The Centurion and his horse questions.

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Ah, okay, I read equestrian as equestrian- the social rank- not as horseman. But even so my problem with the statement being relevant stands- it's still not meaning the average Centurio, right?

It's a poem, so it's never going to be straightforward. It's a poem about a man who takes up the post of the emperor's ab epistulis, and lists his duties (in poetical language). One of his duties is to announce "who will restrain the hundred, as an eques sent among the manipli". He's clearly talking about the appointment of centurions (in poetic language, "restraining the hundred" is obviously the task of a centurion). It seems to me that he is contrasting "mounted" (eques) with "foot" (manipli), but he may actually be referring to the centurion as an equestrian. Difficult. (And poetic.)

I don't want to be confrontational, but I'm not so sure about that contrast. This passage is generally seen (at least in the study of junior officers) as describing the appointment of equestrian-ranked men to military positions by the ab epistulis. The full quote appears to suggest that the ab epistulis was (or could be) responsible for overseeing the appointment of equestrians to centurionate positions, and to the posts (in the order given in Statius) of praefectus cohortis, tribunus militum, and praefectus alae, that is, the normal equestrian junior officer posts (quis centum ualeat frenare, maniplos / inter missus eques, quis praecepisse cohorti / quem deceat clari praestantior ordo tribuni / quisnam frenigerae signum dare dignior alae).

This is, I'm pretty sure, the reading adopted by von Domaszewski ((1967) 122ff.), and I think it's followed by, among others, Devijver and Keppie. I don't think that the quote means that all centurions were equestrians, in either sense, but that some equestrian-ranked men were directly appointed to centurionate positions (there's some good stuff on this in Dobson, B. (1972), ‘Legionary Centurion or Equestrian Officer? A comparison of pay and prospects’, in Ancient Society 3 (1972) 193-207). Bear in mind that it possibly refers to relatively senior 'centurtionate' positions, some of which would be held by equestrians (? e.g. primipilus bis), or to centurionates within the Rome cohorts.

blue skies

Tom