Eighteen of the centuries of the first class were called EQUITES, and must have property worth twenty thousand dollars or more.

This name was given to them because at first they served in the army as horsemen, though in later times the cavalry was composed only of allied troops.

The Equites were originally from the aristocracy alone, but, as the plebeians increased in wealth, many of them became rich enough to be included in this class.
There was no hostility between the Senate and the Equites until, in 123, Gaius Gracchus passed the _Lex Judicaria_, which prescribed that the jurors _( judices)_ should be chosen from the Equites, and not the Senate.

From this time dates the struggle between the two classes, and the breach widened every year.

On the one side were the nobles, represented by the Senate; on the other side, the equestrian order.
Since the jurors were chosen from the latter, it had control of the courts, and often made an unscrupulous use of its power, especially in those courts which were established to try governors for extortion in the management of provinces _( quaestiones rerum repetundarum)_.