"This book is an institutional and social history of the equestrian order (ordo equester) in the Roman world. It charts the history of the equestrians (equites) in their various guises from the eighth century BC to the fifth century AD. We begin with the mounted aristocracy of the Regal period and the cavalry of the early Republic, as the Romans regarded as these warriors as the ancestors of the later equestrian order. The order itself only emerged as a constituent status group within the Roman state (res publica), distinct from both the senate and the plebs, in the late second century BC. Membership of the equestrian order in the Republican period included tax-collectors, businessmen, jurors, and military officers. The equites Romani were distinguished by their own status symbols, such as gold rings and the tunic with a narrow stripe, ceremonies with religious and political meaning, and privileges such as front-row seats of the theatre. In the age of the emperors, the ranks of the equites included governors, financial administrators and other officials, as Augustus and his successors gave them an important role in the management of the res publica alongside senators"--.