Settlement of Militiae Equestres in the Period of the Principate

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of formalizing the military career of Roman equites during the period of the Principate. On the basis of written sources, including epigraphic ones, changes in the nature of the military service of the equites, stages in the development of the imperial policy regarding militiae equestres, specific innovations in the system of the military career of representatives of the equestrian ordo, which took place mainly in the 1st-2nd centuries BC, are traced. The conditionality of the process of stage-by-stage formation of an equestrian military career is argued by the tasks of strengthening the imperial power, which had a tendency to bureaucratization already at the stage of the Principate. The article analyzes the content-contradictory measures of the imperial power to involve equites in state affairs, in particular, in the performance of command duties and, as a continuation of the latter, in the administration of administrative functions. It is concluded that the trend consisted in the gradual formalization of the military stage of the Equite career, which was associated with the task of providing the state with trained managerial personnel.