Global InformationEquites equo publico information
The equites equo publico ("equestrians with the public horse") was an ordo, or status group, of elite citizens in the Roman Republic, and later the Roman Empire, who were provided money from the state treasury (12,000 asses) to purchase and maintain a horse. During the republic there were only 1,800 of equites equo publico; by the late republic, only men with property worth some 400,000 sesterces were enrolled.[1]
They differed in status from the equites equo suo ("equestrians with their own horse") who in the middle republic served in the cavalry and had a similar wealth qualification but were not enrolled in the prestigious equestrian centuries of the comitia centuriata and did not receive public subsidies. Prior to 129 BC, senators were also equites equo publico; after legislation that came into effect that year, all senators were required to give up their public horses.
- ^ Davenport 2019, pp. 5 (ordo), 36–37.