to fight three successive men on the same day, and then, when Bato
met death at the hands of the last, he honored him with a conspicuous
burial.

[Sidenote:--7--] He had Alexander on the brain to such an extent that he
used certain weapons and cups which purported to have belonged to the
great conqueror, and furthermore he set up many representations of him
both among the legions and in Rome itself. He organized a phalanx,
sixteen thousand men, of Macedonians alone, named it "Alexander's
phalanx," and equipped it with the arms which warriors had used in his
day. These were: a helmet of raw oxhide, a three-ply linen breastplate,
a bronze shield, long pike, short spear, high boots, sword. Not even
this, however, satisfied him, but he called his hero "The Eastern
Augustus." Once he wrote to the senate that Alexander had come on earth
again in, the body of the Augustus, [Footnote: Antoninus meant
himself.] so that when he had finished his own brief existence he might
enjoy a larger life in the emperor's person. The so-called Aristotelian
philosophers he hated bitterly, wishing even to burn their books, and he
abolished the common messes they had in Alexandria and all the other
privileges they enjoyed: his grievance, as stated, was the tradition
that Aristotle had been an accomplice in the death of Alexander.

This was the way he behaved in those matters. And, by Jupiter, he took
around with him numbers of elephants, that in this respect, too, he
might seem to be imitating Alexander, or rather, perhaps, Dionysus.

[Sidenote:--8--] On Alexander's account he was fond of all the
Macedonians. Once after praising a Macedonian tribune because the latter
had shown agility in jumping upon his horse, he enquired of him first:
"From what country are you?" Then, learning that he was a Macedonian, he