Chap. 9.1 THE EQUESTRIAN OIIDER. 85 



who, for some time, were the men that constituted the third 

 class in the state. At last, however, Marcus Cicero, during 

 his consulship, and at the period of the Catilinarian troubles, 

 re-established the equestrian name, it being his vaunt that he 

 himself had sprung from that order, and he, by certain acts of 

 popularity peculiar to himself, having conciliated its support. 

 Since that period, it is very clear that the equites have formed 

 tin* third body in the state, and the name of the equestrian order 

 has born added to the formula " The Senate and People of 

 Home." Jlence 17 it is, too, that at the present day even, the 

 name of this order is written after that of the people, it being 

 the one that was the last instituted. 



CHAP. 9. HOW OF'iT.N* TIIK >'AMK OP TIIK EQUESTKIAX OEDEE 



HAS JJKEN CIIANGK1). 



Indeed, the name itself of the equites even, has been fre- 

 quently changed, and that too, in the case of those who only 

 owed their name to the fact of tl.eir service on horseback. 

 "Under Itomulus and the other kings, the equites were known 

 as " Celcres," 18 then again as " Flexuntes," 19 and after that 

 as " Trossuli," 20 from the fact of their having taken a certain 

 town of Etruria, situate nine miles on this side of Yolsinii, 

 without any assistance from the infantry ; a name too which 

 survived till after the death of C. Gracchus. 



In reality, they were mostly members of the equestrian order, and the 

 words "equiUs" and "publican!" are often nsed as synonymous. 



17 "This passage seems to he the addition of some ignorant copyist. It 

 is indeed u remarkable fact, that \vc have MO inscription in which we see 

 the Kquitos named after the people as well as the Semite." Laboulaye, 

 JAmai sur /<. fais Crimincilts dts Jfi/tnains : Paris, 18-lv>, ]>. 224. 



Jt> According to Livy, 1J. i. c. 15, the Ccleres were three hundred Roman 

 knights whom Uomulus 'KtaMished as a body-guard. Their name, pro- 

 bably, was derived from the Greek icf,\/c, a ** war-horse," or ** charger," 

 and the body consisted, no doubt, of the patricians in general, or such of 

 them as could keep horses. Another origin assigned to the appellation is 

 " Culer," the name of a chieftain, who was a favourite of Komulus. The 

 adjective "cekr, M " swift," owes its origin, probably, to the title of these 

 horsemen. 



19 A title derived, possibly, as Delafosse suggests, " a flectendis habenis," 

 from *' managing the reins." 



2U Called "Trossum" or "Trossulum," it is supposed. The remains 

 of a town arc still to be seen at Trosso> two milts from Montetiascone in 

 Tuscany. Tho Greek word r/>w^aXXCt * ** cricket," and the Latin a to- 

 rosulus," " imiRcnlsir," Ijave been suggested as the origm of this name. 

 Ajassou suggests the Latin verb *' truso," to " piiah on," as its origin. 



