Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 2 - Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire

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The Equestrian Career

under the Empire

*

Prosopographicalmethods,whichhaverevolutionizedthestudyofrepubli-
can politics, have produced for the imperial age results less spectacular in
themselvesbutnolessfundamentalforourunderstandingofthehistorical
processesinvolved.ThehistoryoftheRomangoverningclassinthisperiod
becomesonenotofviolentchangebutofslowdevelopmentandevolution,
and the immense and ever increasing mass of documentary evidence en-
ablesustoobservetheseprocessesinthepersonsandcareersofhundredsof
men quite unknown to the literary sources.This is true above all of sena-
tors,forthesenatorialcursus,developedintheRepublic,furtherregularized
andexpandedintheEmpire,affordsaframeworkwithinwhichcareerscan
bepreciselyanalysedandcompared.Wecantellwhetheraman’searlyposts
showedpromiseoffutureadvancement,orwhetherherosefastorslowlyor
receivedsomecheckinmidcareer,andmaybeabletorelateadistortionof
thenormalpatterninthecourseofhisadvancementtohistoricaleventsof
hislife-time.Inotherwords,fromthebarerecordofpostshelditisoften
possibletoform,withincertainlimits,atrueandmeaningfulconceptionof
aman’spubliclife.
Somehundredsofinscriptionsreveal,inverysimilarways,thecareersof
peoplewhobelongedtotheequestrianorder(equites)inthefirstthreecen-
turies of the Empire. But,while an enormous amount can be learnt from
them, the careers they reveal do not display an obvious structure—com-
parablewith the essential core of senatorial posts and magistracies held in
Rome, the vigintivirate, quaestorship, tribunate, praetorship, and consul-

*First published as a review of H.-G. Pflaum,Les carrières procuratoriennes équestres sous le
Haut-Empire romainI–III(Paris,1960–61)inJRS53(1963):194–200.Somedetailedpoints
ofdiscussionareomittedhere.

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