Roman Equestrian Order - Early Republic (509-338 BC)

Early Republic (509-338 BC)

It is widely accepted that the Roman monarchy was overthrown by a patrician coup, probably provoked by the Tarquin "dynasty"'s populist policies in favour of the plebeian class. Indeed, Alfoldi suggests that the coup was carried out by the Celeres themselves. According to the Fraccaro interpretation, when the Roman monarchy was replaced by two annually elected praetores (later called Consuls), the royal army was divided equally among them for campaigning purposes, which if true explains why a later Polybian legion's cavalry contingent was 300-strong.

The 12 additional centuriae ascribed by Livy to Servius Tullius were in reality probably formed around 400 BC. In 403 BC, according to Livy, in a crisis during the siege of Veii, the army urgently needed to deploy more cavalry, and "those who possessed equestrian rating but had not yet been assigned public horses" volunteered to pay for their horses out of their own pocket. By way of compensation, pay was introduced for cavalry service, as it had already been for the infantry (in 406 BC).

The persons referred to in this passage were probably members of the 12 new centuriae who were entitled to public horses, but temporarily waived that privilege. Mommsen, however, argues that the passage refers to members of the First Class of commoners being admitted to cavalry service in 403 BC for the first time as an emergency measure. If so, this group may be the original so-called knights equo privato, a rank that is attested throughout the history of the Republic (in contrast to knights equo publico). However, due to lack of evidence, the origins and definition of equo privato knights remain obscure.

It is widely agreed that the 12 new centuriae were open to non-patricians. Thus, from this date if not earlier, not all knights were patricians. The patricians, as a closed hereditary caste, steadily diminished in numbers over the centuries, as families died out. Around 450 BC, there are some 50 patrician gentes (clans) recorded, whereas just 14 remained at the time of Julius Caesar (dictator of Rome 48 -44 BC), whose own Iulii clan was patrician.

In contrast, the ranks of knights, although also hereditary (in the male line), were open to new entrants who met the property requirement and who satisfied the Roman censors that they were suitable for membership. As a consequence, patricians rapidly became only a small minority of the Order of Knights. However, patricians retained political influence greatly out of proportion with their numbers. Until 172 BC, one of the two Consuls elected each year had to be a patrician.

In addition, patricians may have retained their original 6 centuriae, which gave them a third of the total voting-power of the knights, even though they constituted only a tiny minority of the Order by 200 BC. Patricians also enjoyed official precedence, such as the right to speak first in senatorial debates, which were initiated by the princeps senatus ("Leader of the Senate"), a position reserved for patricians. In addition, patricians monopolised certain priesthoods and continued to enjoy enormous prestige.