Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie listener Discretion advised. It was
Speaker 1: a celebratory night in Rome in thirty nine AD. Dignitaries
Speaker 1: were arriving at the new glitzy Palace. The wine was
Speaker 1: flowing freely, and the Knight's guest of honor was getting
Speaker 1: his final touch ups. He was dressed in exquisite royal purple,
Speaker 1: a jewel studded collar glistening around his long regal neck.
Speaker 1: Though this famed individual was not fluent in the tongues
Speaker 1: spoken by his team of servants, he was a keen
Speaker 1: observer of body language, and from their meticulous combing of
Speaker 1: his magnificent mane of hair, he could sense that something
Speaker 1: was special that night. As the particularly raucous din of
Speaker 1: the commencing bank echoed through the marble halls, the Guest
Speaker 1: of honor couldn't hold it in any longer. He let
Speaker 1: out a curious winnie. Because the VIP of this party
Speaker 1: in Katatus was not a normal ruler or aristocrat.
Speaker 2: He was a horse. Many horses would spook when walking
Speaker 2: into such an uproarious dinner party such as this one,
Speaker 2: but not in Katatus. After all, this was his house.
Speaker 2: The event was taking place at the grand palatial stables,
Speaker 2: which had been built in his honor, and he had
Speaker 2: hosted numerous events where members of the emperor's inner circle
Speaker 2: gorged themselves and toasted him with golden goblets. Even the
Speaker 2: sense of many guests, especially the renowned chariot drivers, were
Speaker 2: thoroughly familiar to in Katatus, due to all of his
Speaker 2: times spent competing at the track. The champion horse took
Speaker 2: his customary place, and even the meal served to him
Speaker 2: in his carved ivory manger was of no surprise, barley
Speaker 2: mixed with gold again, as in Katatus began to happily
Speaker 2: munch away. There was a stir of excitement. The architect
Speaker 2: of that night's event had arrived, an individual who happened
Speaker 2: to be the most powerful man in the realm, a
Speaker 2: monarch whose notorious reign would captivate historians for millennia to come,
Speaker 2: and who would be consistently referenced, at times misguidedly, as
Speaker 2: a classic example of imperial madness. This man was Calligula,
Speaker 2: Emperor of Rome. In Katatus looked up and snorted amicably,
Speaker 2: because to him, this pale slightly balding young human dressed
Speaker 2: in silk and finery was simply his biggest fan. Caligula
Speaker 2: raised his goblet and, with a devious glint in his eye,
Speaker 2: made a surprise announcement. He planned to name in Katatus
Speaker 2: to the highest office any Roman politician could hold, that
Speaker 2: of Consul. In Katatus understood none of the proclamation itself,
Speaker 2: because again, he was a horse. But judging by the
Speaker 2: spirited applause and mirthful hysterics of all of his bipedal
Speaker 2: dining companions, whatever his main human had just done must
Speaker 2: have been pretty startling. I'm Danish forts and this is
Speaker 2: noble blood. When examining the life of in Katatus, Caligula's
Speaker 2: favorite horse, it's hard to find impartial, unexaggerated accounts, especially
Speaker 2: since all of the early records we rely upon come
Speaker 2: from humans. These historians and biographers certainly had the benefit
Speaker 2: of written language and opposable thumbs, but as many scholars
Speaker 2: have argued, they often showed ample bias in covering controversial
Speaker 2: figures like Caligula, and he was a member of their
Speaker 2: own species, so, lacking any unbiased horse historians to provide
Speaker 2: first hoof insights into the equine experience during the Roman Empire.
Speaker 2: It's worth putting on blinders to some of the more
Speaker 2: sensationalist versions of these events, as well as acknowledging our
Speaker 2: very human tendency to want to anthropomorphize animal subjects. So
Speaker 2: I apologize in advance for that and for all of
Speaker 2: the horse puns to come. All of that said, in
Speaker 2: Katatus was surely the most lovable young steed who just
Speaker 2: wanted to be a good horse and run really fast.
Speaker 2: We don't have many clear records about his early life
Speaker 2: or pedigree, but based on what we know of the
Speaker 2: massive popularity and overall industry of horse racing during this era,
Speaker 2: we can place a few confident bets in Katatus was
Speaker 2: born sometime in the early first century AD and likely
Speaker 2: either spent his coulthood years on a stud farm run
Speaker 2: by one of the corporations that backed the four main
Speaker 2: chariot racing factions or teams, the Greens, White, Reds, and Blues,
Speaker 2: or he was bought at a horse sale by one
Speaker 2: of the faction's agents who was seeking out fast stallions.
Speaker 2: Then it was literally off to the races, as in
Speaker 2: Katatus would have traveled by ship to train at a
Speaker 2: racing facility as a hippodrome or circus. There are different
Speaker 2: accounts of how in Katatus got his name, which essentially
Speaker 2: translates to speedy, but one thing is clear, he lived
Speaker 2: up to it. In Katatus revved his mighty horsepower so
Speaker 2: triumphantly for the Greens that he won the love of
Speaker 2: the faction's most influential supporter and all around horse guy, Caligula.
Speaker 2: Caligula was actually a nickname that Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus
Speaker 2: received as a child. That meant little boot. Those around
Speaker 2: him refrained from publicly referring to him by the playful,
Speaker 2: belittling nickname while he was emperor, feeling harsh punishment. But
Speaker 2: since Caligula is how he's most commonly remembered by the
Speaker 2: world today, I'll continue to refer to him as such,
Speaker 2: just for clarity. Growing up, Caligula suffered from several ales,
Speaker 2: seemingly including what we might now identify as epilepsy, and
Speaker 2: he was by many accounts unathletic. But despite that, or
Speaker 2: perhaps because of it, horse racing and spectating played an
Speaker 2: outsize role in his short but dramatic rule. In thirty
Speaker 2: seven AD, Caligula became emperor at age twenty five, and
Speaker 2: he quickly increased the number of looty or public games
Speaker 2: based around religious festivals that featured spectacles like beast hunts,
Speaker 2: gladiatorial contests, and Caligula's favorite chariot races. Chariot racing was
Speaker 2: a must see sport of the era, with successful drivers
Speaker 2: and horses ascending to super stardom. Unlike previous emperors who
Speaker 2: mostly used such games to boost their public image, Caligula's
Speaker 2: fandom was so fierce that it veered into unbridled obsession.
Speaker 2: Caligula's favorite races showcased the quadraga over four horse chariot,
Speaker 2: where the left inside horse was the most esteemed since
Speaker 2: it had to navigate the tightest turns, so given in
Speaker 2: Katatus's celebrity status, that was most likely his racing position.
Speaker 2: We don't have official surviving stats, but considering the best
Speaker 2: chariot horse's success rates at that time, it's likely that
Speaker 2: in Katatus would have had over one hundred race winds
Speaker 2: to his name. In Katatus must have been head and
Speaker 2: crest above the four legged field, because not only did
Speaker 2: Caligula construct grand stables for him, he'd send soldiers to
Speaker 2: silence the neighborhood the night before races so that in
Speaker 2: Katatus could sleep peacefully. Caligula also commissioned an entire private
Speaker 2: hippodrome so that he could personally race chariots with his
Speaker 2: preferred thoroughbred. The two rode together, they dined together, and
Speaker 2: they partied together. But it wasn't all fun and horse
Speaker 2: racing games for in Katatus. Escalating tensions and treacherous plots
Speaker 2: soon threatened to hobble his uniquely privileged lifestyle. The games
Speaker 2: themselves involved plenty of scandals. Caligula was rumored to have
Speaker 2: poisoned competing factions. He was also said to have gotten
Speaker 2: jealous of the fame of some chariot drivers, and even
Speaker 2: reportedly ran one over in a chariot at his private hippodrome,
Speaker 2: although it's uncertain if it happened, whether it was an
Speaker 2: accident or a purposeful act of cruelty. For his part,
Speaker 2: in Katatus was never directly implicated as having a hoof
Speaker 2: in any of that foul play. Likewise, while it's possible
Speaker 2: that Incatatus's horse teammates and opponents might have become jealous
Speaker 2: of all of the attention and food given to him.
Speaker 2: If indeed horses can experience jealousy, there's no evidence that
Speaker 2: they plotted against him. Historically, these hierarchical horse disputes were
Speaker 2: typically settled through quick and simple physical displays of dominance,
Speaker 2: such as biting, pushing, and threatening to kick. The real
Speaker 2: herd to watch out for was the human aristocracy. Caligula's
Speaker 2: relationship grew increasingly strained, with the Senate and all its
Speaker 2: prominent politicians desperately jockeying for position. This escalated part way
Speaker 2: through thirty nine AD when a group of aristocrats, senators,
Speaker 2: the sitting consuls, and even Caligula's sisters took part in
Speaker 2: a conspiracy against him. The stakes could not have been
Speaker 2: higher for Inkatatus as well. If his main benefactor was
Speaker 2: put out to pasture or worse, in Katatus would lose
Speaker 2: his fancy stables, his private hippodrome access, and being so
Speaker 2: closely affiliated with the targeted empire, possibly even his life.
Speaker 2: Fortunately for Inkatatus, that dire plot ultimately went belly up,
Speaker 2: but according to some historians, it served as a critical
Speaker 2: turning point in Caligula's reign and his relationship with his
Speaker 2: favorite horse. Early biographers recounted rumors of Caligula taking part
Speaker 2: in debauched orgies, in incestuous acts, and even drinking pearls
Speaker 2: dissolved in vinegar, but these are mostly unsubstantiated, although the
Speaker 2: practice of drinking pearls has been no in other ancient histories,
Speaker 2: attributed most famously to Cleopatra and Mark Antony. To be clear,
Speaker 2: Caligula absolutely compiled a grim resume of punishing and executing
Speaker 2: opponents over time, but even his detractors seemed to mostly
Speaker 2: agree that his governing style was less contentious during his
Speaker 2: first two years as emperor, but the apparent conspiracy and
Speaker 2: number of people clearly champing at the bit to betray
Speaker 2: Caligula changed things. Rather than rein in his imperial impulses,
Speaker 2: Caligula sought to humiliate senators and aristocrats in any ways
Speaker 2: he could. Some methods were simple. He increasingly made them
Speaker 2: greet him as they would a god, by performatively and
Speaker 2: demeaningly prostrating themselves before him. He was also said to
Speaker 2: have had second xtual relationships with many senators wives, and
Speaker 2: once again horse racing factored heavily into his plans. Putting
Speaker 2: on games was hugely expensive during festivals up to forty
Speaker 2: races were held in a day. There were monetary prizes,
Speaker 2: equipment costs, and the upkeep of hundreds of horses, and
Speaker 2: then there were the shockingly expensive celebratory feasts for both
Speaker 2: humans and horses. If some accounts are to be believed,
Speaker 2: both Caligula and in Katatis ingested literal gold. Caligula made
Speaker 2: sure to saddle individual senators with this financial burden by
Speaker 2: maliciously offering them the honor of sponsoring each event. This
Speaker 2: effectively muzzled many outspoken politicians, since they couldn't overtly refuse
Speaker 2: Caligula's calculated slights, especially if they held or wanted to
Speaker 2: hold a notable position such as consul. In the prior
Speaker 2: Roman Republic, consuls were essentially the highest elected officials who
Speaker 2: presided over the Senate. In Caligula's empire, however, the consul
Speaker 2: was more of an honorific position that he would give
Speaker 2: to senators or when he wanted to exert even more
Speaker 2: control to himself, or, as legend had it, a position
Speaker 2: he would offer to his favorite race horse. The two
Speaker 2: major human sources we look to regarding Calyguila's life were
Speaker 2: both pretty hyperbolic about his most notorious suggestion for consul.
Speaker 2: For example, while describing Caliguila's love of Incatatus, third century
Speaker 2: historian Cassius Dio claimed, quote, he swore by the animal's
Speaker 2: life and fortune, and even promised to appoint him consul,
Speaker 2: a promise that he would have carried out if he
Speaker 2: had lived longer end quote. However, the general consensus among
Speaker 2: scholars is that Caligula's plan to name in Katatus council
Speaker 2: was actually all a pointed joke. Although many early biographers
Speaker 2: cast Caliguila as a vile despot capable of outlandish things,
Speaker 2: parsing their motives and political circumstances, along with Caliguila's pattern
Speaker 2: of behavior, the emperor comes off less as a complete
Speaker 2: raving lunatic and more a deeply paranoid ruler making spiteful jabs.
Speaker 2: His jest involving in Katatus had multiple possible layers. First,
Speaker 2: the idea of making in Katatus the council was likely
Speaker 2: a basic dig at politicians competence. Essentially, Caligula was claiming,
Speaker 2: my horse could do a better job. Second, floating such
Speaker 2: a notion darkly ridiculed, how trivial of a hitching post,
Speaker 2: The position had become It used to be the pinnacle
Speaker 2: of a senator's career, and despite the corrupted appointment process,
Speaker 2: the title still held the previously conferred extra prestige to
Speaker 2: a politician. But the idea of nominating a horse underlined
Speaker 2: just how harnessed any prospective consul was by Caligula, by
Speaker 2: his whims and by his absolute power. And finally, some
Speaker 2: key individual's names might have been relevant to Caligula's joke,
Speaker 2: especially given how puns and wordplay often factored into the
Speaker 2: Roman sense of humor. Specifically, a Console candidate at the
Speaker 2: time was named Asinus Cellar, which could be crudely translated
Speaker 2: into swift ass, so a quip about Caligula appointing in
Speaker 2: Katatus may have been a direct personal insult his speedy
Speaker 2: horse was preferable to a swift ass. Ultimately, in Katatus
Speaker 2: never actually became Console, and after a couple more years
Speaker 2: of bitter and bloody friction, Caligula was finally assassinated by
Speaker 2: two Praetorian tribunes and a group of centurions on January
Speaker 2: twenty fourth, forty one AD. Even in the immediate aftermath
Speaker 2: of Caligula's death, horse racing came up. When arriving soldiers
Speaker 2: demanded to know who might replace the deceased Caligula as emperor,
Speaker 2: the vengeful tribune who was first to stab Caligula, mockingly
Speaker 2: suggested that they can check in with one of Caligula's
Speaker 2: chariot driver friends as their first choice. So what became
Speaker 2: of in Katatus. Accounts are vague. Some say caligula successor
Speaker 2: ordered the horse's execution, although a death doesn't seem to
Speaker 2: have been confirmed. The relevant economics of the time offer
Speaker 2: another possibility. Thanks in part to Caligula's constant promotion, chariot
Speaker 2: racing was as popular as it had ever been, meaning
Speaker 2: champion horses were of significant breeding value. So, particularly considering
Speaker 2: how many aristocrats Caligula led to financial ruin, it's not
Speaker 2: unreasonable to wonder if some entrepreneurial or entitled feeling individual
Speaker 2: might have jumped at the opportunity to profit off in
Speaker 2: Katatus by selling him back to a stud farm. As
Speaker 2: much as that sounds like a euphemistic way for me
Speaker 2: to say that Caligula's favorite pet went to a farm upstate,
Speaker 2: there is at least some actual chance that Inkatatus did
Speaker 2: go on to sire a new generation of race horses.
Speaker 2: Although Incatatus never actually traded his jeweled collar for the
Speaker 2: official toga of the consul, his facetious nomination captured the
Speaker 2: imagination of plenty of political critics, historians, and horse enthusiasts
Speaker 2: over subsequent centuries. In particular, in Katatus's nomination became a
Speaker 2: go to reference when calling out political incompetence or madness.
Speaker 2: For example, a satirical column in a seventeen forty two
Speaker 2: issue of the London Magazine and Monthly Chronologer praised in
Speaker 2: Katatus as a wiser minister of the state than the
Speaker 2: Prime Minister of Great Britain at that time. In a
Speaker 2: somewhat convoluted respond to the American Colony's declaration of independence,
Speaker 2: a British writer also used Caligula trying to make in
Speaker 2: Katatus a consul, as an example of the issues that
Speaker 2: eventually arise from giving decision making power to the wrong people. Today,
Speaker 2: in Katatus even has his own Wikipedia page, and Caligula's
Speaker 2: Horse is the name of an Australian progressive metal band.
Speaker 2: From a political perspective, the notion of Caligula elevating his
Speaker 2: horse to a government position is enduringly memorable. But let's
Speaker 2: not put the chariot before the horse and get so
Speaker 2: caught up in all of the mocking hypotheticals that we
Speaker 2: fail to give the stallion at the center of the
Speaker 2: story his due. What in Catatus did accomplish in his
Speaker 2: life was still stunning. Sure, many aspects of in Katatus's
Speaker 2: fate and the reason for his fame were beyond his control.
Speaker 2: But on the other hoof, you can lead a horse
Speaker 2: to water, but once he sails across that water, it's
Speaker 2: up to him to excel so remarkably at the hardest
Speaker 2: position in the most popular sports of the day, to
Speaker 2: the point that he makes the most die hard and
Speaker 2: powerful fan consider spending unprecedented resources on equestrian luxuries the
Speaker 2: likes of which that horse's four footed four bearers never
Speaker 2: could have imagined, from competing at the vaunted hippodrome to
Speaker 2: hosting human parties. There were numerous times when in Katatus
Speaker 2: could have spooked, balked, or stumbled. But when fear and
Speaker 2: confusion threatened to get the best of him, in Katatus
Speaker 2: simply said, nay, and I think in the vein of
Speaker 2: this podcast, always trying to for lack of a better
Speaker 2: word humanize the figures at the heart of history. It's
Speaker 2: worth celebrating what a good horse in Katatas was. When
Speaker 2: Katatus never actually made it into the government, he did
Speaker 2: get another official title. Caligula actually made in Katatus a
Speaker 2: priest of his imperial religious cult. This priesthood may have
Speaker 2: initially spawned similarly pointed jokes about the ineptitude of human priests,
Speaker 2: but even if partly flippant in nature, in a way,
Speaker 2: this religious appointment still meant more than a political one.
Speaker 2: Coming from Caligula. After all, the emperor was consumed with
Speaker 2: the idea of placing himself among the gods, first as
Speaker 2: more of a snide prank, but then with increasing sincerity.
Speaker 2: We may never know if in Katatus himself had any
Speaker 2: such dreams of divinity while clip clopping to and from
Speaker 2: his grand stables, but at least if he ever accompanied
Speaker 2: his human to a temple ritual, he would have seen
Speaker 2: a familiar long face, that of Pegasus, the mythical winged
Speaker 2: steed who was often depicted in statue form alongside Jupiter,
Speaker 2: the king of the gods, whom Caligula so desperately wanted
Speaker 2: to emulate, and in a sense through his lasting and
Speaker 2: now fairly infamous legacy. Our illustrious horse hero certainly trotted
Speaker 2: his own way to immortality. That's the story of in Katatus,
Speaker 2: Caligula's favorite racehorse. But stick around after a brief sponsor
Speaker 2: break to hear an additional intriguing question about our famous
Speaker 2: quadruped's political career. Despite Inkatatus never being a formal consular candidate,
Speaker 2: some intrigued fans have mused about whether he would have
Speaker 2: been eligible based on the requirements for Romans to become
Speaker 2: senators per the changes enacted by one of Caliguia's predecessors.
Speaker 2: These minimums included being at least twenty five years old,
Speaker 2: owning property valuing at least one million sestercees a type
Speaker 2: of Roman coin, and having an quote unblemished character. Two
Speaker 2: of those are easy. There appears to be no evidence
Speaker 2: in Katatu's ever had a criminal record, and his carved
Speaker 2: marble home was undoubtedly worth well over a mill. The
Speaker 2: question of his age is a little trickier, as twenty
Speaker 2: five would have been fairly old for a horse still
Speaker 2: seemingly close to his prime racing days, although that depends
Speaker 2: if we're talking human years or horse ears. All in all,
Speaker 2: especially given Caligula's enthusiasm for bucking tradition, these prerequisites would
Speaker 2: likely have been easy hurdles for in katat Is to
Speaker 2: clear in his senatorial steeplechase. Noble Blood is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke.
Speaker 2: Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional
Speaker 2: writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy
Speaker 2: Hit and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced
Speaker 2: by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il KLi and
Speaker 2: executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For
Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.