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training, and habituation to which this nobility was subject were thus directed to inspire it with a belief in, if not with an enthusiasm for, the accepted order of things.

The second order which supported the throne and did the work of the Empire was that of the Equites. The word eques has now, as in the Republic, a dual signification. Tacitus employs it to describe the capitalist class, presumably the possessors of a census of 400,000 sesterces,1 and it is obvious that current terminology did not accept the restrictions which the Principate may have wished to impose on the use of the term. It is uncertain what these restrictions were, for literature and inscriptions mention two methods of conferring equestrian rank, and it is not known whether these methods-the gift of the rank through the gold ring and through the public horsewere sometimes alternative or always concurrent. But the grant of knighthood to freedmen is described as having been effected by the gift of the gold ring 2-a gift which, as early as the time of Hadrian, had come to confer free birth (ingenuitas) merely and not equestrian rank,3 and it cannot be shown that the public horse was always given to members of this class when they were endowed with the insignia of knighthood. It is not improbable, however, that when the gold ring had lost its earlier signification and become merely a means of conferring free birth, only one order of official equites was recognised, and that the title in its proper sense was restricted to the order whose members had, from the time of Augustus, been pre-eminently the bearers of the name. This order was the old one of the equites equo publico,

1 Tac. Ann. iv. 6"(the state contracts) societatibus equitum Romanorum agitabantur."

2 Dio Cass. liii. 30. On Antonius Musa, who had saved Augustus' life, was conferred τὸ χρυσοῖς δακτυλίοις (ἀπελεύθερος γὰρ ἦν) χρῆσθαι: ib. xlviii. 45 (Augustus, on the reception of Menas the former freedman of Sex. Pompeius) δακτυλίοις τε χρυσοῖς ἐκόσμησε καὶ ἐς τὸ τῶν ἱππέων τέλος ἐσέγραψε. These words may mean that Menas was made an eques equo publico as well.

3 A rescript of Hadrian is quoted with reference to the ingenuitas conferred by the gold ring (Ulp. in Dig. 40, 10, 6). For other references to this right see Dig. 38, 2, 3; Justin. Nov. 78.

4 The usurpation of the gold ring by freedmen, which was repressed by Claudius (Suet. Claud. 25) and Domitian, and the inspection in the theatre instituted by the latter (Martial v. 8) seem to refer to a civil class; at least there is no evidence that such people claimed to be equites equo publico. When Dio Cassius (lvi. 42) speaks of οἵ τε ἱππεῖς, οἵ τε ἐκ τοῦ τέλους καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι, it is not clear who the others" are, but the passage shows that persons other than those in the corps were called "equites."

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which was reorganised and vastly extended in scale at the very beginning of the Principate. We are told that even under Augustus the annual parade might witness the appearance of five thousand knights,1 and these could have been but a portion of the order, for many members of the corps must have been detained on financial, administrative, and military duties in the provinces. This increase in numbers seems to have led to the abandonment of the old centuriate organisation, for the equites of the Principate are grouped in turmae and commanded by seviri.2 Selection for the order was entirely in the hands of the Princeps, and probably any one with the requisite qualifications -free birth, good character, and a property of 400,000 sesterces -could get this patent of nobility from the Emperor's hands. At the times when the censorship was revived in the person of the Princeps, the selection and elimination of equites may have followed the rules prevailing under the Republican system of revision; but, as the censorship was no part of the constitution of the Principate, some department must have existed from the first for the purpose of registering the names of applicants. We find a permanent bureau eventually established for this purpose. It bore the title a censibus equitum Romanorum, and seems to have been a branch of the general department of petitions (a libellis). Although this office was concerned primarily with the duty of admission to the order, yet its holders must have pointed out to the Princeps cases where the qualifications requisite for knighthood had ceased to exist, and they must thus have acted as the board that really controlled the tenure of the rank. The formal control in this particular was, however, effected, now as in the Republic, by a solemn and public act. The act, although a Republican survival, was not employed with its Republican meaning. The parade of the knights (transvectio equitum) on the Ides of July had, during the Republic, been a mere procession ; it was now given the significance of the censorian review in the 1 Dionys. vi. 13.

2 The seviri would seem to show that there were six turmae. See Hirschfeld Verwaltungsgesch. p. 243 n. 1.

3 Hence such expressions as a divo Hadriano equo publico honoratus (Wilmanns 1825), equo publico exornatus ab Impp. Severo et Antonino Augg. (ib. 1595). 4 p. 347.

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V p. 225. It is probable that the revision of the knights described in Suet. Claud. 16, Vesp. 9 refers to the censorship of these emperors.

6 a censibus equitum Romanorum (Wilmanns 1275), a censibus a libellis Aug. (ib. 1249 b), a libellis et censibus (ib. 1257).

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Forum,1 and became the means of testing the qualifications of members of the order (probatio equitum).2 The knights now passed on horseback, not on foot; they could not ask for their discharge (missio), for the tenure of their rank was no longer conditioned by military service, although Augustus finally permitted all members of the age of thirty-five, who were unwilling to continue in the corps, to return their public horses; 3 but the knights were still questioned and made to give an account of their conduct, and those whose answers were unsatisfactory were dismissed from the ranks.5 That Augustus took this duty seriously is shown by the fact that he more than once asked the Senate for committees, whether of three or ten members, to assist him in the work. But, although this parade is found in the reigns of subsequent Emperors,7 and can be traced as late as the fourth century A.D.,8 the serious duty of rejection was probably exercised more and more by the permanent bureau which admitted to the order.

The eighteen centuries of Roman knights had, even at the end of the Republic, never lost touch with the army. They had ceased to be the citizen cavalry, but they were composed of the young nobility who furnished the mounted officers of the legions. This secondary military character was retained by the corps in the Principate; but it had an additional significance as well. There can be no doubt that it was from the equites equo publico that the Emperors chose those members of the official hierarchy -procurators and praefects-who were of equestrian rank. It is less certain whether this corps furnished all the judices during the early Principate. Jurisdiction, whether civil or criminal, was a burden (munus), and this may have been imposed on all who possessed the requisite census, whether they had made profession for the order or not.9

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2 Suet. Aug. 38 "equitum turmas frequenter recognovit, post longam intercapedinem reducto more transvectionis."

3 ib. 38 "mox reddendi equi gratiam fecit eis, qui majores annorum quinque et triginta retinere eum nollent."

ib. 39"Unum quemque equitum rationem vitae reddere coegit."

5 Suet. Calig. 16 "palam adempto equo, quibus aut probri aliquid aut ignominiae inesset.' 6 Suet. Aug. 37, 39.

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7 In those of Caligula (Suet. Calig. 16) and Nero (Dio Cass. lxiii. 13), and perhaps in those of Vitellius (Tac. Hist. ii. 62) and Severus Alexander (Vita 15). 8 Zosimus ii. 29.

9 By the side of such titles as equo publico judex selectus ex V decuriis (Wilmanns 2110) and equum publicum habens adlectus in V decurias (ib. 2203)

It was natural that an order thus definitely constituted, and which became more rigid as time went on, should end by enjoying titles of honour peculiar to itself. This stage had been attained by the second century; but the titular designations are not strictly those of the equestrian order, but of the grades of office to which it led. After the reign of Marcus Aurelius the equestrian hierarchy was divided into three classes; the first contained only the praefect of the praetorian guard who was called vir eminentissimus; the second the other equestrian praefects and higher procurators, who bore the title perfectissimi; the third -the possessors of all other equestrian posts-were egregii.1 The equestrian officers of the army were not graduated on a similar scale of rank, and the municipal knights of Italy are designated only by the old Republican and non-official epithet of splendidi.2 The more definite, but equally non-official, epithet of illustris may have been applied to individuals who possessed the senatorial census and the latus clavus, but who were passing through the equestrian service in the army (equestris militia), which was preparatory to entrance into the Senate. But the name more particularly designated men who, possessed of a senatorial fortune, preferred to retain their equestrian rank, and even perhaps any equites of fortune and dignity such as the holders of the great praefectures.*

§ 7. The Functionaries of the Princeps

The Princeps, since he is not a king, has neither magistrates nor ministers subject to his will; but he possesses a number of delegates and servants who assist in the performance of his vast duties of administration. Some of these, such as the legates,

we find the title quin. decur. judi(cum) (inter) quatringenarios (Henzen 6469), in which a purely monetary qualification is expressed.

1 Wilmanns nn. 1639, 2841, Index p. 564; Mommsen Staatsr. iii. p. 565. 2 Wilmanns n. 2858; Mommsen ib. n. 3.

3 These might have been included in the equites illustres whom Augustus forbade to set foot in Egypt (Tac. Ann. ii. 59 "vetitis nisi permissu ingredi senatoribus aut equitibus Romanis illustribus "), but the knights chiefly referred to here are doubtless distinguished permanent members of the order.

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4 The variants used by Tacitus would apply to both of these classes. insignis (Ann. xi. 5) and speaks of primores equitum (Hist. i. 4). praefects of the praetorian guard are described as equites Romani dignitate senatoria (Ann. xvi. 17). Cf. note 3.

praefects, and curators, find analogies in the Republican constitution; others, such as the procurators and secretaries of departments, are borrowed from the organisation of a Roman household and are transferred from the life of the palace to that of the state. We may neglect for the moment the legates and provincial praefects, who will be considered in the section dealing with the organisation of the provinces, and fix our attention on the offices of the central government, which are either peculiar to Rome and Italy or common to them and the provincial world.

(i.) The Praefects.-The four great praefectures, which were concerned originally with the administration of Italy and Rome, were those of the city (urbi), the praetorian guard (praetorio), the corn-supply (annonae), and the watch (vigilum). Of these the first stands entirely out of relation to the others so far as the career and qualification of its holders were concerned; for, while the praefecture of the city was a senatorial post, all the others were, during the greater part of the Principate, equestrian. Of the three latter offices the praefecture of the praetorian guard was the highest in rank, next came that of the corn-supply, and thirdly that of the watch.1

The praefecture of the city was the continuation in name, and to some extent in functions, of one of the oldest offices in Rome; 2 but the historical continuity is rendered somewhat imperfect by the fact that the ancient praefecture, which had originated with the kings and had ceased to be a reality only with the appointment of the first praetor,3 still continued in a shadowy form during the Principate as the praefecture created when the days of the Latin festival drew the magistrates away from Rome. But the new office of the Principate was, in a sense, a continuation of the old one of the monarchy. Both were products of personal rule and were based on the theory of delegation; the later office was suggested by the earlier, and both had much the same sphere of administration. The link between the Republican office and that of the Principate is found in the arrangements of the dictator Caesar and in the earlier procedure of Augustus. The link was broken when, under Tiberius, the praefecture became a permanent and not an occasional office. In 46 B.C. Caesar had left six 1 For the promotions from one praefecture to another, see Mommsen Staatsr. ii. p. 1042 n. 1.

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Tac. Ann. vi. 11 [17] "duratque simulacrum, quotiens ob ferias Latinas praeficitur qui consulare munus usurpet."

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