=132. Qualifications and Honors of the Equites.=--To be enrolled as an eques one must possess besides unstained birth (with exceptions above noted), a good public reputation, and taxable property worth at least 400,000 sesterces ($16,000); sufficient therefore to pass for a tolerably rich man. The honor comes for life, subject to demotion, however, for disgraceful conduct, or lapse into poverty. A son normally inherits his father’s status, if his own share of the patrimony comes to over 400,000 sesterces; and of course, to make up that magic figure many plebeians pinch and slave. The honors of an eques are great in any age laying such stress on outward praise and glory. Besides the right to the plain gold ring, the narrow purple stripe running down the front of the tunic proudly proclaims the fact, “I am of the nobility.” The equites also enjoy fourteen rows of seats in the public games and theater directly behind the four front ones reserved for the senators. They provide a large fraction of all the jurors in the great civil tribunals which handle most of the litigation.[74] Very many of the great imperial ministries and superintendencies are reserved for them, for the Emperor does not like to trust the senators too implicitly, and some of the smaller provinces have equestrian “Procurators” as their governors, as also does the enormously wealthy province of Egypt. The majority of the equites, however, are in private life. Senators ought not (except through convenient middlemen) to engage in commerce and trade. Not so the equites--the powerful bankers with whom the imperial treasurer may confer; the owners of the peaceful armadas that enter Puteoli or Ostia; the proprietors of the finer retail establishments along the Sæpta Julia as well as of the huge wholesale houses; the directors of the vast brickyards, and other highly developed industries; the owners of so many of the squalid but profitable insulæ--nearly all will show their “Angusticlave”--their narrow purple stripe. Equites appear at banquets with senators without the least awkwardness; and they like to be addressed by fine booming titles: _insignes_, _primores_, _illustres_, or, if holding high office, _eminentissimi_, but in most cases as _splendidi_; and “splendid” they appear to the envious slaves and plebeians. =133. Review of the Equites. Pretenders to the Rank.=--The equites are still in theory a military body. Every 15th of July, unless the review is deliberately omitted, all members who are physically able are supposed to procure horses and take part in a grand parade before the Emperor. Sometimes there are at least 5000 equites in the procession. The Emperor still has the right of the ancient censors to brand a man as a bad citizen by the public command, “Sell your horse!” as he rides by the reviewing stand;[75] but the parade has now become merely an unpleasant formality for portly men unaccustomed to horseback, and old gentlemen are usually excused.