Strator
Strator (Latin horse keeper ) originally referred to a kind of groom in Roman cavalry units . At the Roman marching camp, he was also responsible for setting up stables and transporting the horse's food. In the Middle Ages , strator service was an act of ritual self-humiliation, in which the walking strator of a higher-ranking person on horseback led the horse by the reins over a certain distance.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, the strator service to be performed by the emperor was a central element in the encounter with the pope, alongside the kiss on the feet . In 1155 there was a scandal when Barbarossa refused Pope Hadrian IV to serve as a strater.