Note 1060 — Chapter IV · THE MAGISTRACY (continued 2)

The change is put by tradition at the time of the siege of Veii (403 B.C., Liv. v. 7 “quibus census equester erat, equi publici non erant adsignati ... senatum adeunt factaque dicendi potestate equis se suis stipendia facturos promittunt”). Livy here assumes a census as existing for the equites equo publico, but it is questionable whether it was not transferred from these new equites (equo privato as they are called by modern historians) to the old equestrian centuries.