48 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period I. 



more use of it, for he doubled its numbers by adding 

 100 men to the century of celeres of each tribe, who 

 were known by the name of Ramnes, Titienses, and 

 Litceres posteriores} The early records say that he 

 made much use of these horsemen in his wars and 

 derived great advantage from them.^ 



Servius Tullius reorganised the army and the state. 

 The three double centuries became six ; they were the 

 six patrician centuries of equites often referred to under 

 the name of the sex suffragii.^ To them were added 

 twelve new centuries of knights formed from the richest 

 members of the community, property, and not birth, 

 being the qualification.^ These no doubt contained many 

 plebeians, but must also have contained some patricians, 

 for it is not probable that the whole body of the patri- 

 cians were in the six old centuries. No one was admitted 

 into the centuries of equites in the early times of the 

 Republic unless his character was unblemished, his pro- 

 perty qualification sufficient, and his father and his 

 grandfather had both been born freemen. 



The eighteen centuries of knights, established under the 

 constitution of Servius Tullius, were all furnished with 

 horses at the expense of the state, and with an annual 

 payment for their support. Afterwards, about the year 

 403 B.C., another class of equites came into use in addition 

 to the old force, and consisted of those citizens who had 

 a sufficient fortune to serve in the equestrian ranks, but 

 had no horses allotted to them by the state.^ This class 

 furnished their own horses, and served in the cavalry in 

 preference to the infantry, but do not seem to have been 

 considered as holding the full rank of equites. 



The censors made a public inspection during their 

 censorship of the equites who were intrusted with horses 

 by the state. They marched past the censors on foot in 

 single file, each knight leading his horse. ^ If the censors 

 were dissatisfied with the character of the knight or the 

 condition of his horse or his equipment, and considered 



^ Roman Antiquities, 137. ^ Arnold, History of Rome, IG. 



' Roman Antiquities, 137. * Livy, i. 43. '' Roman Antiquities, 

 138. 6 Ibid. 73, 138. 



\m 



