3 Hic est Metellus Macedonicus, qui porticus, quae fuerunt circumdatae duabus aedibus sine inscriptione positis, quae nunc Octaviae porticibus ambiuntur, fecerat, quique hanc turmam statuarum equestrium, quae frontem aedium spectant, hodieque maximum ornamentum eius loci, ex Macedonia detulit. 4 Cuius turmae hanc causam referunt, Magnum Alexandrum impetrasse a Lysippo, singulari talium auctore operum, ut eorum equitum, qui ex ipsius turma apud Granicum flumen ceciderant, expressa similitudine figurarum faceret statuas et ipsius quoque iis interponeret.
3 This is the Metellus Macedonicus who had previously built the portico about the two temples without inscriptions which are now surrounded by the portico of Octavia, and who brought from Macedonia the group of equestrian statues which stand facing the temples, and, even at the present time, are the chief ornament of the place. 4 Tradition hands down the following story of the origin of the group: that Alexander the Great prevailed upon Lysippus, a sculptor unexcelled in works of this sort, to make portrait-statues of the horsemen in his own squadron who had fallen at the river Granicus, and to place his own statue among them.
Of the Macedonians, about twenty-five of the Companions were killed at the first onset, brazen statues of whom we erected at Dium, executed by Lysippus, at Alexander's order. The same sculptor also executed a statue of Alexander himself, being chosen by him for the work in preference to all other artists. Of the other cavalry over sixty were slain, and of the infantry about thirty. Arrian I 16
So, it would also seem that the troopers depicted were from the first wave ie Sokrates eile not the Eile Basilike. Paterculus himself does not vouch for the information, it is 'causa referunt'. Of course one could prefer a casual statement in an introductory passage by a less than well respected Roman historian to the statements of two later Greeks specifically writing about Alexander: I just don't.
The Statius also does not mention an equestrian statue of Alexander, but an equestrian statue by Lysippos commisioned by Alexander, as these twenty-five were, and then had the rider replaced by Julius Caesar.
Cedat equus, Latiae qui contra templa Diones
85Caesarei stat sede fori—quem traderis ausus
Pellaeo, Lysippe. duci, mox Caesaris ora
mirata cervice tulit—vix lumine fesso
explores, quam longus in hunc despectus ab illo.
quis rudis usque adeo, qui non, ut viderit ambos,
90tantum dicat equos quantum distare regentes?
Let that steed give place, whose statue stands in
Caesar's Forum, over against Dione's shrine—thy
daring work, 'tis said, Lysippus, for the Pellaean
chief; thereafter on marvelling back he bore the
effigy of Caesar—scarce could your straining sight
discover how far the downward view from this
monarch (Domitian) to that(Caesar).
It could even be that Caesar took his Lysippan horseman from the Metellan monument, Statius could then be certain of the provenance, though he only says 'traderis'.
When you think about, it free-choice is the only possible option.
