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This book depicts all kinds of knights in the Roman world from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD. Starting from the knight aristocrats in the royal era and the cavalry in the early republic, it was not until the end of the 2nd century BC that this class became a group within the Roman state that was different from the senators and civilians. In the Republic, knights had badges of distinction, rituals with religious and political connotations, and privileges such as front-row seats in theaters. Under the imperial system, the knightly caste included governors, financial administrators, and other officials, whom Augustus and his successors involved in running the country alongside the senators. In more than a thousand years of Roman history, knights have always played an important role in the Roman government, army and society as cavalry, officers, merchants, tax collectors, jurors, administrators and writers. This is the first comprehensive historical work on the knightly caste. It is an institutional and social history of the knightly caste in the Roman world. From it, we can see how the Roman cavalry became the knightly caste in the Republican era, how imperial rule changed the role of knights in government, how the knightly caste played a vital social function in the Roman world, and how the changes in the Roman state itself determined this.