Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

E QUIIT ES..'IEQUITES. 4 72their property; for Niebuhr goes too far when he gailied in battle. (Dionys. vi. 13.) According, t
a;sserts that all vacancies were filled up according Livy (ix. 46) this annual procession was first estato birth; independent of any property qualification. blished by the censors Q. Fabius and P. Decius,
But in course of time, as population and wealth in- B. c. 304; but according to Dionysius (1. c.) it was
creased, the number of persons, who possessed an instituted after the defeat of the Latins near the
equestrian fortune, also increased greatly; and as lake Rtegillus, of which an account was brought to
the number of equites in the 18 centuries was Rome by the Dioscuri.
limited, those persons, whose ancestors had not It may be asked, how long did the knight retain
been enrolled in the centuries, could not receive his public horse, and a vote in the equestrian ceilhorses from the state, and were therefore allowed tury to which he belonged? On this subject we
the privilege of serving with their own horses have no positive information; but as those equites,
amongst the cavalry, instead of the infantry, as who served with their own horses, were only obthey would otherwise have been obliged to have liged to serve for ten years (stipendia., -r'paTeias)
done. Thus arose the two distinct classes of lnider the age of 46 (Polyb. vi. 19. ~ 2), we may
equites, which have been already mentioned. presiume that the same rule extended to those who
The inspection of the equites who received served with the public horses, provided they wishcd
horses from the state, belonged to the censors, who to give up the service. For it is certain that in
had the power of depriving an eques of his horse, the ancient times of the republic a knight might
and reducing him to the condition of an aerarian retain his horse as long as he pleased, even after
~(Liv. xxiv. 43), and also of giving the vacant he had entered the senate, provided he continued
horse to the most distinguished of the equites able to discharge the duties of a knight. Thus the
who had previously served at their own expense. two censors, M. Livius Salinator and C. Claudius
For these purposes they made during their censor- Nero, in B. C. 204, were also equites (Liv. xxix.
ship a public inspection, in the forum, of all the 37); and L. Scipio Asiaticus, who was deprived
knights who possessed public horses (equitatu6m re- of his horse by the censors in B. C. 185 (Liv. xxxix.
cognoscunt, Liv. xxxix. 44; equitum centurias lee- 44), had himself been censor in B. C. 191. This is
cognoscunl, Valer. Max. ii. 9. ~ 6). The tribes also proved by a firagment in the fourth book (c. 2)
were taken in order, and each knight was sum- of Cicero's "De Republica," in which he says,
moned by name. Every one, as his name was equitatus, iz quo szl'ffragia sunt etiams senctuss; by
called, walked past the censors, leading his horse. which he evidently means, that most of the senators
This ceremony is represented on the reverse of were enabled to vote at the Comitia Centuriata in
mansy Roman coins struck by the censors. A spe- consequence of their belonging to the equestrian
cimen is annexed. centuries. But during the later times of the republic the knights were obliged to give up their
/;;0cao.~-, horses on entering the senate, and consequently
0 an A t > ceased to belong to the equestrian centuries. This
/p;", (3 regulation is alluded to in the fragiment of Cicero
I already referred to, in which Scipio says that many
{~-FaW.,) 9 ) s t \tffiS W di} persons were anxious that a plebiscitum should be
passed, ordaining that the public horses shou'd be
restored to the state, which decree was in all probability passed afterwards; since, as Niebuhr observes7 (vol. i. p. 433, note 1016), "'when Cicero
If the censors had no fault to find either with makes Scipio speak of any measure as intended,
the character of the knight or the equipments of we are to suppose that it had actually taken place,
his horse, they ordered him to pass on (traduc but, according to theinformation possessed by Cicero,
csquslr, Valer. Max. iv. 1. ~ 10); but if on the con- was later than the date he assigns to Scipio's distrary they considered him unworthy of his rank, course." That the greater number of the equites
they struck him out of the list of knights, and de- equo publico, after the exclusion of senators fromn
prived him of his horse (Liv. xxxix. 44) or ordered the equestrian centuries, were young men, is proved
him to sell it (Liv. xxix. 37; Valer. Max. ii. 9. by a passage in the work of Q. Cicero, De Petitiosle
~ 6), with the intention no doubt that the person Consulatts (c. 8).
thus degraded should refund to the state the The equestrian centuries, of which we have
money which had been advanced to him for its hitherto been treating, were only regarded as a
purchase. (Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 433.) division of the army; they did not form a distinct
At the same review, those equites who had served class or ordo in the constitution. The community,
the regular, time, and wished to be discharged, were in a political point of view, was only divided into
accustomed to give an account to the censors of the patricians and plebeians; and the equestrian cen-:camnpaigns in which they had served, and were turies were composed of both. But in the year
*then dismissed with honour or disgrace, as they B. C. 123, a new class, called the Ordo Equlestris,
might have deserved. (Plut. Polip. 22.) was formed in the state by the Lex Sempronia,
This review of the equites by the censors must which was introduced by C. Gracchus. By this
not be confounded with the Equitsinz Tra-nsvectio, law all the jisdices had to be chosen from those
which was a solemn procession of the body every citizens who possessed an equestrian fortune.
-year on the Ides of Quintilis (July). The proces- (Plut. C. Gacelh. 5; Appian, De Bell. Civ. i. 22
sion started from the temple of Mars outside the Tac. Ainn. xii. 60.) We know very little respecting
city, and passed through the city over the forum, the provisions of this law; but it appears from the
and by the temple of the Dioscuri. On this occasion Lex Servilia repetundarunm, passed eighteen years.the equites were always crowned with olive chap- afterwards, that every person who was to be chosen.lets, and wore their state dress, the trabea, with jusdex wasrecuired to beabovethirtyaldundersisty
* all the honourable distinctions which they had years of age, to hasve either an equlus publicus or to