page_title: Equites
section_title: Augustan equestrian order (Principate era)
hierarchical_section_title: Equites / Augustan equestrian order (Principate era)
caption_attribution_description: Pliny the Elder's inscribed phalera. From Castra Vetera (modern Xanten). Now exhibited in the British Museum.
context_page_description: The equites constituted the second of the property-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques.
caption: Bridle ornament inscribed Plinio Praefecto ("Property of the prefect Pliny"), found at Castra Vetera legionary base (Xanten, Germany), believed to have belonged to the classical author Pliny the Elder when he was a praefectus alae (commander of an auxiliary cavalry regiment) in Germania Inferior. Pliny was a hereditary Roman knight of the imperial era who became celebrated for his writings on geography and natural history. He also had a distinguished career as a public servant, in a series of posts reserved for equestrians. He served as a military officer in 44–54, as equestrian governor (procurator Augusti) of two minor provinces in the period 70–77 and then as a secretary of state in Rome to the emperor Vespasian. By 79, he was praefectus classis (admiral commanding) of the main imperial fleet at Misenum in the bay of Naples. In that year, the nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the surrounding towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. From his base across the bay, Pliny led out his fleet in an attempt to rescue thousands of survivors trapped by lava-flows on the shore beneath Vesuvius. But after reaching port at Stabiae, Pliny's ships were prevented from putting to sea again for several hours by a strong in-shore gale. Whilst awaiting a change of wind-direction, Pliny died on a nearby beach from inhaling toxic gases.[45] (Source: British Museum, London)
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