ABSTRACT
Accounts of the fate of equestrians in the 4th century Roman Empire start from an implicit assumption. According to this assumption, the equestrian order sank in political importance and effectively disappeared altogether over the course of the century. The Constantinian restructuring of the imperial aristocracy has been treated as a defining moment in the disappearance of the ordo equester.2 A blending of senatorial and equestrian offices, and a redefinition of former equestrian offices as senatorial have often been seen as a turning point, when the equestrian aristocracy was essentially absorbed into the senatorial order. Following André Chastagnol, some scholars have assumed that the ordo equester disappeared after 326, or else it was so radically transformed that it was difficult to recognize.3 At the same time, the Constantinian reforms caused the equestrian order to expand enormously due to an influx of new equites from the metropolitan curiae and provincial offices so as to result in a devaluation of the equestrian rank.
