Incitatus Dio (155-235 AD) indicated that the horse was attended to by servants and was fed oats mixed with gold flake, and that Caligula made the horse a priest. The accuracy of the received history is generally questioned. Historians such as Anthony A. Barrett suggest that later Roman chroniclers such as Suetonius and Dio Cassius were influenced by the political situation of their own times, when it may have been useful to the current emperors to discredit the earlier Julio-Claudian emperors. Also, the lurid nature of the story added spice to their narratives, winning them additional readers. One suggestion is that
Holy Roman Emperor (horse) three-year-old mile champion Excellent Art producing a blistering turn of foot to win the Group Two Railway Stakes at the Curragh. His greatest rival was Teofilo, to whom he finished runner-up twice, firstly in the National Stakes, and later in the Dewhurst Stakes. There was great anticipation of another year of races between the pair, but it was decided in March 2007 to retire Holy Roman Emperor to stud as a replacement for George Washington, who was suffering fertility problems (and was also a son of Danehill). Holy Roman Emperor has been a "shuttle stallion" for Coolmore Stud, standing at