¹ Modern politicians and journalists have often compared what they consider to be strange political appointments to the appointment of Incitatus as consul by Caligula as if this did actually occur. See e.g. Schutz, C.E., Political Humor: From Aristophanes to Sam Ervin (Rutherford, NJ, 1977), 251Google Scholar. The alleged appointment is frequently mentioned in popular works also, as when Chief Judge Cal appointed a fish as his Deputy Chief Judge as part of the Judge Dredd series in the comic book 2000AD, Prog. 90, November 1978.

² Text and translation from Rolfe, J.C., Suetonius I (Cambridge, MA, 1913), 488–9Google Scholar.

³ Text and translation from Cary, E., Dio Cassius VII (Cambridge, MA, 1924), 302–3Google Scholar.

⁴ Dio's claim that Caligula used to offer Incitatus barley made of gold parallels Suetonius' claim that the emperor had sometimes served his guests loaves and meats of gold (Calig. 37.1). Suetonius seems to have abstracted this detail from a common account of how Caligula treated the guests at a feast held in the name of Incitatus, and then used it as the basis for a general statement in a section devoted to the emperor's extravagance. For an explanation of this alleged serving of food made of gold, see Woods, D., ‘Seven notes on the reign of Caligula’, in Deroux, C. (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History XVI (Brussels, 2012), 437–71, at 459–62Google Scholar.

⁵ Exceptionally, Guarino, A., ‘Caligulas Pferd’, ZRG 124 (2007), 332–5Google Scholar, at 335, dismisses the story as a deliberate lie, a ‘tall story’.

⁶ Willrich, H., ‘Caligula’, Klio 3 (1903), 85–118, 288–317, 397–470, at 461–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘dass in Rom so mancher Esel zum Konsulat gelangt sei, warum also nicht auch einmal ein edles Ross’.

⁷ Barrett, A.A., Caligula: The Corruption of Power (London, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 46, 217.

⁸ Hurley, D.W., An Historical and Historiographical Commentary on Suetonius' Life of C. Caligula (Atlanta, GA, 1993), 196–7Google Scholar, on Joseph, , AJ 19.256–7Google Scholar.

⁹ Wardle, D., Suetonius' Life of Caligula: A Commentary (Brussels, 1994), 351–2Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Alston, R., Aspects of Roman History, ad 14–117 (London, 1998), 66Google Scholar.

¹¹ Adams, G.W., The Roman Emperor Gaius ‘Caligula’ and His Hellenistic Aspirations (Boca Raton, FL, 2007), 162–3Google Scholar.

¹² Winterling, A., Caligula: A Biography, tr. Schneider, D.L., Most, G.W., and Psoinos, P. (Berkeley, CA, 2011), 103Google Scholar.

¹³ See McCartney, E.S., ‘Puns and plays on proper names’, CJ 14 (1919), 343–58Google Scholar; Matthews, V., ‘Some puns on Roman cognomina’, G&R 20 (1973), 20–4Google Scholar. On the use of puns on names in political invective, see Corbeill, A., Controlling Laughter: Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic (Princeton, NJ, 1996), 57–98Google Scholar. In the case of Caligula, while serving loaves and meats of gold to his guests, he is alleged to have declared that a man ought to be either frugal or Caesar (Suet. Calig. 37.1), an apparent pun upon the name of M. Licinius Crassus Frugi. See Barrett (n. 7), 216; Wardle (n. 9), 281.

¹⁴ See Gallivan, P.A., ‘The fasti for the reign of Gaius’, Antichthon 13 (1979), 66–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ OLD ² s.v. incitatus; TLL 7.932–3.

¹⁶ On Aquila Iulianus, see PIR ² A 982; on Nonius Asprenas, see PIR ² N 121; on Apronius Caesianus, see PIR ² A 972; on Sentius Saturninus, see PIR ¹ S 296.

¹⁷ On Claudius' appointment as consul, see Suet. Calig. 17.1, Claud. 7; Cass. Dio 59.6.5. On Ser. Asinius Celer, see PIR ² A 1225.

¹⁸ OLD ² s.v. claudus; TLL 3.1314–15.

¹⁹ Suet. Claud. 3.2, 38.3, 39–40. While he has sometimes been diagnosed as a victim of polio or cerebral palsy, another possibility is that he suffered from dystonia. See Valente, W., Talbert, R.J.A., Hallett, J.P., and Mackowiak, P.A., ‘Caveat Cenans!’, American Journal of Medicine 112 (2002), 392–8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

²⁰ OLD ² s.v. asinus, s.v. celer. A series of nomina gentilicia were derived from animals. See Varro, Rust. 2.1.10.

²¹ Cass. Dio 58.20.1–3.

²² On Caligula's subsequent mistreatment of Claudius, or encouragement of the same, see Suet. Claud. 8–9.

²³ Three different sources record his purchase of the mullet, but for different amounts each time: Tert. Pall. 5 (6,000 sesterces); Macrob. Sat. 3.16.9 (7,000 sesterces); Pliny, HN 9.67 (8,000 sesterces). In general, see Andrews, A.C., ‘The Roman craze for surmullets’, CW 42 (1949), 186–8Google Scholar. Caligula is said to have engaged in similar culinary extravagance, even drinking pearls dissolved in vinegar: see Suet. Calig. 37.1.

²⁴ On Asinius Gallus as a potential successor to Augustus, see Tac. Ann. 1.13.2. On the reason for his mistreatment by Tiberius, see Herbert-Brown, G., ‘C. Asinius Gallus, Ti. Claudius Nero, and a posthumous Agrippa in Ephesos (ILS 8897)’, SyllClass 15 (2004), 131–51Google Scholar. On the deaths of both Asinius Gallus and Drusus Caesar, see Tac. Ann. 6.23.

²⁵ Suet. Calig. 16.2; Cass. Dio 59.9.6.

²⁶ See Wardle (n. 9), 171–2.

²⁷ Cass. Dio 59.20.1–3.

²⁸ Cass. Dio 59.28.6. See e.g. Ferrill, A., Caligula: Emperor of Rome (London, 1991), 136Google Scholar; Barrett (n. 7), 217; Wardle (n. 9), 213.

²⁹ Suet. Claud. 9.2. Dio (59.28.5) records the cost of the priesthood as ten million sesterces. He also notes that Caligula was a priest in his own cult, as was Caesonia. There is no other evidence that priestly colleges at Rome charged a membership fee in this manner. See Barrett (n. 7), 147.

³⁰ Suet. Calig. 22.3. However, some may have been willing to pay this price for access to the emperor, or Caesonia.