According to legend, the ruler of Rome loved his horse named Incitatus so much that he appointed him to an important government position. We checked how reliable this legend is.

In particular, the authors of textbooks on the history of the Ancient World for students talk about the very unusual decision of Emperor Caligula. One of these manuals was published in 2018 under the general editorship of Tatiana Kudryavtseva and in 2016 by author Vladimir Nikishin. The story about the senator horse is included in the collection "The Five Strangest Quirks of Monarchs", compiled by the magazine “Diletant”, and in 2015 its mentioned Political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky was on the air of Echo of Moscow. They also told their readers about the appointment of Incitatus as a senator "Arguments and Facts" and channel "Ancient World" on Yandex.Zen.

The story that Incitat took up public office originates in the works of ancient authors. Suetonius in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars wrote about Caligula: “He so protected his horse Incitatus from any disturbance that every time on the eve of the race he sent soldiers to impose silence in the neighborhood; he not only made him a stable of marble and a manger of ivory, not only gave him purple bedspreads and pearl necklaces, but even gave him a palace with servants and utensils, where he invited and willingly received guests on his behalf; they say he even intended to make him consul.” In a similar way tells about the relationship between the emperor and his horse Cassius Dio: “Gai (the personal name of the ruler - editor’s note) invited one of his horses, whom he called Incitatus, to dinner, during which he offered him golden barley grains and drank to his health from golden cups. He also swore on the life and fate of this horse, and in addition, even promised to appoint him consul. And he, no doubt, would have done it if he had lived longer."

As can be seen from the reports of Roman historians, it was not a question of a place in the Senate, but of the position of consul, and Incitatus, judging by the evidence that has survived to this day, was never able to occupy this government post. Nevertheless, for hundreds of years many people understood the emperor’s corresponding wish literally. Researcher David Woods emphasizesthat Suetonius and Cassius Dio, apparently, relied in their work on the same source, so their messages cannot be considered absolutely reliable.

Most modern historians converge on the fact that Caligula's desire to make Incitatus consul was either a joke or sarcasm. According to one version, the emperor thus emphasized the incompetence of the current consuls and senators. Other scholars suggest that Caligula wanted to demonstrate the unlimited power of his own. By the way, some of them agree with Cassius Dio and admit that the ruler actually planned to appoint his horse to a high position to achieve these goals.

In his 2014 article, Woods does the assumption that it was as a joke taken out of context that Caligula’s statement ended up in the works of Roman historians. The scientist believes that the emperor, like his compatriots, loved to make fun of names, resorting to wordplay. A potential victim of such a joke could be the consul, and then the emperor Claudius - this name is derived from a word meaning “lame”. It would turn out that the “lame” consul would be replaced by the “swift-footed” one (this is how the nickname Incitata is translated). Woods names Consul Servius Asinius Celer as another possible recipient of the joke: his family name comes from the word asinus, “donkey,” and his cognomen (nickname) comes from the word celer, “quick.” In this case, according to the joke, the “fast donkey” would be replaced by a “swift horse.”