Historiae Alexandri Magni 9.10.25

9.10.25

Vicos, per quos iter erat, floribus coronisque sterni iubet, liminibus aedium creterras vino repletas et alia eximiae magnitudinis vasa disponi, vehicula deinde constrata, ut plures capere milites possent, in tabernaculorum modum ornari, alia candidis velis, alia veste pretiosa.

So then Alexander, whose soul aspired to more than human greatness, since he had rivalled, as we said before, the glory which Father Bacchus had achieved by his conquest of India, resolved also to match his reputation by imitating the Bacchanalian procession which that divinity first invented, whether that was a triumph or merely some kind of frolic with which his Bacchanals amused themselves. To this end he ordered the streets through which he was to pass to be strewn with flowers and chaplets, and beakers and other capacious vessels brimming with wine to be placed at all the house doors. Then he ordered waggons to be made, each capable of holding many soldiers, and these to be decorated like tents, some with white canvas and others with costly tapestry.