¹ A. Wallace-Hadrill has remarked to me that Suetonius, himself an equestrian official, despite his numerous notices of administrative measures, has nothing on Augustus' establishment of equestrian posts and little on further developments.

² Stein, 442 (cf. generally 441–8; 460 ff.) and Hirschfeld, 485 (cf. generally 466 ff.), cf. Pflaum, 14; III 1266, etc. Since I often take issue with these authors, I must emphasize that but for their researches this essay could not have been written.

³ Consilium: see J. M. Crook, Consilium Principis (1955), esp. 38 and 41; Syme, 409. Pflaum, I 59 made out that Hadrian first admitted Equites. All statements in HA on the consilium seem to me suspect (JRS LXIV (1974), 14 n. 86)Google Scholar. For new evidence cf. Bowman, A. K., JRS LXVI (1976), 154Google Scholar (with bibliography); Sherwin-White, A. N., JRS LXIII (1973), 87Google Scholar for the Tabula Banasitana. Salaried consiliarii: Crook, chs. V and VI; Kunkel, 296 ff., who may be right that these posts (first attested instance under Marcus, Pflaum, II 1024) gave Equites an advantage in the juristic profession; in the past most eminent jurists were also senators, thenceforth Equites. Yet Hadrian also doubled the salary as quaestor of the senatorial jurist Iulianus (ILS 8973).

⁴ See Brunt, , Equites in the Late Republic (Second Intern. Conference of Economic History (1962), I 117–49Google Scholar = Seager, R., Crisis of the Roman Republic 83 ff.Google Scholar); revised version in German with additional bibliography in H. Schneider, Zur Sozial u. Wirtschaftsgesch. der späten röm. Rep. (1976). Nicolet furnishes full documentation. On the definition of Equites see Wiseman, T. P., Historia 1970, 67 ffGoogle Scholar., cf. Millar, 279 ff.; the subject need not be discussed here. In his New Men in the Roman Senate (1971), 53 ff. Wiseman illustrated connections between Republican Equites and senators. See also the percipient remarks of Syme, 14; 81; 257; 357 f.

⁵ Brunt, , Italian Manpower (1971), chs. XXIV–XXVIGoogle Scholar; at the lower figure 126 tribunes were needed. Senators as tribunes: Cic., Verr. I 30, cf. Suolahti, ch. II.

⁶ St. R. III² 487; Nicolet, 270 ff., cf. his article in Brisson, J. P., Problèmes de la Guerre à Rome (1969), 117 ffGoogle Scholar., esp. 146 f.; for centurions see also Dobson, 4. Suolahti, App. II, lists Republican tribunes and prefects. For praefecti fabrum see most recently Sailer, R. P., JRS LXX (1980), 50Google Scholar, cf. RE VI, 1918 ff. (Kornemann).

⁷ Millar, ch. VI.

⁸ Brunt, III 127 f.; the argument e silentio in A. N. Sherwin-White, PBSR XV (1939), 11 ff. seems to me fallacious.

⁹ Pflaum, 1 29–109, contra Burton, G., JRS LXVII (1977), 162Google Scholar. In III 1261–3 Pflaum seeks to establish the increasing cost; on his showing the extra expense of posts created between Augustus and Philip did not much exceed that of two legions with pay as fixed by Domitian. The final total is probably of the right order of magnitude.

¹⁰ Hirschfeld, 265 ff., cf. Brunt, , JRS LXX (1980), 84 ff.Google Scholar; (Eck, 55 ff. on cura viarum).

¹¹ Hirschfeld, 475 ff.; Stein, 444 ff. (contrast the judicious remarks on 105 f.); Last, CAH XI 426.

¹² Listy filologicke LXXXVIII (1965), 22 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹³ See the lists in Pflaum, II 1019 ff. with addenda, 1104 ff. Note apparently isolated cases under Tiberius, 1018; 1034 (cura riparum).

¹⁴ Boulvert, II 232 f. (cf. also Tac., Ann. IV 6, 4Google Scholar, illustrating how the good emperor kept down the number and power of his household servants). Epictetus, though an ex-slave, reflects the indignation of the aristocratic circles in which he had moved at the patronage exercised over even senators by imperial freedmen and slaves (I 1, 20; 19, 17–21; 26, 11; III 7, 29–31; IV 1, 95 and 148, perhaps 10, 20 f.). Boulvert, 250–6 cites cases (which may have been far more numerous than we know) in which freedmen favourites of the emperors were raised from Claudius onwards to equestrian status (presumably by restitutio natalium, cf. Dig. XL 10 f.), and shows that upper-class writers continued to despise them as libertini (e.g. Tac., Hist, v 9; Pliny, ep. viii 6). This practice, however, perhaps eased the transition of the Palatine secretariats to equestrian dignity.

¹⁵ Pflaum, I 56; III 1262 f.

¹⁶ Boulvert, I 401 ff. For freedmen adiutores and (subordinate) procurators see Weaver, chs. 17; 20. Patronage: ibid. 232 f., cf. generally Sailer, esp. ch. 5. Dio LII 25, 5 lends some support to Boulvert. The freedman official sometimes acts alone, no doubt by delegated authority, sometimes conjointly with the Eques, whence Boulvert constructs a theory that they were quasi-colleagues and even that their acts were valid only if jointly performed, but it is a single procurator who exercises jurisdiction in e.g. CJ VII 45, 5; × 1, 2, and whose signature by an edict of Trajan validates contracts made by imperial slaves (de iure fisci 6), cf. also e.g. OGIS 502; SIG ³ 837. Juristic texts which refer to procurators in the plural may concern all procurators holding a particular kind of post wherever stationed.

¹⁷ Brunt, , Historia X (1961), 206 ff., esp. 222Google Scholar; Pflaum, I 169. Marcus writes to a procurator: ‘succede igitur Mario Pudenti tanta cum spe perpetui favoris mei quantam conscientiam retinueris innocentiae diligentiae experientiae’ (AE 1962, 183, with parallels in Pflaum, Bonner Jahrb. CLXXI (1971), 349 ff., but cf. Sailer, esp. ch. 3). Innocentia and integritas are synonyms of abstinentia.

¹⁸ e.g. ILS 1514; 1554; 1654; 9023; AE 1933, 160; Pliny, NH XXXII 145; Suet., Otho 5, 2Google Scholar, cf. Magie, D. in , Coleman-Norton, Stud, in Roman Eton, and Soc. History (1951), 152–4Google Scholar; Hirschfeld, 167 n. 1 for a slave conductor of mines in Egypt; cf. n. 80. I know of no collection of evidence. In my view Jones, 109 rightly held that the fiscus libertatis et peculiorum received the fees that imperial slaves paid for manumission (cf. Pliny, NH VII 129 for an extreme case) and the peculia which reverted to the emperors at their death; estates of freedmen no doubt went to the procuratores hereditatium. Thus the emperor could ultimately pocket their ill-gotten gains. Vespasian was reputed to have regarded rapacious procurators as sponges (Suet., Vesp. 16, 2).

¹⁹ For this paragraph see Rosa Cimma, Maria, Ricerche suite società di publicani (1981)Google Scholar. I hope to reinforce her case elsewhere, with some modifications. Cities: she adduces evidence for prolonged use of publicans in collecting tribute (115 ff.), which may perhaps relate only to taxes levied from the tenants of public domains. Cf. Brunt, IV 168. Caesar: Appian, BC v 4; Dio XLII 6, 3; Jos., AJ XIV 201.

²⁰ Dio LIII 15, 3 (cf. n. 71); his language is vague and guarded; for procuratorial intrusions in proconsular provinces see Hirschfeld, 69 ff.; perhaps ILS 9464; Dig. I 16, 9 pr. (Ulpian).

²¹ Evidence in Hirschfeld, 77–109, 121–80, supplemented for some revenues by de Laet, chs. XV, XVII; Eck, ch. IV.

²² De Laet, 403 ff. His case is worthless in regard to Asia, AE 1968, 423; A. R. Birleya. ap. A. King and M. Henig, The Roman World in the Third Century, 51 n. 3 casts some doubt on that for Illyricum.

²³ In RIDA II (1949), 215 ff. de Laet referred the texts in Dig. XXXIX 4 to some eastern provinces; in my view most certainly concern Italian portoria. Dig. XXXIX 4, 12 pr.: ‘quantae audaciae, quantae temeritatis sint publicanorum factiones, nemo est qui nesciat’. Such ‘factiones’ seem to me to imply the survival of publican companies, as distinct from individual conductores, which are also prima facie attested in Severan texts, contrary to the received opinion (cf. also Gaius in III 4, 1). Illicit exactions by publicans: Dig. XXXIX 4, 1–3; 4, 1; 6; 9, 5. Late empire: de Laet, 469 ff.

²⁴ Eck, 125 ff., cf. his article in ZPE XVII (1977).

²⁵ Pflaum no. 204 (ILS 1410); Reynolds, J. M., Aphrodisias and Rome (1982), no. 15 (cf. nos. 8; 60)Google Scholar; FIRA I² 100–3 for supervision of conductores of African estates. Cf. Dig. XXXIX 4, 16, 1. Presumably procurators would scrutinize the accounts of publicans; it must have been unusual that they were once referred to the emperor (Fronto 86 N). Subjects also had access to governors when complaining against tax-farmers (SEG I 329, cf. J. H. Oliver, GRBS VI (1965), 142 ff.) or conductores of estates (IGR IV 1651; 598, cf. Broughton, 656 ff.).

²⁶ FIRA I² 103, cf. Sailer, 167 on AE 1922, 19.

²⁷ von Domaszewski, A., Die Rangordnung des röm. Heere 122 ffGoogle Scholar., updated in the second edition (1967) by B. Dobson, XXXIV ff.

²⁸ The militia equestris of Velleius comprised a legionary tribunate followed by a prefecture of horse (11 101, 2; 104, 3; III, 3). Tribunes under Augustus also become prefects of cohorts (Holder, 75, see ILS 5044, not quite clear; 9053; 9196; CIL X 7352): for Republican precedent, cf. Caesar, BG viii 46, 1; BC III 60. From Nero's time the order is pr. coh., tr. mil., pr. alae (Holder, loc. cit.).

²⁹ Some centurions were also of good birth (for a Republican case see Caesar, BC III 53, 1; cf. perhaps Cic., Phil. I 20), who did not serve in the ranks; more perhaps than we know, as primipili seldom record service below the centurionate. See Dobson, 40–59, cf. n. 53.

³⁰ Birley, 137 f. Fabricius: EJ ³ 368, cf. Brunt, ZPE XIII (1974), 161 ff. Diz. Ep., s.v. legio 1574 (Passerini). Legionary legates on Rhine: Alföldy, Ep. St. III (1967), 85–7. Governors: n. 39 with text. (Curiously, Birley, 153 says that equestrian officers were technically civilians: contra Dig. XXIX 1, 20 f.)

³¹ I include all tribunes at Rome, as their commissions were reserved to ex-centurions. Cf. n. 161.

³² Suet., Claud. 23, 1Google Scholar (perhaps a short-lived innovation); Syme, Tacitus, 508. But later some procurators held only one tribunate (Pflaum nos. 52, 56, 134, 160 bis, 201, 204, 207) or one prefecture (82, 141, 318, notably Timesitheus, 317, who was to govern provinciae armatae); conceivably they held a single post abnormally long. Perhaps the semestri tribunatus was honorary (see Sherwin-White on Pliny, ep. IV 4, 2).

³³ Birley, 144 f.; Brunt, III n. 44; Zwicky, 72 ff.; Macmullen, R., Soldier and Civilian in the Later Roman Empire (1963), ch. IIIGoogle Scholar.

³⁴ ILS 1326, cf. Dio LXXIV 5. ‘Maecenas’ protests against the elevation of such men to the senate (LII 25, 7).

³⁵ Brunt, III 134.

³⁶ Harris, W. V., War and Imperialism in Republican Rome (1979), ch. 1Google Scholar.

³⁷ Honoré, esp. ch. 3. Drafting by subordinates (p. 42 n. 135) would explain the stylistic overlap between one tenure and the next; the a libellis would not at once impose his own style (cf. also 63 n. 121a); on Honoré's own view some a libellis did not so strongly or consistently impose their mannerisms (72, 82, 145). Pflaum recognized only 10 a libellis after 100, of whom only 3 are known as jurists (nos. 141, 181, 220); Honore, 144 f. adds Ulpian (but HA Niger 7, 4; Alex. 26, 6 inspire no confidence), Arrius Menander (not attested), and Herennius Modestinus, also not attested as such, but said by the unreliable HA (Max. 27, 5) to have advised Maximin on law, though Honoré places his tenure in 223–6. If we suppose that the a libellis accompanied the emperor on his journeys, it is a difficulty for Honoré that the same stylist was at work from c. 1 January 238 to 12 June 241. Aelius Coeranus (PIR ² A 161), the Egyptian a libellis to Caracalla in Severus' reign, was hardly a legal expert.

³⁸ Brunt, III 126 f., cf. 136 f. for equestrian posts outside Egypt.

³⁸ Britain: 11 from 43 to 86 (two 7-year tenures); Syria: 12 (?) from 32 to 69; Moesia Inferior: 26–9 from 92 to 162 (Syme, Danubian Papers 216–23). Most tenures proposed by Eck, W., Senatoren von Vespasian bis Hadrian (1970), 233 ffGoogle Scholar., are plainly conjectural; there may be many unattested gaps. ‘Maecenas’ recommends tenures of 3–5 years (Dio LII 23, 2).

⁴⁰ Alföldy, 183 ff.

⁴¹ Dessau, I 133 probably reflects a general opinion in asserting continuous employment.

⁴² Syme, , Roman Papers (1979), 763 fGoogle Scholar., cf. 749 on Pliny. Pflaum nos. 64; 81 provide other certain examples of gaps. Cf. Millar, 101.

⁴³ Holder, 72 f. Clearly men who had held local magistracies will have entered the equestrian service when over 30, but the evidence discussed by Birley, 133 ff. is totally inadequate to determine average age on entry.

⁴⁴ Equestrian posts in descending, municipal in ascending order: Pflaum nos. 37, 153, 183 (= ILS 1447, 1381, 1420). The reverse: ILS 5502 (with posts as curator rei p. forming a third set); 1397 ( = Pflaum no. 55); AE 1941, 142. Cf. Sailer, 171 f., and n. 50, for grouping.

⁴⁵ e.g. ILS 2720: ‘…aed., IIvir. quinq., flam. Aug., pontif. (equestrian posts and decoration by Nerva)…plebs urbana’.

⁴⁶ Nos. 1, 11, 25, 55, 59, 71, 79, 87, 147, 178 bis.

⁴⁷ Nos. 3, 5, 7, 24 bis, 37, 83, 101, 118, 144, 152, 153. 183.

⁴⁸ Stein, 441–5.

⁴⁹ cf. D'Arms, John, Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome (1981), chs. 3 and 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar (though many of his conjectures may be discounted).

⁵⁰ Pflaum nos. 52, 150, 151, 174, 193 (M. Aurelius Mindius Matidianus Pollio); add ILS 7193–5 (C. Vibius Salutaris). Mindius' procuratorial posts, provincial distinctions, and activities as publican and curator rei p. are all separately grouped (cf. n. 44), and this may be true in the other cases (except no. 52), which thus do not prove any chronological relation between tax-farming and public service.

⁵¹ Vibius and Pflaum no. 174.

⁵² Pflaum no. 193.

⁵³ Dobson, 99 ff.; 115 ff., cf. his remarks ap. Domaszewski XX–XXII (n. 27); n. 29 above.

⁵⁴ cf. Dio LII 19; LIX 9, 5; Suet., Aug. 46; Vesp. 9, 2. Cf. Stein, ch. III; Reynolds, J. M., JRS LXVI (1976), 187Google Scholar citing further works. ‘Maecenas’ approves the elevation of ex-equestrian officials to the senate (Dio LII 25).

⁵⁵ e.g. Mattingly, H., The Imperial Civil Service of Rome (1910)Google Scholar; Scullard, H. H., From the Gracchi to Nero (1963), 234Google Scholar; Hammond, M., The Antonine Monarchy (1959), 453Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ cf. Burton, G., JRS LXVII (1977), 163 fGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁷ Levick, B., Latomus XLI (1982), 50 ffGoogle Scholar. rightly discounts modern encomia.

⁵⁸ Brunt, III 139–41.

⁵⁹ Patronage: Millar, 279 ff., cf. further Sailer, chs. I and III, and JRS LXX (1980), 44 ffGoogle Scholar. documenting the lack of specialized experience and of rigid rules of promotion; Brunt, III. Sale of offices: Brunt, , Historia x (1961), 209Google Scholar, cf. Dig. XIX 1, 52, 2 (Scaevola).

⁶⁰ Brunt, , JRS LXIV (1974), 10–13Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Epigr. Stud. VIII (1969), 72.

⁶² e.g. Arminius (Veil, II 118, 2), cf. Cheesman, G. L., Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army (1914), 91 fGoogle Scholar. (for Republican precedents, 24, cf. Bell. Afr. 56).

⁶³ Suet., Aug. 38; the only clear examples are CIL x 591 (PIR ² A 1099); ILS 911. In other cases, e.g. ILS 937, a man may like Velleius (n. 28) have been advanced to a senatorial career not at first envisaged.

⁶⁴ Nicolet, 423 ff., cf. Jones, ch. VII.

⁶⁵ Tac., Ann. IV 15; Dio LVII 23, 5, who makes it clear that in his day Lucilius' use of troops would not have been irregular.

⁶⁶ Jones, 123 n. 50; cf. App. 1 21 on the vehiculatio.

⁶⁷ Jos., AJ XVII 221–3; 251 ff.

⁶⁸ Tac., Ann. XIV 31; 32, 3.

⁶⁹ Jos., Ay XVIII 158.

⁷⁰ Mitchell, 107.

⁷¹ They almost certainly comprised the portoria, XX libertatis, vicesima hereditatium, and XXV venalium mancipiorum (Vittinghoff, RE XXII 368 f.).

⁷² Appendix I 14–17.

⁷³ Brunt, I passim; cf. Liv. Class. Monthly 9, 1 (1984), 2ff., contra Lo Cascio, E., Ann. 1st. Studi Stor. III (1971–1972), 55 ffGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁴ Brunt, II passim.

⁷⁵ Dig. IV 6, 32.

⁷⁶ Jones, ch. VII. Under Tiberius Pilate was officially prefect of Judaea (AE 1963, 104); in conformity with Claudian usage Philo, Josephus and Tacitus could designate the early governors of Judaea as procurators. Governors of Sardinia are pro legato in A.D. 13/14 (n. 95), prefects under Tiberius and in 46; thereafter they are often styled both procurator and prefect (Pflaum, II 1044 f.). From Claudius' reign we have procurators as governors in Raetia (ILS 1348), Noricum (1349), Mauretania Tingitana (ILM 56), and thenceforth in all equestrian provinces except Egypt and (after Severus) Mesopotamia. Q. Octavius Sagitta, proc. in Noricum under Augustus, must have had merely fiscal duties, at a time when legions were there under a legate (Appendix 13).

⁷⁷ A procurator of the Graian Alps writes: ‘dum ius guberno remque fungor Caesarum’ (ILS 1328). The combination is most fully documented in Egypt.

⁷⁸ Brunt, 1 89.

⁷⁹ Qu. fr. I 2, 1–3 and 8, cf. Treggiari, S. M., Roman Freedmen during the late Republic (1969)Google Scholar (with some other instances), 154–9; 181. Verres' cohors and apparitores, and their tasks, were probably not unique (RE VIII A 1579 ff.).

⁸⁰ Suet., Caes. 76 says that he put slaves (which in this pejorative context can include freedmen, cf. e.g. Cic., Acad. II 144) in charge of the mint and vectigalia, Appian, BC III 11 that his freedmen and slaves, apparently escorted by soldiers, were bringing back to Italy Asian tribute money in 44, and that Octavian was thus able to seize it (cf. Nic Dam., FHG no. 90 F 130, 55; Dio XLV 3, 2 for the seizure). Riches, Appian III 94.

⁸¹ Dio XLVIII 40, 6 (Demetrius, a freedman of Caesar appointed to Cyprus by Antony arrests Q. Labienus); Plut., Ant. 67 (freedman of Antony dioiketes, i.e. procurator, at Corinth; he was father of another freedman, Hipparchus, influential with Antony, cf. PIR ¹ A 838); Reynolds, J. M., Aphrodisias and Rome (1982), pp. 96–101Google Scholar for Stephanus, perhaps a freedman of Antony with some authority in Asia, like Octavian's freedman agent, Zoilus; note also the lyre-player, Anaxenor, charged by Antony with tax-collection and military command (Strabo XIV I, 41). Plutarch 207 B mentions Eros, clearly a freedman or slave of Octavian, as τὰ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ διέπων, perhaps idiologus (that may have been Hiberus' post). Theodorus (cf. Bowersock, G. L., Aug. and the Greek World (1965), 40)Google Scholar named in the same context as dioiketes of Sicily was presumably of the same stamp. His successor was the philosopher Areus of Alexandria (PIR ² A 1035). The earliest known epistrategos (17 B.C.) was Ptolemaeus son of Heraclides; all others are Romans, but only four of them pre-date Claudius (Pflaum, II pp. 1090–2). Wilcken thought that Augustus' freedman named in Chr. 443 was proc. Neaspoleos, a post equestrian perhaps from A.D. 77 on his view; Pflaum, p. 1089 misses the possible procurator of that year. I agree with Millar, F., JRS LIII (1963), 186Google Scholar that we cannot distinguish the library post held by the freedman Hyginus (Suet., Gramm. 20) from that of M. Pompeius Macer (Pflaum, pp. 11 f.; 957).

⁸² Syme, 71–3; 133; 201; 355 ff. Josephus ascribes procuratorial functions in Syria to Herod (BJ 1 399; AJ xv 360; the matter is obscure, cf. Otto, RE Suppl. VII 74).

⁸³ Thielscher, RE IX A 427 ff. conjecturally identified Mamurra with the architect, Vitruvius. Manius: RE XIV 1147 (Münzer).

⁸⁴ Tac., Ann. VI 11, 2Google Scholar, cf. Dio Li 3, 5; LIV 6, 5; St. R. II³ 729.

⁸⁵ His role is largely unknown (Hanslik, RE XXIII 72 ff.).

⁸⁶ St. R² II 202 f.

⁸⁷ Syme, 329 f.

⁸⁸ Jones, ch. VII; Zwicky, 12 ff. Republic: esp. Cic., Verr. II 3, 75; Fam. v 20, 7; Att. v 21, 6; VI 1, 6; 3, 6; Caesar, BC III 32. Suolahti, who lists instances in Appendix 11, oddly writes of ‘offices of small importance’ (214). Cf. Nicolet, Mél. Carcopino (1966), 691 ff.

⁸⁹ Mel. d'Arch. et d'Hist., École fr. de Rome XLVIII (1931), 1 ffGoogle Scholar. ( = Inscr. Ant. du Maroc, II 307). More evidence in Ensslin, 1290 ff.

⁹⁰ ILS 94; CIL XII 80; NS 1899, 210 ff.

⁹¹ Schürer-Vermes-Millar, , Hist, of Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ I (1973), 368Google Scholar (overlooking ILS 9200); Jones, 58–63. I think it clear that Josephus had in mind jurisdiction over peregrini, not Roman citizens; he is not concerned to differentiate the prefect of Judaea from other equestrian governors, and I do not see why all should not have had the same power.

⁹² Contra Schürer (n. 91), 360 ff. (with full evidence and discussion).

⁹³ It reverted at times to proconsuls (Eck, , Historia xx (1971), 510 ff.Google Scholar).

⁹⁴ See Pflaum's lists, II 1044 f. (praeses in Sardinia first in c. 210); 1046f. (first in Alpine districts c. 202); 1070 (Epirus, c. 230); 1096 f. (Mauretania Caesariensis, 197/8); 1098 f. (Mauretania Tingitana, praeses pro legato under Severus Alexander); procurator still appears by itself or with praeses in subsequent titulatures.

⁹⁵ ILS 105; Pflaum, 11 1096 f., cf. ILS 1348; Pflaum no. 157 bis.

⁹⁶ ILS 233, contrast 8902. A praefectus pro legato in Cyprus between 27 and 22 B.C. (Pflaum, II 7) is given only by conjectural supplementation in CIL x 7351. Sašel, J., Chiron IV (1974), 467 ffGoogle Scholar. tabulates holders of the title: I do not find his theory persuasive.

⁹⁷ ILS 2677 f.; CIL V 7320; X 4749; EJ ³ 233.

⁹⁸ cf. Tac., Ann. XV 28, 3Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ Saxer, , Untersuchungen su den Vexillationen, Epigr. St. I (1967), 120 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ ILS 1368; 9200.

¹⁰¹ Pflaum no. 330, cf. Passio Perpetuae 6; Passio Montani 6.

¹⁰² ILS 1111; Pflaum nos. 165; 196; 316; 320.

¹⁰³ Contra Pflaum, II p. 406 and elsewhere. It will be seen that I also disagree with part of his exposition of the military powers of presidial procurators in I 125 ff.

¹⁰⁴ The first prefect is now known to be Ti. Claudius Subatianus Aquila before his prefecture of Egypt c. 206–11 (Kennedy, D. L., ZPE XXXVI (1979), 255 ff.Google Scholar). Severus' three legions, one stationed in Italy, also had equestrian prefects (Pflaum no. 229; Dio LXXVIII 13, 4 for earliest evidence).

¹⁰⁵ R. Syme, op. cit. (n. 39), 168 f., amended on 175. The procuratorial provinces were brought by Marcus under a consular, as soon as two legions were required to protect ‘the three Dacias’.

¹⁰⁶ So already in Nero's eastern war, and permanently from Vespasian.

¹⁰⁷ From the time of the revolt of 66.

¹⁰⁸ G. Alföldy, Noricum (1974), 152–8. In Raetia we find an equestrian governor still in 166 (ILS 1364), a legate in 179/80 (PIR ² H 70).

¹⁰⁹ Saxer (n. 99), 120 ff.

¹¹⁰ R. Syme conjecturally connects Marcius Turbo's appointment with the internal crisis that followed Hadrian's accession (Roman Papers, 541–3). If this is right, it would imply not that Hadrian trusted Equites more than senators, but that he placed special trust in this individual.

^{111 AE} 1941, 79, cf. ILS 8979; AE 1931, 38 (cf. Thomasson, B., Die Statthalter der röm. Provinzen Nordafrikas II 244Google Scholar; 297 ff.).

¹¹² St. R. II³ 859, cf. Hirschfeld, 371 f.

¹¹³ Brunt, I 90 f.; III n. 1.

¹¹⁴ e.g. Marquardt, Röm. Staatsverwaltung I² (1881), 554, cf. St. R., loc. cit.

¹¹⁵ Jones, A. H. M., Cities of Eastern Roman Provinces² (1971), 18 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹¹⁶ Deininger, J., Die Provinziallandtage der röm. Kaiserzeit (1965), 27 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹¹⁷ The theory of P. Horowitz, Rév. Phil. XIII (1939), 47 ff. and 218 ff., which anyhow explains nothing, that only frontier provinces not garrisoned by legions were equestrian, breaks down over Epirus, Sardinia and Corsica and barely fits Thrace. L. Mitteis, Reichsrecht u. Volksrecht (1891), 8 thought that the less civilized the subjects, the less resistance there was to the reception of Roman law. His book of course documents the persistence of Greek legal institutions into the late empire: Egypt provides most evidence, but the Syro-Roman lawbook (29 ff.) proves that what is true of Egypt also holds for a province governed for centuries by senators.

¹¹⁸ Pflaum, III 1244.

¹¹⁹ Hirschfeld, 445; Stein, 445; Zwicky, 27; Pflaum, I 42; 46.

¹²⁰ e.g. Pflaum nos. 94, 126, 139. The post was then ducenarian, other fleet commands centenarian or sexagenarian.

¹²¹ e.g. ILS 2702 (Ravenna, A.D. 56, cf. Tac., Ann. XV 30Google Scholar); Tac., Hist. II 100Google Scholar: ‘Lucilius Bassus post praefecturam alae Ravennati simul ac Misenensi classibus a Vitellio praepositus’. In ILS 2702 and 2815 (n. 122) the fleet commanded is not specified; hence other ‘praefecti classis’ of this time (Pflaum, II 1041 f.) may also have commanded at Ravenna or Misenum; their careers do not mark them out (as Pflaum thinks) as inferior in rank to Palpellius or Lucilius; see ILS 2676; 2693; 2688 (Forum Iulium?).

¹²² ILS 2815 (‘procuratori et praefecto classis’, sc. at Misenum, cf. 1986); Tac., Ann. XIV 3; 62; Hist. I 87.

¹²³ Ensslin, 1294 f. The title of senatorial admirals is not often recorded.

¹²⁴ Starr, Chester G., The Roman Imperial Navy (1941), ch. VGoogle Scholar; Kienast, D., Untersuch. zu den Kriegsflotten der röm. Kaiserzeit (1966), 9 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹²⁵ The existence of the urban cohorts under Augustus is implied in Suet., Aug. 49, 1, cf. Dio LV 24, 6 (not reliable): they were perhaps first formed when T. Statilius Taurus was made pr. urbi in 16 (Dio LIV 19), and he may have remained in office till succeeded c. A.D. 12 by L. Calpurnius Piso (cf. Tac., Ann. VI 11; PIR ² C 289 at pp. 64 f.). See RE Suppl. X 1126 ff. (Freis).

¹²⁶ Lists in Passerini, 266 ff. and Ensslin, 2423 f.

¹²⁷ Passerini, 221 f. Seius Strabo, Macro and Lusius Geta were all promoted to Egypt; Ti. Iulius Alexander was the first ex-prefect of Egypt to be promoted to be pr. pr. (Turner, E. G., JRS XLIV (1954), 54 f.Google Scholar, perhaps nominally). Functions of prefects: Passerini, 225–65; Millar, 122 ff.; cf. for jurisdiction Brunt, II 462 n. 1; Behrends, O., Die röm. Geschworenenverfassung (1970), 211–24Google Scholar; H. Galsterer, GGA 1973, 37 n. 1; Juvenal XVI.

¹²⁸ Passerini, 214 ff. offers other speculations.

¹²⁹ Dio LV 26, 4, cf. for Augustus' earlier expedients LIII 24, 6; LIV 2, 4; LV 8, 6 f. Jurisdiction: Dig. I 15, cf. A. A. Schiller, RIDA III (1949), 318 ff.

¹³⁰ G. E. F. Chilver, AJP LXX (1949), 7 ff.

¹³¹ See e.g. Ensslin, 1265 f.; Pavis d'Escurac, H., Préfecture de l'Annone (1976), 270 ffGoogle Scholar. It is not necessarily implied in Sen., de brev. vitae 18 f.

¹³² Tac., Ann. II 59, 1, Hist. I 11; Dio LI 17, cf. Arrian, Anab. III 5, 7. Suet., Caesar 35, 1Google Scholar suggests that Caesar granted Egypt to Cleopatra, ‘ne quandoque violentiorem praesidem nacta novarum rerum materia esset’, probably another conjectural ascription of motive. In fact Caesar left three legions there, which he too placed under command of a nonsenator (Rufio, or Rufinus, the son of one of his freedmen, perhaps an Eques), if we believe Suet. 76, 3; however, in 43 the legions in Egypt were under A. Allienus (pr. 49), cf. MRR II 352. Hirschfeld, 346 suggested that the Egyptian legions, composed of Orientals, were not ‘ebenbürtig’ with the rest, but Mommsen whom he cites (GS VI 40) was writing of all legions in the east, and denied any formal distinction; moreover, the legions stationed in Egypt in 30 must have been recruited in the west; and we cannot explain Gallus' appointment in this way.

¹³³ Stein, A., Untersuch. zur Gesch. u. Venwaltung Ägyptens (1915), 39 ff.; 80 ffGoogle Scholar.; of course the monarchical role of the Princeps, as seen by the Egyptians, must have been patent to senators in Octavian's entourage in 30, and was not concealed from e.g. Tacitus.

¹³⁴ Ulpian, Dig. I 17, 1, on which see Jones, 121 f.; de Martino, IV² 764 f.

¹³⁵ Cic., de imp. Cn. Pomp. 34. See G. Rickman, Corn Supply of Ancient Rome, ch. V and Appendix 4, discussing inter alia Jos., BJ II 383–6. Appian, BC V 67 refers vaguely to Italy being cut off in 40 from eastern supplies, more specifically to Sicily, Sardinia and Africa.

¹³⁶ H. I. Bell, CAH X 289 f.

¹³⁷ Tac., Hist. II 82, 3; III 8, 2; 48, 3.

¹³⁸ Severus enrolled the first Egyptian senator, Dio LXXVI 5, 5.

¹³⁹ Tacitus sometimes applies the epithet to men or women of senatorial family (Ann. I 11, 1; 72, 3; III 75, 1; VI 4, 4; 9. 3; XIV 11, 1; XVI 34, 1; Hist. III 70, 1), sometimes to both senators and Equites (Ann. XI 36, 2 with 33, 3; XVI 16, 2 with 17), but also to individual Equites, friends of the emperor or of members of his house (Ann. IV 58, 1; 68, 1; XI 35, 3), the father of a praetor (VI 18) and those who had risen high in imperial service (XV 28, 3; XVI 17, ‘senatoria dignitate’, cf. 16, 2), cf. Agr. 4, 1: ‘avum procuratorem Caesarum habuit, quae equestris nobilitas est’. I cannot classify the illustrious Equites in Ann. XI 4, 1; 5, 2. There is an express or implied contrast with ‘tenuiores’ or ‘modici’ in I 7, 3; XVI 5, 3, cf. Cic., Verr. II 3, 60: ‘equitibus R. non obscuris neque ignotis, sed honestis et illustribus’ (for parallels cf. Kübler, RE VI 307 f.); why should Tacitus any more than Cicero have in mind a category legally defined, e.g. by census (so Koestermann on Ann. II 59)? ‘Primores equitum’ in Hist. I 4, 3, cf. IV 53, 1 presumably has the same connotation.

¹⁴⁰ The mechanism of the prohibition is not clear as regards ‘equites inlustres’, especially if they were not a legally defined category. (Senators needed exit permits to leave Italy, cf. Ann. XII 23, 1). The Gnomon Idiologi 64–9 (with the commentary of W. Graf Uxkull-Gyllenband) shows that passports were required to leave Egypt by sea, cf. perhaps OGIS 674; and it would perhaps have been practicable to require entry permits (access by land too could have been policed), and withhold them from Equites who had been in imperial service or from others by name.

¹⁴¹ Wilcken, Chr. 3 (cf. perhaps Diod. I 83, 8); EJ ³ 320(a) = SB Berl., 1911, 791.

¹⁴² Dio LI 9; Oros. VI 19, 15, cf. Plut., Ant. 74. Gallus won over Antony's four legions in Cyrenaica, but obviously he had an army of his own to make his possible.

¹⁴³ Initially there were three legions in Egypt (Strabo XVII 1, 12), under Tiberius only two (Tac., Ann. IV 5), viz. III Cyrenaica and XXII Deiotariana, the latter first constituted in 25 B.C.; the identity of the original three is unknown, but it would have been unsafe to leave in Egypt ex-Antonian legions.

¹⁴⁴ Gallus boasted that he was ‘praefectus … primus' (ILS 8995), and may then have foreseen that later governors would be prefects.

¹⁴⁵ Brunt, III 124 ff.

¹⁴⁶ Pflaum, I 6. Dessau, 194 supposed that procurators sent in more frequent reports than legates: no evidence.

¹⁴⁷ Tac., Agr. 9, 4; 15, 2; Ann. XIV 38, 3. Proconsuls were advised by Ulpian to leave fiscal jurisdiction to procurators (Dig. I 16, 9).

¹⁴⁸ Stein, A., Die Präfekten von Ägypten der röm. Zeit (1950), 26 fGoogle Scholar.; 44 f.; 117 ff.; 143 ff.

¹⁴⁹ Passerini, 266 ff. gives evidence.

¹⁵⁰ Suet., Gaius 26, 4 f.Google Scholar; 27, 4; 30, 2; 41, 2; Jos., AJ XIX 3; Dio LIX 10, 2 and 4. Suet. 16, 2 (cf. Dio LIX 9, 5) relates to the honeymoon period of the reign.

¹⁵¹ Dio LX 18, 4; Tac., Ann. XI 22; Suet., Claud. 13; Otho 1. Executions: Seneca, Apoc. 14; Suet., Claud. 29, cf. Tac., Ann. XIII 43.

¹⁵² cf. the legionaries' attitude to Narcissus (Dio LX 19, 3). Tacitus reports military adulation of Vitellius' freedman, Asiaticus, and ascribes some military authority to Vespasian's, Hormus (Hist. II 57; III 12; 28). Stein, 110 ff., lists other freedmen (as well as sons of freedmen) who attained equestrian dignity, perhaps with restitutio natalium by imperial favour (n. 14). Of these Felix as governor of Judaea undoubtedly commanded troops, but Oriental auxilia, and Cleander, Commodus' a pugione (AE 1961, 280), who was surely not also styled pr. pr. (so HA Comm. 6, 13), did command the praetorians, and secured the obedience of some of the troops at Rome (it is not clear which from Dio LXXII 13; Hdn. I 12 f.). Under Caracalla and Elagabalus, Theocritus (Dio LXXVII 21) and Gannys (not Comazon, cf. Boissevain, ed. of Dio III p. 438), though former slaves, held military commands. These instances, few and chiefly late, do not subvert the opinion expressed in the text. (I do not think that Juvenal IV 13 ff. implies that the Egyptian Crispinus, perhaps pr. pr. of Domitian, was ever a slave, or that Juvenal's malevolent rhetoric could in any event be relied on; Egyptians, as such, were natural slaves!)

¹⁵³ Stein, ch. IV passim. Promotions, e.g. Pflaum nos. 42, 56, 84, 106 bis, 136, 141, 156, 178, 179, 181 bis, 188, 203, 242, 247, 258, 287, 290, 347, 355. The most remarkable case is the future emperor, Pertinax, an ex-centurion and allegedly son of a freedman.

¹⁵⁴ Brunt, , JRS LXVII (1977), 95 ffGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵⁵ L'Opposition sous les Césars, 1875.

¹⁵⁶ Lucan VII 444 f.: ‘ex populis qui regna ferunt sors ultima nostra est, quos servire pudet’, cf. Gibbon, ed. Bury, I 80. Traditional education, common to senators and Equites (cf. Hor., Sat. I 6, 77), imbued Romans with an ideal of freedom, which the better emperors like Marcus (Med. I 14) wished to respect: though emptied of political content in the Principate, it still embraced freedom of speech and personal freedom under the law, which tyrants violated. See Ch. Wirszubski, Libertas as a Political Idea (1950), ch. 5, esp. 167 ff.

¹⁵⁷ For what follows see bibliography and review of evidence and modern theories in L. de Blois, Policy of the Emperor Gallienus (1976), ch. II, cf. Thylander, H., Opuscula Romana (1973), 67 ffGoogle Scholar.; Pflaum, , Historia XXV (1976), 109 ffGoogle Scholar. See Fasti of provincial governors in PLRE I 1072 ff. and of military commanders A.D. 260–84, ibid. 1116 (all non-senators when proof of status exists).

¹⁵⁸ Pflaum nos. 254, 257, 297, 317, 324, 328, 329(?), 330, 331 bis; ILS 593. The Domitianic precedent (ILS 1374) is as isolated as another case in Asia in 276 (AE 1924, 70). Pflaum 150 bis must be eliminated, cf. AE 1968, 406.

¹⁵⁹ The record for Arabia is uniquely copious and gives one senator and many Equites.

¹⁶⁰ Pflaum nos. 179 (cf. AE 1963, 52), 181 bis, 188, cf. 203 (under Severus).

¹⁶¹ e.g. Traianus Mucianus (IG Bulg. III 1570, cf. Dobson, 139 ff.).

¹⁶² Instances still occur (Pflaum nos. 347, 355).

¹⁶³ Syme, R., Emperors and Biography (1971), 194–220Google Scholar.