BOOK XXXIII. VIII. 33-34 



mark of rank ; and in consequence of these distinc- 

 tions within the order the Emperor Gaius Caligula 

 added a fifth panel. and so much conceit has this 

 occasioned that the panels which under his late 

 lamented Majesty Augustus it had not been possible 

 to fill will not hold that order, and there are frequent 

 cases of men who are actually liberated slaves making 

 a leap over to these distinctions, a thing that 

 previouslv never occurred, since the iron ring was the 

 distinguishing mark even of knights and judges. 

 And the thing began to be so common that during 

 the censorship of the Emperor Claudius a member a.d. 48. 

 of the Order of Knighthood named Flavius Proculus 

 laid before him information against 400 persons on 

 this ground, so that an order intended to distinguish 

 the holder from other men of free birth has been 

 shared with slaves. It was the Gracchi" who first 

 instituted the name of Justices or Judges as the 

 distinguishing name of that order of knights — • 

 seditiously currpng favour with the people in order 

 to humihate the senate ; but subsequently the 

 importance of the title of Knight was swamped by 

 the shifting currents of faction, and came down to be 

 attached to the farmers of public revenues, and for 

 some time these revenue officers constituted the 

 third rank in the state. Finally Marcus Cicero, 

 thanks to the Catilinarian affair, during his consulship 63 b.o. 

 put the title of knighthood on a firm footing, boasting 

 that he himself sprang from that order, and M'inning 

 its powerful support by methods of securing popu- 

 larity that were entirely his own. From that time 

 onward the Knighthood definitely became a third 

 element in the state, and the name of the Equestrian 

 Order came to be added to the formula ' The 



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