Chap. 8.] THE EQUESTEIAN ORDER. 83 



the former name being reserved solely for the members of the 

 squadrons^ furnished with war-horses at the public charge. 



Of these judices, too, there were at first but four* decuriea 

 only, and in each of these decuries there was hardly one thou- 

 sand men to be found, the provinces not having been hitherto 

 admitted to the office ; an observance which is still in force at 

 the present day, no one newly admitted to the rights of citizen- 

 ship being allowed to perform the duties of judex as a mem- 

 ber of the decuries. 



(2.) These decuries, too, were themselves distinguished by 

 several denominations — " tribunes* of the treasury," ''selecti,"" 

 and ''judices :" in addition to whom, there were the persons 

 styled the " nine hundred,"' chosen from all the decuries for 

 the purpose of keeping the voting, boxes at the comitia. From 

 the ambitious adoption, however, of some one of these names, 

 great divisions ensued in this order, one person styling himself 

 a member of the nine hundred, another one of the selecti, and 

 a third a tribune of the treasury. 



CHAP. 8. PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE EQTTESTRIAN ORDER. 



At length, however, in the ninth^ year of the reign of the 

 Emperor Tiberius, the equestrian order was united in a single 

 body ; and a decree was passed, establishing to whom belonged 

 the right of wearing the ring, in the consulship of C. Asinius 

 Pollio andC. Antistius Yetus, the year from the foundation of the 

 City, 775. It is a matter for surprise, how almost futile, we 

 may say, was the cause which led to this change. C. Sulpicius 

 Galba,^ desirous in his youth to establish his credit with the 

 Emperor by hunting ^° out grounds for prosecuting^^ the keepers 



3 *' Turmae." Squadrons of thirty " equites" or horsemen; ten of 

 ■which squadrons were attached to each legion. 



* Before the time of Augustus, there were but three decuries. 



5 A law introduced by Aurelius Cotta, n.c. 70, enacted that the Ju- 

 dices sliould be chosen from the three classes — of Senators, Equites, and 

 Tribuni serarii, or Tribunes of the treasury, these last being taken from 

 the body of the people, and being persons possessed of some property. 



6 Members selected by lot. '' " Nongenti." 



8 Tacitus says that this took place the year before, in the consulship of 

 C. Sulpicius, and D. Haterius. See the Annales, B. iii. c. 86. 



* Brother of the Emperor Galba. ^° " Aucupatus." 



'^ Suetonius says that Tiberius instructed the sediles to prohibit stews 

 and eating-houses : from which we may conclude, Hardouin says, that C. 

 Sulpicius Galba was an sedile. 



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