Caligula: The Horse in the Senate

Caligula: The Horse in the Senate (A horse in the Senate, a bridge of ships and seashells on the shore of the Ocean. Truth or myth? From the beloved Little Boot of the legions to a corridor on the Palatine.) — lesson 7 of the course: 6 parts, about 26 min of reading.

You know the horse Incitatus from the story of an emperor who supposedly made him consul. The truth is more interesting: Suetonius writes of an intention, Dio of a promise. This episode leads from a boy in soldier’s boots, through a golden age, bridges of ships and seashells on the shore of the Ocean, to a corridor on the Palatine where Caligula’s reign ends. The sources are hostile, and the one eyewitness describes no madman.

Films

• Silence for Incitatus — On the eve of the races in Rome: soldiers enforce silence, and the favorite horse of Emperor Caligula has a marble stable, purple blankets and dinners of his own.
• Two days on the bridge of ships — Caligula has a bridge of ships built from Baiae to Puteoli and rides across it for two days: on horseback and in a chariot.
• The Corridor on the Palatine, January 24, AD 41 — January 24, AD 41: Emperor Caligula walks through a covered corridor on the Palatine. The film ends before anything happens.

Articles

• The Horse at Dinner — Caligula: The Horse in the Senate — Not enough for what? For office, it was whispered in Rome.
• Little Boot from the Camp — Caligula: The Horse in the Senate — Let us start with the boots. The boy is named Gaius, but Rome knows him as Caligula, that is, Little Boot.
• Two Faces of One Emperor — Caligula: The Horse in the Senate — In the same year, AD 37, Gaius falls gravely ill. The whole city keeps vigil outside the palace.
• The Bridge of Ships — Caligula: The Horse in the Senate — Tiberius was frugal, so he left behind a full treasury. Gaius empties it faster than anyone could have imagined.
• Jupiter of the Palatine — Caligula: The Horse in the Senate — After returning from the north, the emperor appears less and less as a man. Dio writes that he dresses up as gods: Hercules, Dionysus, Apollo, and also goddesses, Juno, Diana and Venus.
• The Corridor on the Palatine — Caligula: The Horse in the Senate — Warnings pour in. Suetonius lists them: the statue of Jupiter from Olympia, which was to travel to Rome, bursts into laughter so loud that the scaffolding collapses; on the Ides of March lightning strikes the Capitol at Capua; an omen from Antium warns the emperor against Cassius.