Relationship with the Equites

Question 1

What is the role of procurators in relation to the equites?

Answer 1

Procurators are equites, elevated in importance to sideline the Senate

Augustus had forbidden senators and high-ranking equestrians from entering Egypt without his permission.

Question 2

Who criticized Tigellinus and what was the criticism?

Answer 2

Tacitus criticized Tigellinus for corrupting Nero and introducing him to depravity

Tigellinus abandoned Nero when his fall was inevitable.

Question 3

What does the quote from Tacitus about Livilla suggest about her ambitions?

Answer 3

“You are mistaken, Sejanus, if you think that Livilla … would be content to grow old as the wife of a knight”

Question 4

What were some forms of mistreatment faced by equites?

Answer 4

Proscription and executions

Augustus mistreated equites through exile and seizing their possessions.

Question 5

How many senators and Roman equites were executed during Claudius’ reign according to Suetonius?

Answer 5

Thirty-five senators and 300 Roman equites

This reflects the severity of political purges during that time.

Question 6

What did Augustus do when the equestrian order was becoming depleted?

Answer 6

He allowed wealthy men from all over the Empire to join, even from outside Italy

This was a strategy to replenish the ranks of the equestrian order.

Question 7

Fill in the blank: Augustus kept an eye on equites and told one off for wasting his inheritance, to which he wittily said, ‘I thought it was ______.’

Answer 7

mine

Question 8

What was the Pisonian Conspiracy? [Tacitus]

Answer 8

A conspiracy involving “Senators and knights, officers, even women,”

This indicates the political unrest and ambitions among the elite.

Question 9

What was a consequence for equites who displeased Augustus?

Answer 9

They faced exile or execution

This reflects the authoritarian nature of Augustus’s rule.