The colonials named their horses and their enslaved humans after classical figures. A bit down the hill from Jefferson’s house, a stable housed Caractacus, Tarquin, Arcturus, and Diomede.2 This naming habit resulted in asides in correspondence such as one in which Adams instructed his wife that “Cleopatra ought not to be fed too high—she should have no Grain.”3 Among the enslaved, one who worked on contract for Madison was called Plato, while Jefferson held title to Jupiter, Caesar, and Hercules, and Washington to Neptune and Cupid.
