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
Roman Emperor (Principate) He raised his son Diadumenianus to be co-Emperor with him. Macrinus was praetorian prefect ("praefectus praetorio") under "Caracalla", whom he may have conspired to murder in April 217. His wife Nonia Celsa bore him a son, Diadumenianus, whom he made co-Emperor in 218; both were executed by partisans of "Elagabalus" (see below). The Severi, in addition to being the second dynasty "d'épée", are also the first Roman dynasty to have been restored to the purple. The restoration, however, brought with it a decidedly bizarre character: the first of the restored Severan Emperors, a Syrian historically known as "Elagabalus" (also seen