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

EQUITES. EQUITES.
laeter to 2000: lint these sunms are so large as to spectively? These questions have occasioned nluch
be almost incredible, especially when we take into controversy among modern writers, but the followaccount that 126 years afterwards a sheep was only ing account is perhaps the most satisfactory:reckoned at 10, and an ox at 100 asses in the In the constitution of Servius Tullius all the
tables of penalties. ((Gell. xi. 1.) The correctness Roman citizens were arranged in different classes
of these numbers has accordingly been questioned, according to the amount of their property, and it
by some modern writers, while others have at- may therefore fairly be presumed that a place in
tempted to account for the largeness of the sum. the centuries of equites was determined by the
Niebuhr (vol. i. p. 433) remarks that the sum was same qualification. Dionysins (iv. 18) expressly
doubtless intended not only for the purchase of the says, that the equites were chosen by Servius out
horse, but also for its equipment, which would be of the richest and most illustrious families; and
incomplete without a groom or slave, who had to Cicero (De Rep. ii. 22) that they were of the
be bought and then to be mounted. Bockh (Me- highest census (ceelsu mnzaxieo). Livy (i. 43) also
iroloq. Untes'sucl. c. 29) supposes that the sums of states that the twelve centnries formed by Servius
money in the Servian census are not given in asses Tullius consisted of the leading men of the state.
of a pound weight, but in the reduced asses of the None of these writers, however, mention the profirst Punic war, when they were struck of the same perty which was necessary to entitle a person to a
weight as the sextans, that is, two ounces, or one- place among the equites; but it was probably of
sixth of the original weight. [As.] Zumpt conl- the same amount as in the latter times of the residers that 1000 asses of the old weight were public, that is, four times that of the first class.
given for the purchase of the horse, and 200 for its Every one therefore who possessed the requisite
annual provision; and that the original sum has property, ald whose character was unblemished
been retained in a passage of Varro (equiszw pzubli- (for this latter qualification appears to have been
cues mille assario'um, L. L. viii. 71). always necessary in the ancient times of the reAll the equites, of whom we have been speak- public), was admitted among the equites of the
ins, received a horse from the state, and were in- Servian constitution; and it nlay be presumed that
eluded in the ] 8 equestrian centuries of the Servian the twelve new centuries were created in order to
constitution; but in course of time, we read of include all those persons iln the state who possessed
another class of equites in Roman history, who the necessary qualifications. Niebuhr (Hist. of
did not receive a horse from the state, and were Ronze, vol. i. p. 427, &c.), however, supposes that
not included in the 18 centuries. This latter class the qualification of property was only necessary for
is first mentioned by Livy (v. 7) in his account admission into the twelve new centuries, and that
of the siege of Veii, B. c. 403. He says that dur- the statement of Dionysius, quoted above, ought
ing the siege, when the Romnaus had at one time to be confined to these centuries, and not applied
suffered great disasters, all those citizens who had to the whole eighteen. He maintains that the
an equestrian fortune, and no horse allotted to them twelve centuries consisted exclusively of plebeians;
(quibles census equester erat, equi puls)ici nonz ersa2t), and that the six old centuries (that is, the three
volunteered to serve with their own horses; and double centuries of Ramnes, Tities and Luceres,
he adds, that firom tliis time equites first began to pri ores and postersiores), which were incorporated
serve with their own horses (tur pri)vussi equis by Servius into his comitia under the title of the
ererere equites coepepss't). The state paid them sea szqcyivcy, comprised all the patricians, inde(certus numerz'usa eis est assiqszatus) as a kind of pendent of the amount of property which they
compensation for serving with their own horses. possessed. This account, however, does not seem
The foot soldiers had received pay a few years to rest on sufficient evidence; and we have, on the.
before (Liv. iv.:59); and two years afterwards, contrary, asl express instance of a patricians, L. TarB. C. 401, the pay of the equlites was made three- quitius, B. c. 458, who was compelled on account
fold that of the infaIntry. (Liv. v. 12; see Niebuhr, of his poverty to serve on foot. (Liv. iii. 27.)
vol. ii. p. 439.) That the six old centuries consisted entirely of
From the year B. c. 403, there were therefore two patricians is most probable, since the plebeians
classes of Roman knights: one who received horses would certainly not have been admitted among the
fronm the state, and are therefore frequently called equites at all till the Servian constitution; and as
eqsuites equo pusblico (Cic. Phil. vi. 5), and sometimes by this constitution new centuries were created, it
Flenxuisines or Trossuli, the latterof which, according is nlot likely that any plebeians would have been
to Gbttling, is an Etruscan word (Plin. l. A. xxxiii. placed among the ancient six. But we have no
9; Festus, s. v.; G6ttling, Gesch. dle Riiiz. Staatsv. reason for supposing that these six centuries conp. 372), and another class, who served, when tained the wzole body of patricians, or that the
they were required, with their own horses, but were twelve consisted entirel/y of plebeians. We may
not classed among the 18 centuries. As they served suppose that those patricians, who belonged to the
on horseback they were called equzites; and, when six, were allowed by the Servian constitution to
spoken of irk opposition to cavalry, which did not continue in them, if they possessed the requisite
consist of Roman citizens, they were also called property; and that all other persons in the state,
equiles Romnani; but they had no legal claim to whether patricians cr plebeians, who possessed the
the name of. equites, since in ancient times this title requisite property, were admitted into the 12 new
was strictly confined to those who received horses centuries. That the latter were not confined to
from the state, as Pliny (H. N. xxxiii. 7) expressly. plebeians may be inferred from Livy, who says
says, "Equitum nomen subsistebat:in turmis that they consisted of the leading men in the state
equorum publicorumIr." (pri-nores civitatis), not in the plebs.
But here two questions arise. Why did the As vacancies occurred in the eighteen centuries,
equites,. who belonged to the eighteen centuries, the descendants of those who were originally enreceive a horse from the state, and the others not? rolled succeeded to.the-ir places, wlietheir plebleiasii
and how was a person admitted into each class re- or patricians, provided they had not dissipated