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
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor Henry III (28 October 1017 – 5 October 1056), called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. He was the eldest son of Conrad II of Germany and Gisela of Swabia. His father made him Duke of Bavaria (as Henry VI) in 1026, after the death of Duke Henry V. On Easter Day 1028, after his father had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was elected and crowned King of Germany in the cathedral of Aachen by Pilgrim, Archbishop of Cologne. After the death of Herman