Incitatus Incitatus Incitatus () was the favored horse of Roman emperor Caligula (reigned 37–41 AD). According to legend, Caligula planned to make him a consul. His name is a Latin adjective meaning "swift" or "at full gallop". According to Suetonius, in the "Lives of the Twelve Caesars" (121 AD), Caligula planned to make Incitatus a consul, and that the horse would "invite" dignitaries to dine with him in a house outfitted with servants there to entertain such events. He also wrote that he had a stable of marble, with an ivory manger, purple blankets, and a collar of precious stones. Cassius
Roman emperor misrule led to his murder on 31 December 192, following which a brief period of instability quickly gave way to Septimius Severus, who established the Severan dynasty which, except for an interruption in 217–218 when Macrinus was emperor, held the purple until 235. The accession of Maximinus Thrax marks both the close and the opening of an era. It was one of the last attempts by the increasingly impotent Roman Senate to influence the succession. Yet it was the second time that a man had achieved the purple while owing his advancement purely to his military career; both Vespasian and