[556] Polyb. vi. 39. 15. The statement of Varro, L. L. viii. 71 (“Debet igitur dici ... non equum publicum mille assarium esse, sed mille assariorum”), seems to signify that in practice the cost of a public horse meant a payment to the eques of a thousand asses a year; cf. Gerathewohl, Die Reiter und die Rittercent. 49 ff., whose interpretation is preferable to that of Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 257, n. 5. The fact that the support of one knight was considered equal to that of three legionaries (Livy xxix. 15. 7) is further evidence that the triple pay covered the purchase and keep of the horse. Reference in Livy vii. 41. 8, may be to the sums (aera) for the purchase and keep of the horse; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 257, n. 3.
[557] Dionysius Hal. vi. 44. 2, assigns the first recruiting of the equites from the plebeians to the year 494, dating the event about a century too early; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 478, n. 1.
[558] Livy v. 7. 5.
[559] All this may be gathered from Livy v. 7. 4-13; cf. Gerathewohl, Die Reiter und die Rittercent. 16 ff.
[560] Polyb. vi. 19. 2; Livy xxvii. 11. 14.
[561] Livy xxvii. 11. 14, 16. This passage does not refer to those who avoided duty equo privato, as Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 478, n. 2, supposes. Those were punished who were qualified to serve equo publico but had avoided military duty altogether. Gerathewohl, ibid. 20 f., believes that Livy has made a mistake in assigning this judgment to the censors of 209, as it would much better suit the conditions of 214.
[562] The credit of establishing this fact beyond a doubt is due to Gerathewohl, Die Reiter und die Rittercent. 14-34.
[563] N. H. xxxiii. 1. 30: “Equitum nomen subsistebat in turmis equorum publicorum;” cf. Fest. ep. 81: “Equitare antiqui dicebant equum publicum merere.”
[564] P. 75.
[565] There were four legions each with 4000 infantry and 300 horse at the opening of the First Punic War; Polyb. i. 16. 2. Four legions fought against Pyrrhus at Asculum, 279; Dion. Hal. xx. 1. This was the normal number for the Samnite wars; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 477.