus honorum
The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The '' ...
'' (career-path) to other ''equites'' before entering the Senate: first an appointment as one of the ''vigintiviri'' ("Committee of Twenty", a body that included officials with a variety of minor administrative functions), or as an ''augur'' (priest), followed by at least a year in the military as ''tribunus militum laticlavius'' (deputy commander) of a legion. This post was normally held before the tribune had become a member of the Senate.
* A marriage law of 18 BC (the ''
lex Julia
A ''lex Julia'' (plural: ''leges Juliae'') was an ancient Roman law that was introduced by any member of the gens Julia. Most often, "Julian laws", ''lex Julia'' or ''leges Juliae'' refer to moral legislation introduced by Augustus in 23 BC, o ...
'') seems to define not only senators but also their descendants unto the third generation (in the male line) as a distinct group. There was thus established a group of men with senatorial rank (''senatorii'') wider than just sitting senators (''senatores'').
A family's senatorial status depended not only on continuing to match the higher wealth qualification, but on their leading member holding a seat in the Senate. Failing either condition, the family would revert to ordinary knightly status. Although sons of sitting senators frequently won seats in the Senate, this was by no means guaranteed, as candidates often outnumbered the 20 seats available each year, leading to intense competition.
''Ordo equester'' under Augustus
As regards the equestrian order, Augustus apparently abolished the rank of ''equo privato'', according all its members ''equo publico'' status. In addition, Augustus organised the order in a quasi-military fashion, with members enrolled into six ''
turmae'' (notional cavalry squadrons). The order's governing body were the ''seviri'' ("Committee of Six"), composed of the "commanders" of the ''turmae''. In an attempt to foster the ''equites'' ''esprit de corps'', Augustus revived a defunct republican ceremony, the ''recognitio equitum'' (inspection of the ''equites''), in which ''equites'' paraded every five years with their horses before the consuls.
At some stage during the early Principate, ''equites'' acquired the right to the title "egregius" ("distinguished gentleman"), while senators were styled "''clarissimus''", "most distinguished").
Beyond ''equites'' with ''equus publicus'', Augustus' legislation permitted any Roman citizen who was assessed in an official census as meeting the property requirement of 100,000 ''denarii'' to use the title of ''eques'' and wear the narrow-striped tunic and gold ring. But such "property-qualified ''equites''" were not apparently admitted to the ''ordo equester'' itself, but simply enjoyed equestrian status.
[Jones (1964) 7, 8][Encyclopædia Britannica Online ''Ancient Rome'']
Only those granted an ''equus publicus'' by the emperor (or who inherited the status from their fathers) were enrolled in the order. Imperial ''equites'' were thus divided into two tiers: a few thousand mainly Italian ''equites equo publico'', members of the order eligible to hold the public offices reserved for the ''equites''; and a much larger group of wealthy Italians and provincials (estimated at 25,000 in the 2nd century) of equestrian status but outside the order.
[Jones (1964) 7, 8]
Equestrians could in turn be elevated to senatorial rank (e.g.,
Pliny the Younger
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...
), but in practice this was much more difficult than elevation from commoner to equestrian rank. To join the upper order, not only was the candidate required to meet the minimum property requirement of 250,000 ''denarii'', but also had to be elected a member of the Senate. There were two routes for this, both controlled by the emperor:
* The normal route was election to the post of ''
quaestor
A ( , , ; "investigator") was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.
In the Roman Republic, quaestors were elected officials who ...
'', the most junior magistracy (for which the minimum eligible age was 27 years), which carried automatic membership of the Senate. Twenty ''quaestors'' were appointed each year, a number that evidently broadly matched the average annual vacancies (caused by death or expulsion for misdemeanours or insufficient wealth) so that the 600-member limit was preserved. Under Augustus, senators' sons had the right to stand for election, while equestrians could only do so with the emperor's permission. Later in the Julio-Claudian period, the rule became established that all candidates required imperial leave. Previously conducted by the people's assembly (''comitia centuriata''), the election was in the hands, from the time of
Tiberius
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...
onwards, of the Senate itself, whose sitting members inevitably favoured the sons of their colleagues. Since the latter alone often outnumbered the number of available places, equestrian candidates stood little chance unless they enjoyed the special support of the emperor.
* The exceptional route was direct appointment to a Senate seat by the emperor (''
adlecti During the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and later, adlecti, or allecti were those who were chosen to fill up a vacancy in any office or collegium, and especially those who were chosen to fill up the proper number of the senate. As these would be ...
o''), technically using the powers of
Roman censor
The censor (at any time, there were two) was a magistrate in ancient Rome who was responsible for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, and overseeing certain aspects of the government's finances.
The power of the censor was abso ...
(which also entitled him to expel members). ''Adlectio'' was, however, generally used sparingly in order not to breach the 600-member ceiling. It was chiefly resorted to in periods when Senate numbers became severely depleted, e.g. during the
Civil War of 68–69, following which the emperor
Vespasian
Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...
made large-scale ''adlectiones''.
Equestrian public careers
In public service, ''equites'' ''equo publico'' had their own version of the senatorial ''
cursus honorum
The ''cursus honorum'' (; , or more colloquially 'ladder of offices') was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The '' ...
'', or conventional career-path, which typically combined military and administrative posts. After an initial period of a few years in local government in their home regions as administrators (local ''aediles'' or ''duumviri'') or as priests (''augures''), ''equites'' were required to serve as military officers for about 10 years before they would be appointed to senior administrative or military posts.
[Talbert (1996) 340]
Equestrians exclusively provided the ''praefecti'' (commanders) of the imperial army's
auxiliary regiments and five of the six ''tribuni militum'' (senior staff officers) in each legion. The standard equestrian officer progression was known as the "''
tres militiae
The ''tres militiae'' ("three military posts") was a career progression of the Roman Imperial army for men of the equestrian order. It developed as an alternative to the ''cursus honorum'' of the senatorial order for enabling the social mobility ...
''" ("three services"): ''praefectus'' of a ''
cohors
A cohort (from the Latin ''cohors'', plural ''cohortes'', see wikt:cohors for full inflection table) was a standard tactical military unit of a Roman legion. Although the standard size changed with time and situation, it was generally compose ...
'' (auxiliary infantry regiment), followed by ''tribunus militum'' in a legion, and finally ''praefectus'' of an ''
ala Ala, ALA, Alaa or Alae may refer to:
Places
* Ala, Hiiu County, Estonia, a village
* Ala, Valga County, Estonia, a village
* Ala, Alappuzha, Kerala, India, a village
* Ala, Iran, a village in Semnan Province
* Ala, Gotland, Sweden
* Alad, S ...
'' (auxiliary cavalry regiment). From the time of Hadrian, a fourth militia was added for exceptionally gifted officers, commander of an ''ala milliaria'' (double-strength ''ala''). Each post was held for three to four years.
Most of the top posts in the imperial administration were reserved for senators, who provided the governors of the larger provinces (except Egypt), the ''legati legionis'' (legion commanders) of all legions outside Egypt, and the ''
praefectus urbi
The ''praefectus urbanus'', also called ''praefectus urbi'' or urban prefect in English, was prefect of the city of Rome, and later also of Constantinople. The office originated under the Roman kings, continued during the Republic and Empire, and ...
'' (prefect of the city of Rome), who controlled the ''
cohortes urbanae
The ''cohortes urbanae'' (Latin meaning ''urban cohorts'') of ancient Rome were created by Augustus to counterbalance the enormous power of the Praetorian Guard in the city of Rome and serve as a police service. They were led by the Praefectus ur ...
'' (public order battalions), the only fully armed force in the city apart from the Praetorian Guard. Nevertheless, a wide range of senior administrative and military posts were created and reserved for equestrians by Augustus, though most ranked below the senatorial posts.
In the imperial administration, equestrian posts included that of the governorship (''praefectus Augusti'') of the
province of Egypt, which was considered the most prestigious of all the posts open to ''equites'', often the culmination of a long and distinguished career serving the state. In addition, ''equites'' were appointed to the governorship (''procurator Augusti'') of some smaller provinces and sub-provinces e.g.
Judaea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous south ...
, whose governor was subordinate to the governor of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
.
[Goldsworthy (2003) 64–5]
Equestrians were also the chief financial officers (also called ''
procuratores Augusti'') of the imperial provinces, and the deputy financial officers of senatorial provinces. At Rome, equestrians filled numerous senior administrative posts such as the emperor's secretaries of state (from the time of Claudius, e.g. correspondence and treasury) and the ''
praefecti annonae'' (director of grain supplies).
In the military, equestrians provided the ''
praefecti praetorio'' (commanders of the Praetorian Guard) who also acted as the emperor's chiefs of military staff. There were normally two of these, but at times irregular appointments resulted in just a single incumbent or even three at the same time.
Equestrians also provided the ''
praefecti classis'' (admirals commanding) of the two main imperial fleets at
Misenum
Miseno is one of the ''frazioni'' of the municipality of Bacoli in the Italian Province of Naples. Known in ancient Roman times as Misenum, it is the site of a great Roman port.
Geography
Nearby Cape Miseno marks the northwestern end of the Bay ...
in the bay of Naples and at
Ravenna
Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...
on the Italian
Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...
coast. The command of Rome's fire brigade and minor constabulary, the ''
vigiles
The ''Vigiles'' or more properly the ''Vigiles Urbani'' ("watchmen of the City") or ''Cohortes Vigilum'' ("cohorts of the watchmen") were the firefighters and police of ancient Rome.
History
The ''Triumviri Nocturni'' (meaning ''three men of th ...
'', was likewise reserved for ''equites''.
Not all ''equites'' followed the conventional career-path. Those equestrians who specialised in a legal or administrative career, providing judges (''iudices'') in Rome's law courts and state secretaries in the imperial government, were granted dispensation from military service by Emperor
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
(r. AD 117–138).
[Jones (1964)] At the same time, many ''equites'' became career military officers, remaining in the army for much longer than 10 years. After completing their ''tres militiae'', some would continue to command auxiliary regiments, moving across units and provinces.
Already wealthy to start with, ''equites equo publico'' accumulated even greater riches through holding their reserved senior posts in the administration, which carried enormous salaries (although they were generally smaller than senatorial salaries).
For example, the salaries of equestrian ''procuratores'' (fiscal and gubernatorial) ranged from 15,000 to a maximum of 75,000 ''denarii'' (for the governor of Egypt) per annum, whilst an equestrian ''praefectus'' of an auxiliary cohort was paid about 50 times as much as a common foot soldier (about 10,000 ''denarii''). A ''praefectus'' could thus earn in one year the same as two of his auxiliary rankers combined earned during their entire 25-year service terms.
Relations with the emperor
It was suggested by ancient writers, and accepted by many modern historians, that Roman emperors trusted equestrians more than men of senatorial rank, and used the former as a political counterweight to the senators. According to this view, senators were often regarded as potentially less loyal and honest by the emperor, as they could become powerful enough, through the command of provincial legions, to launch
coups.
[Tacitus ''Annales'' II.59]
They also had greater opportunities for
peculation
Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
as provincial governors. Hence the appointment of equestrians to the most sensitive military commands. In Egypt, which supplied much of Italy's grain needs, the governor and the commanders of both provincial legions were drawn from the equestrian order, since placing a senator in a position to starve Italy was considered too risky.
The commanders of the Praetorian Guard, the principal military force close to the emperor at Rome, were also usually drawn from the equestrian order.
Also cited in support of this view is the appointment of equestrian fiscal ''procuratores'', reporting direct to the emperor, alongside senatorial provincial governors. These would supervise the collection of taxes and act as watchdogs to limit opportunities for corruption by the governors (as well as managing the imperial estates in the province).
According to Talbert, however, the evidence suggests that ''equites'' were no more loyal or less corrupt than senators. For example, c. 26 BC, the equestrian governor of Egypt,
Cornelius Gallus
Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c. 70 – 26 BC) was a Roman poet, orator and politician.
Birthplace
The identity of Gallus' purported birthplace, '' Forum Iulii'', is still uncertain, and it is based on the epithet "Foroiuliensis" that Jerome gave to h ...
, was recalled for politically suspect behaviour and sundry other misdemeanours. His conduct was deemed sufficiently serious by the Senate to warrant the maximum penalty of exile and confiscation of assets. Under Tiberius, both the senatorial governor and the equestrian fiscal procurator of
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
province were convicted of corruption.
There is evidence that emperors were as wary of powerful ''equites'' as they were of senators. Augustus enforced a tacit rule that senators and prominent equestrians must obtain his express permission to enter the province of Egypt, a policy that was continued by his successors.
Also, the command of the Praetorian Guard was normally split between two ''equites'', to reduce the potential for a successful ''coup d'état''. At the same time, command of the second military force in Rome, the ''cohortes urbanae'', was entrusted to a senator.
Oligarchical rule in the early Principate (to AD 197)
Because the Senate was limited to 600 members, ''equites'' ''equo publico'', numbering several thousands, greatly outnumbered men of senatorial rank.
Even so, senators and ''equites'' combined constituted a tiny elite in a citizen-body of about 6 million (in AD 47) and an empire with a total population of 60–70 million. This immensely wealthy elite monopolised political, military and economic power in the empire. It controlled the major offices of state, command of all military units, ownership of a significant proportion of the empire's arable land (e.g., under
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...
(), half of all land in
Africa Proconsularis
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
province was owned by just six senators) and of most major commercial enterprises.
Overall, senators and ''equites'' cooperated smoothly in the running of the empire. In contrast to the chaotic civil wars of the late Republic, the rule of this tiny oligarchy achieved a remarkable degree of political stability. In the first 250 years of the Principate (30 BC – AD 218), there was only a single episode of major internal strife: the
civil war of 68–69.
Equestrian hierarchy
It seems that from the start the equestrians in the imperial service were organised on a hierarchical basis reflecting their pay-grades. According to
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
, writing in the early part of the second century AD, the equestrian procurators who "performed various administrative duties throughout the empire" were from the time of
Emperor Claudius I organised into four pay-grades, the ''trecenarii'' the ''ducenarii'', the ''centenarii'', and the ''sexagenarii'', receiving 300,000, 200,000, 100,000, and 60,000 sesterces per annum respectively. Cassius Dio, writing a century later, attributed the beginnings of this process to the first emperor, Augustus, himself.
There is almost no literary or epigraphic evidence for the use of these ranks until towards the end of the 2nd century. However, it would seem that the increasing employment of equestrians by the emperors in civil and military roles had had social ramifications for it is then that there begin to appear the first references to a more far-reaching hierarchy with three distinct classes covering the whole of the order: the ''Viri Egregii'' (Select Men); the ''Viri Perfectissimi'' ("Best of Men"); and the ''Viri Eminentissimi'' ("Most Eminent of Men"). The mechanisms by which the equestrians were organised into these classes and the distinctions enforced is not known. However, it is generally assumed that the highest class, the ''Viri Eminentissimi'', was confined to the ''
Praetorian prefect
The praetorian prefect ( la, praefectus praetorio, el, ) was a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders be ...
s'', while the ''Viri Perfectissimi'' were the heads of the main departments of state, and the great prefectures, including Egypt, the city watch (''vigiles''), the corn supply (''annona'') etc. and men commissioned to carry out specific tasks by the emperor himself such as the military ''
duces''. The defining characteristic of the ''perfectissimate'' seems to have been that its members were of or associated socially (i.e. as ''clientes'' - see
Patronage in ancient Rome
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
of Great Men) with the imperial court circle and were office-holders known to the emperor and appointed by his favour. It is also possible that system was intended to indicate the hierarchy of office-holders in situations where this might be disputed. The ''Viri Egregii'' comprehended the rest of the Equestrian Order, in the service of the emperors.
The ''Viri Egregii'' included officials of all four pay-grades. ''Ducenariate'' procurators governing provinces not reserved for senators were of this category as were the ''praefecti legionum'', after
Gallienus
Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...
opened all legionary commands to equestrians. However, it seems that after 270 AD the ''procuratores ducenarii'' were elevated into the ranks of the ''Viri Perfectissimi''.
Equestrians in the Later Empire (AD 197–395)
Rise of the military equestrians (3rd century)
The 3rd century saw two major trends in the development of the Roman aristocracy: the progressive takeover of the top positions in the empire's administration and army by military equestrians and the concomitant exclusion of the Italian aristocracy, both senators and ''equites'' and the growth in hierarchy within the aristocratic orders.
Augustus instituted a policy, followed by his successors, of elevating to the ''ordo equester'' the ''
primus pilus
The ''primus pilus'' or ''primipilus'' was the senior centurion of the first cohort in a Roman legion, a formation of five double-strength centuries of 160 men, was called the ''primus pilus''; he was a career soldier and advisor to the le ...
'' (chief centurion) of each legion, at the end of his single year in the post. This resulted in about 30 career-soldiers, often risen from the ranks, joining the order every year. These ''equites primipilares'' and their descendants formed a section of the order that was quite distinct from the Italian aristocrats who had become nearly indistinguishable from their senatorial counterparts.
They were almost entirely provincials, especially from the Danube provinces where about half the Roman army was deployed. These Danubians mostly came from Pannonia, Moesia, Thrace, Illyria and Dalmatia. They were generally far less wealthy than the landowning Italians (not benefiting from centuries of inherited wealth) and they rarely held non-military posts.
Their professionalism led emperors to rely on them ever more heavily, especially in difficult conflicts such as the
Marcomannic Wars
The Marcomannic Wars (Latin: ''bellum Germanicum et Sarmaticum'', "German and Sarmatian War") were a series of wars lasting from about 166 until 180 AD. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against, principally, the Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi ...
(166–180). But because they were only equestrians, they could not be appointed to the top military commands, those of ''
legatus Augusti pro praetore
A ''legatus Augusti pro praetore'' (literally: "envoy of the emperor – acting for the praetor") was the official title of the governor or general of some Imperial provincess of the Roman Empire during the Principate era, normally the larger ones ...
'' (governor of an imperial province, where virtually all military units were deployed) and ''
legatus legionis
A ''legatus'' (; anglicised as legate) was a high-ranking Roman military officer in the Roman Army, equivalent to a modern high-ranking general officer. Initially used to delegate power, the term became formalised under Augustus as the officer ...
'' (commander of a legion). In the later 2nd century, emperors tried to circumvent the problem by elevating large numbers of ''primipilares'' to senatorial rank by ''adlectio''.
[Goldsworthy (2000) 164]
This met resistance in the Senate, so that in the 3rd century, emperors simply appointed equestrians directly to the top commands, under the fiction that they were only temporary substitutes (''praeses pro legato'').
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa (Roman province), Africa. As a young man he advanced thro ...
() appointed ''primipilares'' to command the three new legions that he raised in 197 for his Parthian War, Legio I, II & III Parthica
Gallienus
Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...
() completed the process by appointing ''equites'' to command all the legions. These appointees were mostly provincial soldier-equestrians, not Italian aristocrats.
Under the reforming emperor
Diocletian
Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
(), himself an Illyrian equestrian officer, the military equestrian "takeover" was brought a stage further, with the removal of hereditary senators from most administrative, as well as military posts. Hereditary senators were limited to administrative jobs in Italy and a few neighbouring provinces (Sicily, Africa, Achaea and Asia), despite the fact that senior administrative posts had been greatly multiplied by the tripling of the number of provinces and the establishment of
dioceses
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...
(super-provinces). The exclusion of the old Italian aristocracy, both senatorial and equestrian, from the political and military power that they had monopolised for many centuries was thus complete. The senate became politically insignificant, although it retained great prestige.
The 3rd and 4th centuries saw the proliferation of hierarchical ranks within the aristocratic orders, in line with the greater stratification of society as a whole, which became divided into two broad classes, with discriminatory rights and privileges: the ''honestiores'' (more noble) and ''humiliores'' (more base). Among the ''honestiores'', equestrians were divided into five grades, depending on the salary-levels of the offices they held.
[Jones (1964) 525]
These ranged from ''egregii'' or ''sexagenarii'' (salary of 60,000 ''
sesterces
The ''sestertius'' (plural ''sestertii''), or sesterce (plural sesterces), was an ancient Roman coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small, silver coin issued only on rare occasions. During the Roman Empire it was a large brass coin.
The na ...
'' = 15,000 ''denarii'') to the ''eminentissimi'' (most exalted), limited to the two commanders of the Praetorian Guard and, with the establishment of Diocletian's
Tetrarchy
The Tetrarchy was the system instituted by Roman emperor Diocletian in 293 AD to govern the ancient Roman Empire by dividing it between two emperors, the '' augusti'', and their juniors colleagues and designated successors, the '' caesares' ...
, the four ''praefecti praetorio'' (not to be confused with the commanders of the Praetorian Guard in Rome) that assisted the tetrarchs, each ruling over a quarter of the empire.
[Jones (1964) 525]
Idle aristocracy (4th century)
From the reign of
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
() onwards, there was an explosive increase in the membership of both aristocratic orders. Under Diocletian, the number of sitting members of the Senate remained at around 600, the level it had retained for the whole duration of the Principate.
Constantine established
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
as a twin capital of the empire, with its own senate, initially of 300 members. By 387, their number had swollen to 2,000, while the Senate in Rome probably reached a comparable size, so that the upper order reached total numbers similar to the ''equo publico'' ''equites'' of the early Principate. By this time, even some commanders of military regiments were accorded senatorial status.
[Jones (1964) 528]
At the same time the order of ''equites'' was also expanded vastly by the proliferation of public posts in the late empire, most of which were now filled by equestrians. The Principate had been a remarkably slim-line administration, with about 250 senior officials running the vast empire, relying on local government and private contractors to deliver the necessary taxes and services. During the 3rd century the imperial bureaucracy, all officials and ranks expanded. By the time of the ''
Notitia Dignitatum
The ''Notitia Dignitatum'' (Latin for "The List of Offices") is a document of the late Roman Empire that details the administrative organization of the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire. It is unique as one of very few surviving documents of ...
'', dated to 395 AD, comparable senior positions had grown to approximately 6,000, a 24-fold increase. The total number enrolled in the imperial civilian service, the ''militia inermata'' ('unarmed service') is estimated to have been 30–40,000: the service was professionalized with a staff made up almost entirely of free men on salary, and enrolled in a fictional legion, I Audiutrix.
In addition, large numbers of ''
decuriones
''Decurio'' was an official title in Ancient Rome, used in various connections:
* Decurion (administrative), a member of the senatorial order in the Italian towns under the administration of Rome, and later in provincial towns organized on the Ita ...
'' (local councillors) were granted equestrian rank, often obtaining it by bribery. Officials of ever lower rank were granted equestrian rank as reward for good service, e.g. in 365, the ''
actuarii'' (accountants) of military regiments. This inflation in the number of ''equites'' inevitably led to the debasement of the order's prestige. By AD 400, ''equites'' were no longer an echelon of nobility, but just a title associated with mid-level administrative posts.
Constantine established a third order of nobility, the ''comites'' (companions (of the emperor), singular form ''
comes
''Comes'' ( ), plural ''comites'' ( ), was a Roman title or office, and the origin Latin form of the medieval and modern title "count".
Before becoming a word for various types of title or office, the word originally meant "companion", either i ...
'', the origin of the medieval noble rank of
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
). This overlapped with senators and ''equites'', drawing members from both. Originally, the ''comites'' were a highly exclusive group, comprising the most senior administrative and military officers, such as the commanders of the ''comitatus'', or mobile field armies. But ''comites'' rapidly followed the same path as ''equites'', being devalued by excessive grants until the title became meaningless by 450.
In the late 4th and in the 5th century, therefore, the senatorial class at Rome and Constantinople became the closest equivalent to the ''equo publico'' equestrian class of the early Principate. It contained many ancient and illustrious families, some of whom claimed descent from the aristocracy of the Republic, but had, as described, lost almost all political and military power. Nevertheless, senators retained great influence due to their enormous inherited wealth and their role as the guardians of Roman tradition and culture.
Centuries of capital accumulation, in the form of vast landed estates (''latifundia'') across many provinces resulted in enormous wealth for most senators. Many received annual rents in cash and in kind of over 5,000 lbs of gold, equivalent to 360,000 ''
solidi
The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; ''solidi'') or nomisma ( grc-gre, νόμισμα, ''nómisma'', 'coin') was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Late Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. Constantine introduced the coin, and its weig ...
'' (or 5 million Augustan-era ''denarii''), at a time when a ''miles'' (common soldier) would earn no more than four ''solidi'' a year in cash. Even senators of middling wealth could expect an income 1,000–1,500 lbs of gold.
The 4th-century historian
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
, a former high-ranking military staff officer who spent his retirement years in Rome, bitterly attacked the Italian aristocracy, denouncing their extravagant palaces, clothes, games and banquets and above all their lives of total idleness and frivolity. In his words can be heard the contempt for the senatorial class of a career soldier who had spent his lifetime defending the empire, a view clearly shared by Diocletian and his Illyrian successors. But it was the latter who reduced the aristocracy to that state, by displacing them from their traditional role of governing the empire and leading the army.
[Jones (1964) 50, 525]
Notes
See also
*
Publican
In antiquity, publicans (Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the ...
*
Hippeus
''Hippeis'' ( grc, ἱππεῖς, singular ἱππεύς, ''hippeus'') is a Greek term for cavalry. In ancient Athenian society, after the political reforms of Solon, the ''hippeus'' was the second highest of the four social classes. It was c ...
*
Medjay
Medjay (also ''Medjai'', ''Mazoi'', ''Madjai'', ''Mejay'', Egyptian ''mḏꜣ.j'', a nisba of ''mḏꜣ'',) was a demonym used in various ways throughout ancient Egyptian history to refer initially to a nomadic group from Nubia and later as a gen ...
Citations
References
Ancient
*
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
, ''Res Gestae'' (c. 390 AD)
*
Dio Cassius
Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
, ''Roman History'' (c. 250 AD)
*
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...
, ''
Ab urbe condita
''Ab urbe condita'' ( 'from the founding of the City'), or ''anno urbis conditae'' (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an exp ...
'' (c. 15 AD)
*
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
, ''Lives'' (c. 100 AD)
*
Polybius
Polybius (; grc-gre, Πολύβιος, ; ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , which covered the period of 264–146 BC and the Punic Wars in detail.
Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed ...
, ''Histories'' (c. 150 BC)
*
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
, ''Caesares XII'' (c. 100 AD)
*
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
, ''Annales'' (c. 100 AD)
* Tacitus, ''Historiae'' (c. 100 AD)
Modern
*
* Burton, G. (1987): "Government and the Provinces". In J. Wacher, ed., ''The Roman World'' Vol I
* (Bury (1898)):
* Cornell, T.J. (1995): ''The Beginnings of Rome''
*
Eck, Werner (2000): "Emperor, Senate & Magistrates". In ''Cambridge Ancient History'' 2nd ed., Vol XI
*
Goldsworthy, Adrian (2000): ''Roman Warfare''
* Goldsworthy, Adrian (2003): ''The Complete Roman Army''
* Heather, Peter (2005): ''Fall of the Roman Empire''
* Jones, A.H.M. (1964): ''Later Roman Empire''
*
* Ritner, R.K. (1998): "Egypt Under Roman Rule: the Legacy of Ancient Egypt". In ''Cambridge History of Egypt, Vol I''. Ed. C.F. Petry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*
Scheidel, Walter (2006): ''Population & Demography'' (Princeton-Stanford Working Papers in Classics)
* Sidnell, Philip (2006): ''Warhorse''
* Smith W. (1890): ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities''
* Talbert, Richard (1996): "The Senate and Senatorial and Equestrian Posts". In ''Cambridge Ancient History'' 2nd ed., Vol X. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*
Further reading
*Berry, D. H. 2003. "Eqvester Ordo Tvvs Est: Did Cicero Win His Cases Because of His Support for the Eqvites?" ''The Classical Quarterly'' 53, no. 1: 222–34. .
*Breeze, David. 1969. "The organization of the legion: The first cohort and the ''equites'' legionis". ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 59:50–55.
*--. 1974. "The organisation of the career structure of the immunes and principales of the Roman army". ''Bonner Jahrbücher'', 174: 245–92.
*Coulston, Jonathan. 2000. "'Armed and belted men': The soldiery in imperial Rome". In ''Ancient Rome: The archaeology of the eternal city''. Edited by Jonathan Coulston and Hazel Dodge, 76–118. Oxford: Oxbow.
*Duncan-Jones, Richard. 2016. ''Power and Privilege In Roman Society''. New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
.
*Speidel, Michael P. 1994. ''Riding for Caesar: The Roman Emperor’s horseguards''. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...
.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Equestrian Order
Social classes in ancient Rome
Types of cavalry unit in the army of ancient Rome
Cavalry units and formations of ancient Rome