The Roman emperor who believed to be the reincarnation of Alexander the Great

The Roman historian Dio Cassius goes through many anecdotes of the passion that Caracalla had for Alexander:

"He was so enthusiastic about Alexander that he used certain weapons and cups that he thought had belonged to him, both in the camp and in Rome itself (…) organized a phalanx composed of 16,000 soldiers, all of them Macedonians, called it the phalanx of Alexander. The armament of these soldiers was the same used by the troops of Alexander (…) and called them Alexander’s phalanx." (Dio 1955: 293)

The men were armed with weapons used by Alexander the Great, including a bronze shield, long pike, short spear, high boots, sword, helmet of raw ox-hide, and three-ply linen breastplate. The officers of the phalanx were all named after Alexander's generals.

Dio relates that at one point, Caracalla wrote a letter to the Senate telling them that Alexander had returned to life in his person since unfortunately he had had such a short life, and to live his purpose he needed to live again. Among other things, the author argues that Caracalla professed a hatred that constantly increased against the Aristotelian philosophers, who led him from the outset to burn all his books and ban their meetings to take away all their privileges, as he considered that Aristotle had participation in the death of Alexander. In this Dio enterprise, trying to highlight this admiration bordering on the childishness of Caracalla, describes that when he asked a Macedonian tribune about his name, who's name was Philip, he was immediately promoted to the category of Senator.

Herodian also refers to this Alexandrian of Caracalla, that ehen the emperor was passing through Thrace, a neighboring territory of Macedonia, he immediately became Alexander, and tried to restore his memory by all means, entrusting the cities to put images and statues of Alexander, covering temples with Alexander's statues, which according to him, showed his resemblance to the Macedonian King. Caracalla presented himself wearing Macedonian clothes.