of a shield, and except a coat of
mail, all the rest were the same. He appointed the property of the third
class to amount to fifty thousand asses; the number of centuries was the
same, and formed with the same distinction of age, nor was there any
change in their arms, only greaves were taken from them. In the fourth
class, the property was twenty-five thousand asses, the same number of
centuries was formed: the arms were changed, nothing was given them but
a spear and a long javelin. The fifth class was increased, thirty
centuries were formed; these carried slings and stones for throwing.
Among them were reckoned the horn-blowers, and the trumpeters,
distributed into three centuries. This whole class was rated at eleven
thousand asses. Property lower than this comprehended all the rest of
the citizens, and of them one century was made up which was exempted
from serving in war. Having thus divided and armed the infantry, he
levied twelve centuries of knights from among the chief men of the
state. Likewise out of the three centuries, appointed by Romulus, he
formed other six under the same names which they had received at their
first institution. Ten thousand asses were given them out of the public
revenue, for the buying of horses, and widows were assigned them, who
were to pay two thousand asses yearly for the support of the horses. All
these burdens were taken off the poor and laid on the rich. Then an
additional honour was conferred upon them; for the suffrage was not now
granted promiscuously to all, as it had been established by Romulus, and
observed by his successors, to every man with the same privilege and the
same right, but gradations were established, so that no one might seem
excluded from the right of voting, and yet the whole power might reside
in the chief men of the state. For the knights were first called, and
then the eighty centuries of the first class; and if they happened to
differ, which was seldom the case, those of the second were called: and
they seldom ever descended so low as to come to the lowest class. Nor
need we be surprised, that the present regulation, which now exists,
since the tribes were increased to thirty-five, should not agree in the
number of centuries of juniors and seniors with the amount instituted by
Servius Tullius, they being now double of what they were at that time.
For the city being divided into four parts, according to the regions and
hills which were then inhabited, h