Incitatus
Incitatus was Emperor Caligula's favorite horse. He lived in Ancient Rome around 40 c.e. His name means "fast-moving."
There is a story that Caligula made his horse a senator, but it is probably not true. According to historian Mary Beard, no ancient historian who was alive at the same time as Caligula ever said Caligula really made Incitatus a senator, and it is likely that he only told a joke about doing it.[1]
Ancient historians do say Caligula gave his horse many gifts. In 121 c.e.,[2] in his book The Twelve Caesars, the historian Suetonius says of Incitatus: "Besides a stall of marble, a manger of ivory, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones, he even gave this horse a house, a troop of slaves and furniture, for the more elegant entertainment of the guests invited in his name; and it is also said that he planned to make him consul."[3][4]
In fiction
In Robert Graves' 1934 book I, Claudius, the fictional Caligula does make the fictional Incitatus a senator and gives him an ivory trough to eat out of.[5] This is one of the ways Graves shows that Caligula has become mentally unstable. After Caligula dies, Claudius treats Incitatus like a normal horse again.[6]
A talking version of Incitatus appears as a villain in Rick Riordan's 2018 young adult novel The Burning Maze.
References
- ↑ Tom Meltzner (June 30, 2013). Caligula with Mary Beard – TV review. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/jul/30/caligula-with-mary-beard-review. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
- ↑ C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the CaesarsTufts University. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ↑ Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars Life of Caligula (1913)Loeb Classical Library. Retrieved June 29, 2020.
- ↑ David Woods. Caligula, Incitatus, and the Consulship (Preview). Classical Quarterly 62 (2) (December 2014). p. 772-777. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
- ↑ Robert Graves. I, Claudius (1934)Random House. p. 408.
- ↑ Robert Graves. Claudius the God (1935)Random House. p. 101.
