PERIOD I. 



adding 

 be, who 

 ics, and 

 that be 

 ars and 



le state, 

 v^ere the 

 ;o under 

 e added 

 e richest 

 )t birth, 

 ed many 

 itricians, 

 le patri- 

 admitted 

 }8 of the 

 his pro- 

 and his 



iinder tha 

 bed with 

 n annual 

 ; the year 

 L addition 



who had 

 anks, but 



his class 

 avalry in 

 lave been 



mg their 

 h horses 



n foot in 



le censors 

 ht or the 



onsidered 



Rome, IG. 

 \.ntiquities, 



CHAP, in.] 



ROMA^' CAVALRY. 



49 



him unworthy of his rank, they struck his name from 

 the roll, deprived him of his horse, and in some instances 

 compelled him to serve on foot. This punishment was 

 looked upon as a great disgrace. 



In the year 251 B.C. 400 Roman knights refused 

 to obey the command of the Consul Aurelius Cotta to 

 work upon some fortifications in Sicily.^ He reported 

 them to the Censors, who degraded them all from their 

 rank and deprived them of the right of voting. ^ 



The cavalry were enlisted for ten years, the infantry 

 for sixteen, or twenty if required.^ If the knight who 

 had served ten years still wished to retain the horse 

 furnished by the state and continue his service in the 

 cavalry, he could do so provided he was capable of 

 performing the duty efficiently.* 



The social class from which the cavalrv were drawn in 

 Rome was the highest both in rank and wealth in the 

 community. This seems to have been a custom common 

 to all nations in the early ages except some of the Greek 

 states. The ruling order or class, as we have seen in 

 the references to the Assyrians and Egyptians, fought 

 in chariots, and afterwards on horseback, and it was 

 evidently looked upon as a social distinction to serve 

 in the mounted force. The Roman knights had many 

 exclusive privileges, and soon became a distinct order 

 in the state. The active part the knights took in 

 suppressing the conspiracy of Catiline increased the 

 power and influence of the equestrian order to such 

 an extent, that Pliny says that from that time it 

 became a third body in the state, and to the title of 

 Senatus Populusque Romanus there began to be added 

 Et Equestris Ordo. They were distinguished by wear- 

 ing a gold ring peculiar to their order and its distinctive 

 badge. 



In the neighbouring states the cavalry were also 

 composed of the aristocratic classes, for we read that 

 in the victory gained by L. Papirius over the Samnites 

 in the year 293 B.C., the mass of the routed army fled 



* Frontin, iv. 1, s. 22. ^ Arnold, 437. » Roman Antiquities, 

 U."). * Bardin, 3584. 



