The Roman Equites Under Augustus

Equites, in Roman history, were originally a division of the army. They formed Romancavalry and were enrolled in eighteen groups called centuries. Subsequently the Equitesbecame a political body in the Republic. Augustus employed Equites in military and civilposts, and then the number of such posts multiplied in the course of time, and finally in thethird century Equites replaced senators in the post of the highest responsibility. The foreign scholars have done much discussion on the topic and made great progressabout the origin and the development of the Equites. The domestic scholars commenced thetopic but there were no in-depth discussions about it. I try to present the information of whichI can be reasonably certain and provide an investigation to the origin in Republic and thedevelopment of the Equites under Augustus in order to analyze the reason and influence of thedevelopment. My thesis is divided into six parts. In the instruction I explain the main contents and theorganization of the thesis. And I present the problem which I try to solve and the descriptionof Equites by the ancient authors. In the first chapter, I explain the meaning and explore thechanges of the Equites in different period of Republic. In the second chapter I analyze theEquites under Augustus. In the third chapter, I explain the reason of the development of theEquites under Augustus. In the fourth chapter, I discuss the influence of the equestriandevelopment to the Roman Empire. My conclusion is that the development of the Equites in the Republic makes the Equitesgain much wealth and higher status. Many of the Equites became the agents of thetriumvirates in some provinces. Augustus followed them, turned to the Equites andreorganized them. In order to manage the Empire, Augustus provided many posts to theEquites. Thus the Equites played an important role in establishing an effective system ofRoman government. The Empire was consolidated.