Equestrian order

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A Roman cavalry officer of the mid-Republic, as depicted in a copy of a bas-relief found in the Forum in Rome. It portrays the legend of Mettius Curtius, a Sabine raider who, early the reign of Romulus (ca. 750 BC), is reputed to have evaded capture by the Romans by riding his horse into a marsh that once covered part of the site of the Forum. The swamp was supposedly named the Lacus Curtius ("lake of Curtius") after him.[1] But the image probably portrays the equipment of a Roman knight at the time it was made, ca. 150 BC. The knight wears a composite bronze cuirass, Attic-style helmet with horsehair plume, pteruges, and mantle. He carries a spear and small round shield. Original in Musei Capitolini, Rome

The Roman equestrian order (Latin: ordo equester) constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians (patricii), an hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era (to 501 BC) and during the early Republic (to 338 BC). A member of the order was known as an eques (plural: equites). Equites in Latin has the general meaning of cavalry (from equus = "horse"), but in this context carries the specific meaning of "knight".

It appears that, during the Roman kingdom and the first century of the Republic, legionary cavalry was recruited exclusively from the ranks of the patricians, who were expected to provide 6 centuriae of cavalry (300 horses for each consular legion). At some stage in the regal era, patrician cavalry recruits were granted the right to a horse at public expense (equus publicus). Until ca. 400 BC, therefore, equites were synonymous with patricii. At some stage, however, most likely around 400 BC, 12 more centuriae of cavalry were established, probably because the patrician class was no longer numerous enough to fulfil the levy requirement. These 12 also admitted non-patricians (plebeians), most likely on the basis of a wealth requirement whose level is uncertain. They shared the patricians' right to an equus publicus. At this point, the order of equites was no longer limited to patricians, although the latter remained a distinct elite with special privileges and, probably, their own centuriae (the original 6 regal ones).

Around 300 BC the Samnite Wars obliged Rome to double the normal annual military levy from 2 to 4 legions, and thus also double the cavalry levy to 1,200 horse. It is probably at this time that the legionary cavalry started to recruit wealthier citizens from outside the 18 centuriae, as the latter were no longer numerous enough to fulfil the levy requirement. However, these new recruits (from the First Class of commoners in the centuriate organisation) were never admitted to the 18 centuriae of equo publico knights nor granted the latters' privileges. At this point, therefore, equites (knights) were no longer fully synonymous with equites (cavalry). Eventually, by the time of the Second Punic War (218-01 BC), all the members of the First Class of commoners were required to serve as cavalrymen. The presence of the equites in the Roman cavalry diminished steadily in the period 200-88 BC. This is because only equites could serve as the army's senior officers, and as the number of legions proliferated, there were ever fewer available for cavalry service. After ca. 88 BC, equites were no longer drafted into the legionary cavalry, although they remained technically liable to such service throughout the Principate era (to AD 284). Equites 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. Although the rank, once attained, was passed from father to son, members of the order who, at the regular quinquennial 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 and was doubled to 100,000 by the emperor Augustus (sole rule 30 BC - AD 14).

In the later Republican period, Roman Senators and their offspring became an unofficial elite within the equestrian order. As senators' ability to engage in commerce was strictly limited by law, the bulk of non-agricultural activities were in the hands of non-senatorial equites, as well as holding large landed estates, who came to dominate mining, shipping and manufacturing industry, while the capital of senatorial families was largely invested in land. In particular, tax farming companies (publicani) were almost all in the hands of equites.

Under Augustus, the senatorial elite was given formal status (as the ordo senatorius) with a higher wealth threshold (250,000 denarii) and superior rank and privileges to ordinary equites. But the senatorial elite never acquired an existence completely separate from the equites, but remained a subset of the latter. 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 (whose membership was limited to 600 by Augustus). Failing either condition, the family would revert to ordinary equites status. Although sons of senators frequently won seats in the Senate, this was by no means guaranteed. As numbers were capped, competition for the available seats (usually 20 annually) was intense and in practice subject to gaining the emperor's support.

During the Principate, the 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 Italy, 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. Overall, the equites formed a tiny elite of under 10,000 members who monopolised political, military and econmic power in an empire of ca. 60 million inhabitants. The rule of this 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 68-9.

During the 3rd century AD, power shifted from the Italian aristocracy to a class of equites who had earnt their membership by distinguished military service, often rising from the ranks: career military officers from the provinces (especially the Balkan provinces) who displaced the Italian aristocrats in the top military posts, and under Diocletian (ruled 284-305) from the top civilian positions also. This effectively reduced the Italian aristocracy to an idle, but immensely wealthy group of large 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 was swollen to over 4,000 by the establishment of a second senate in Constantinople and the doubling of the membership of both senates. The senatorial order of the 4th century was thus the equivalent of the equites of the Principate.

Regal era (753 to 509 BC)

According to Roman legend, Rome was founded by its first king, Romulus, 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 ca. 625 BC.[2] According to the Roman historian Livy, Romulus established a cavalry regiment of 300 men called the Celeres ("the Swift") to act as his personal escort, with each of the three original tribes of Rome (the Ramnes, Tities and Luceres) supplying a centuria (century; company of 100 men), as well as 1,000 infantry to the army.[3] This cavalry regiment was supposedly doubled in size to 600 men by King Tarquinius Priscus (conventional dates 616-578 BC).[4] P. Fraccaro's interpretation of the so-called Servian reforms to the army suggests that under king Servius Tullius (traditional reign dates 578-535 BC), the hoplite (armoured) infantry was also doubled in size to a single legion of 6,000, which, together with 2,400 velites (unarmoured infantry) and 600 cavalry adds up to a total regal levy of 9,000 iuniores (men of military age: aged 16 to 45).[5] Until recently, Fraccaro's thesis was not widely accepted because of the prevailing 1960s theory of Andreas Alföldi that Rome was an insignificant settlement until ca. 500 BC and could not therefore have supported such a powerful army (or cavalry) in the regal era.[6] But recent archaeology has established that Rome was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean region in the period 625-500 BC. With an estimated 35,000 inhabitants, a military levy of 9,000 is plausible.[7] According to Livy, Servius Tullius also established a further 12 centuriae of cavalry.[8] But this is unlikely, as it would have increased the cavalry to 1,800 horse, implausibly large compared to 8,400 infantry (in peninsular Italy, cavalry typically constituted about 8% of a field army).[9]. This is confirmed by the fact that in the early Republic the cavalry fielded remained 600-strong (2 legions with 300 horse each).[10] 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.[11]

Mommsen argues that the royal cavalry was drawn exclusively from the ranks of the Patricians (patricii), the aristocracy of early Rome, which was purely hereditary.[12] Apart from the traditional association of the aristocracy with horsemanship, the evidence for this view is the fact that, during the Republic, 6 centuriae (voting constituencies) of equites in the comitia centuriata (electoral assembly) retained the names of the original 6 royal cavalry centuriae.[13]a[›] These are very likely "the centuriae of patrician nobles" in the comitia mentioned by the lexicologist Festus. 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).[14]