Equestrian (Roman)
An
Equestrian (
Latin eques, plural
equites) was a member of one of the two upper
social classes in the
Roman Republic and early
Roman Empire. This social class is often translated as
Knight or Chevalier. However, this translation is not literal, since
medieval knights relied on their martial skills, the physical power of their
horse and
armour to support their position, while the connection of Roman equestrians to horses had become more symbolic even in the early days of the Republic. The social position of knights and equestrians, however, was extremely similar, equestrians being the nearest Roman equivalent to Medieval
nobility, the Roman
tax farming system shared many similarities with medieval
feudalism without actually being identical due to inherent differences in the social structure and the level of central government.
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Reenactor showing Roman military equestrian |
Before the
Middle Ages, most armies were largely composed of infantry. Horsemen were used as advance scouts, small fast raiding parties, troop escorts, and to break infantry lines. The majority of the fighting was done by infantry. Still, ancient armies needed cavalry, and the horsemen usually belonged to the highest classes, because no one else could afford a horse. Consequently, it was prestigious to own and ride a horse: you could show that you were rich and did not have to perform manual labor (or hand to hand combat).
Ancient Rome was no exception to this rule, although the horsemen received financial compensation to buy a horse (the
equus publicus,
horse bought by the commonwealth). Originally, the Equestrians were indeed a military as well as a political group. It is said that king
Servius Tullius divided the Roman nation into centuries, which were not only units of soldiers on the battlefield but also voting units in the so-called
Centuriate Assembly. The Roman historian
Livy offers a description of a complex system with 18 centuries of cavalry, 170 centuries of infantry, and 2 centuries of engineers. When the centuries came together to vote, the cavalry centuries cast their 18 votes first, followed by the 172 remaining centuries, and one additional vote for those who were too poor to serve in the army but still had a political vote. (Although the fact that the people were divided belongs to the age of kings, it is likely that these specific numbers date back to the fourth century BC.)
In the late
third century BC, Rome started to rely upon its allies as cavalry men, and in the
second century BC, this development continued. As a result, the equestrian centuries lost their military function. The elite of the
Roman Republic still called itself
Eques, but like a knighthood today, it did not mean that one really fought on horseback, but more of a title of
nobility.
At the same time, the Roman elite slowly started to change. Always, the Equestrians had been wealthy and had governed the provinces. Words like
knight and
senator had been synonyms. However, the
Senate increasingly became a body of former magistrates, and although other rich people could still be invited to join the discussions, the families that had produced magistrates tended to intermarry, thereby creating a senatorial elite within the old, equestrian elite.
It is probably to this period, the late third and early second century BC, that a distinction within the eighteen equestrian centuries belongs: six centuries were reserved for the senators and their sons, and they cast the first votes, with the other twelve belonged to the equestrians. This must be a development from an age in which the military aspect of the centuries had become less important, because from a military point of view it makes no sense to concentrate the elite in six units. If they were destroyed, the state would have lost its governing body.
So, in the second century BC, Rome started to have a dual elite. There was a class of senators, which was just as rich as the equestrians; but senators tended to monopolize the government by dominating the
magistrate offices and started to act as if they were an "elite within the elite". Senators had to behave according to a strict code of conduct, and commercial incomes were officially taboo. For the Equestrian, this taboo was less rigid, and the Equestrians often invested money in tax farming companies and marketing. Equestrians were permitted to operate businesses which Senators could not. As a result, tensions arose between the elite of the magistrates and the elite of the bankers. After all, the Equestrians wanted to make as much money as possible from their tax farming companies and were extorting the provinces, whereas the Senators governed the provinces and noticed that overtaxing caused rebellions.
In the late second century BC, the latent tensions within Rome's double elite were used by a
Tribune named
Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. He wanted to reform Roman society, but the elite had always been able to overcome any opposition. Therefore, Gracchus decided to divide the elite first, and proposed to make the knights jurors in extortion trials. They could judge their own conduct in the provinces, much against the wishes of the Senators. From that point on, the Senators and Equestrians existed as independent classes with different rights, obligations, and interests.
Still, in the age of the Roman civil wars, the Senatorial and Equestrian orders often collaborated. Control of the courts and financial management of the provinces were two fields in which they sometimes clashed, yet their interests often coincided. Equestrians and Senators were usually no proponents of social change or revolution. Besides, an Equestrian who obtained a political office (e.g., the
quaestorship) would become a Senator, whereas the son of a Senator who failed to obtain office, still was an Equestrian.
During the reign of the
Emperor Augustus, the two orders were for the first time officially defined. One could become an Equestrian when one had some 400,000
sesterces; a Senator needed a million. Of course one also needed to be registered in one of the six senatorial or twelve equestrian centuries, and the
Censor (usually the Emperor) wrote down the names of worthy people on a list to be added to each century.
The empire needed a bureaucracy, but no freeborn Roman would serve another man. As a result, freedmen became very important during the reigns of
Claudius (
41-
54) and
Nero (
54-
68). This was not an acceptable solution. These freedmen could become very influential and Senators did not appreciate it when a former slave had greater power than they had. From the reign of the Emperor
Vitellius, who ruled in the year
69, on, Equestrian
procurators started to serve as heads of the great ministries of the Roman government. The Equestrians developed into a bureaucratic and practical elite. The Senators still occupied the representative offices and acted as governors in the major provinces, but the Equestrians did the real work within the Empire.
Officially, the Equestrians were the second tier of the elite. In the theaters and amphitheaters, they occupied ranks behind the Senators. This made the Equestrians harmless and, consequently, suitable for important offices of state: a Senator who served as
Praetorian Prefect or
Prefect of Egypt might start to dream of making himself Emperor, so these offices were reserved for Equestrians. In the late
second century, the Emperor
Commodus and his successor
Septimius Severus increasingly relied upon the Equestrian order.
Legions, for example, received Equestrians as commanders, and the newly conquered provinces of
Mesopotamia were governed by Equestrian prefects.
Senatorial authors like
Cassius Dio did not appreciate it, but it was inevitable. Strong tribes threatened the Roman frontiers, and it would have been irresponsible to hand over the command of the armies to senators.
See also:
Roman Senate.
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Roman Social Class and Public Display
