Incitātus: Fābula Equī Senātōriī

Incitātus: Fābula Equī Senātōriī (Incitatus: The Story of the Senator Horse) is a sheltered-vocabulary Latin novella published by Emma Vanderpool in 2020. It tells the story of Incitatus, the horse who was supposedly made consul by the emperor Caligula, and of a rank-and-file senator teeming with jealousy. It is notable for using many compound and complex sentences while keeping the word count low, and for its treatment of Roman history with child-friendly humor.

Available from Amazon.

Reading level

The intended level is not given in the author’s published material. As of this writing, it has not been rated by Comprehensible Antiquity.

Diverse & Multicultural Identities

For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.

Parallel cultures

No depictions identified.

Gender

Features three cis male main characters (Incitatus the horse, Caligula the emperor, and Gnaeus the senator). Features no cis female main characters or transgender main characters.

Sexual identity

No depictions identified.

SES/class

The emperor Caligula is frequently described as rich and important. Gnaeus, however, is neither rich nor important, though he is still a senator.

Religion

No depictions identified.

Disability

No depictions identified.

Language Statistics

Vocabulary

Word counts may differ from the author's advertised figures. See here for information about how words are counted in LNDb.

Word List

A complete word list for Incitātus: Fābula Equī Senātōriī can be found here.

Glosses

This novella contains glosses in the form of footnotes with English translations.

Of the 126 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 41 of them (32.5%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 2044 total words in the text, 145 of them (7.1%) are glossed.

Glossary

This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with every form of each word listed separately. The glossary is complete; save for a few minor oversights, every word is included.

Syntax

The ratio of compound sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are compound sentences, on average. A compound sentence is defined as a sentence with multiple T-units.
The ratio of complex sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are complex sentences, on average. A complex sentence is defined as a sentence with one or more subordinate clauses or verb phrases.

See here for more information.

Summary

The graph above shows the vocabulary and syntax of the novella relative to the other novellas studied. A higher position on the graph means that this novella scores higher than average in this criterion. These scores are not necessarily tied to reading level; this graph is descriptive of the novella's language rather than predictive of its difficulty.

Genre & Sources

This novella is in the genre of historical (Classical).

The historical detail of Caligula making his horse a senator is found in Suetonius (Caligula 55) and Cassius Dio (59.14 and 59.28).

Complete Plot Summary

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Incitatus is a horse who runs faster than all the other horses. For this reason, he becomes Caligula’s favorite horse, is made a senator, gets lavish treatment, including a mansion, clothes and ornaments, and enslaved people to wait on him. Gnaeus, a senator of little importance, is invited to dinner by Caligula, but is dismayed to find that the horse Incitatus is the host of the dinner. Incitatus is treated better than the senators are, because Caligula wanted to make the senators feel jealous. Caligula even gives Incitatus food laced with gold, so Gnaeus goes into Incitatus’s house in order to steal some of his dung to get the gold found inside. Next, Caligula declares that he wants to make Incitatus consul, and mocks Gnaeus by saying that a horse is more important than he is. This is the last straw for the senators, and Caligula is assassinated by the Praetorian Guard. Incitatus returns to the normal life of a horse, but Gnaeus tries to get revenge by killing Incitatus. This attempt fails because Incitatus can run faster than Gnaeus.

First 100 Words

Underlined words are glossed in the text.

Mihi nōmen est Incitātus quod celer sum. Currere celerius quam omnēs possum. Fortūnatus in Circō Maximō eram. Nunc fortūnātissimus sum quod senātor Rōmānus sum. Senātōrēs maximī mōmentī sunt.
Quod senātor sum, purpurea vestīmenta gerō. Senātōrēs tantum vestīmenta purpurea gerunt. Ōrnāmenta gerō. Dīvitēs tantum ōrnāmenta gerunt. Senātor maximī mōmentī sum.
Ubi per Rōmam ambulō, omnēs Rōmānī mē spectant et audiunt. Ubi mē vident, clāmōrem magnum faciunt. Ōlim parvī momentī eram sed nunc senātor maximī mōmentī sum. Omnēs mē per Rōmam ambulantem mīrāntur quod purpurea vestīmenta et ōrnāmenta multa gerō.
Quod celerius quam omnēs currō, victor eram et omnēs mē amābant. Quod imperātor Caligula mē amat, multa mihi dat.

Studies show that a reader should understand 98% of the words in a text in order to have a good chance of comprehending it. One rule of thumb is to read the first hundred words and count the number of unfamiliar words. If there are two or fewer unfamiliar words, it can be read without much difficulty. Three to five unfamiliar words is possible to read, but may be difficult. If there are six or more unfamiliar words, the text may be too difficult.

Supplementary Materials

If you have resources for Incitātus and would like to share them on LNDb, please contact me.

Presentation

Illustrations?	yes
Illustrator	Emma Vanderpool, Audrey Vanderpool (cover)
Macrons?	yes
Font	Herculanum, 15 pt; Gill Sans, 15 pt; Georgia, 15 pt; Papyrus, 15 pt (a different font for every perspective)
Pages of story	47
Total pages	64
Chapters	9 (+ epilogue)

Key Information

Publication date	April 20, 2020
Publisher	Independently published
ISBN	N/A
ISBN-13	979-8638668181