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) Holy Roman Emperor (horse) Holy Roman Emperor, is a retired Thoroughbred racehorse and active sire. He was a leading two-year-old racehorse, winning four races from seven runs in Europe in 2006. Holy Roman Emperor was sired by Danehill out of a Secretariat mare. Holy Roman Emperor was trained by Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle. In 2006 Holy Roman Emperor won two Group One races, the Phoenix Stakes where he defeated the Coventry Stakes winner Hellvelyn and subsequent Group One winning filly Miss Beatrix and the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère where he defeated the useful French colt Battle Paint. He also defeated subsequent