They also acted as paymasters of the equites and of the soldiers on service in each tribe.
By the lex Aurelia (70 B.C.) the list of judices was composed, in addition to senators and equites, of tribuni aerarii.
Whether these were the successors of the above, or a new order closely connected with the equites, or even the same as the latter, is uncertain.
Then, as in the case of the equites, the term was subsequently extended to include all those who possessed the property qualification that would have entitled them to serve as tribuni aerarii.
The statements in ancient authorities as to the changes in the number of the equites during the regal period are very confusing; but it is regarded as certain that Servius Tullius found six centuries in existence, to which he added twelve, making,' eighteen in all, a number which remained unchanged throughout the republican ' period.
