In
Ancient Rome, during the
Roman Republic (c. 400 B.C. - 18 B.C.) the equestrian
class was an
middle-upper class that was not part of the
patrician families. Just when this class
arose exactly is
unknown, but it is known that it was
derived from
merchants and well
educated plebians of Rome. This class was achieved by, basically, the
aforementioned people becoming
wealthy,
bribing their way into
political offices they were
ineligible to hold (due to the fact they were not patricians) and
securing large
estates in their name. This was
initially done with the
motive of giving plebians more say in the
Senate, however this soon ended.
As time went by the equestrian class was no longer a class one could work themselves into, but rather a middle-upper class one was born into, much like the patricians. This is due to the fact that the wealth and large estates of the original equestrians was inherited by their children, so that the second generation equestrian had lived their entire (or most) of their life in the middle-upper class, rather than the lower class of the plebians. Thus, a rift was produced and the equestrian class became recognised by the patricians. Since then, the equestrian class has had virtually all the rights of the patrician - the right to serve in the higher offices of the Senate, the right to hold land and the right to command armies. Many of the most influential Romans, such as Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, were born into the equestrian class.