Note 556 — Chapter IV · THE CENTURIES AND THE CLASSES

Polyb. vi. 39. 15. The statement of Varro, L. L. viii. 71 (“Debet igitur dici ... non equum publicum mille assarium esse, sed mille assariorum”), seems to signify that in practice the cost of a public horse meant a payment to the eques of a thousand asses a year; cf. Gerathewohl, Die Reiter und die Rittercent. 49 ff., whose interpretation is preferable to that of Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 257, n. 5. The fact that the support of one knight was considered equal to that of three legionaries (Livy xxix. 15. 7) is further evidence that the triple pay covered the purchase and keep of the horse. Reference in Livy vii. 41. 8, may be to the sums (aera) for the purchase and keep of the horse; cf. Mommsen, Röm. Staatsr. iii. 257, n. 3.