By reports, the reception in the streets is extraordinary.
The queen has instructed the procession to move slowly...
...for the people's enjoyment.
I might almost believe Cleopatra set out to capture the citizens of Rome.
One would have every reason for believing exactly that.
Nothing like this has come into Rome since Romulus and Remus.
How unafraid he is.
Your queen has conquered the people of Rome.
The people, yes.
Now then, walk like a king. Head up.
Listen to them cheer.
Take your throne.
Bow to the right, left.
Now an angry glance at someone who's displeased you.
Very good. I tremble. See me tremble?
No, don't smile.
Not when they're trembling. It makes them stop.
Now the prisoners are dragged before you, one by one.
This one has no power anywhere, therefore means nothing.
But you wish to be known as a noble ruler. What do you say?
"I pardon you."
Louder. You pardon somebody, you want it known.
"I pardon you!"
Ah, now, who comes here?
Once your friend. You trusted him, and he turned against you.
He has power, wealth and family.
He kneels. He begs you to be his friend again.
To have you trust him again.
And then? What then, little king?
Caesar must wish what needs commanding.
To drain the Pontine Marshes. To free Rome from malaria.
To fill my belly.
To control the Tiber's floods.
To improve the harbor at Ostia. To please my ambition.
And must I wish roads to be built, libraries for public use?
The men of Italy to be equal to those of Rome?
Many of these have merits and merit our approval.
"Merit your approval." Is Caesar to come before the Senate each day...
...like a schoolboy, now passing, now failing?
Do you suggest the Senate no longer deliberate the welfare of Rome?
To end the process of Roman law?
I must be the law! And my word must be the welfare of Rome.
Else, take from me this meaningless title of dictator.
I've carried a sword for too long.
I cannot now pretend with an empty scabbard.
Surely Caesar recalls the symbolic nature of the title "dictator"...
...at the time it was conferred.
It was to honor Caesar above all men...
...and to indicate Rome's gratitude for your triumphs in its name.
Brutus, I recall them well, those triumphs.
Do you?
Pharsalia, for one. You trembled in Antony's hand...
...when he was hot to separate you from your head...
...with just cause.
My command spared your life.
There was no deliberating body. It was not my wish, but my command.
By my dictate that you stand here dribbling virtue out of your mouth.
Sit down.
No, I want no more meaningless privileges and considerations.
No more honors designed to pacify me.
I would rather have nothing. Remain what I am at heart.
A humble man, anxious only to serve.
Why are the eyes of a statue always without life?
Have any of you here seen the Nile?
Spare yourselves the journey.
She carries it within her eyes.
I suggest, Caesar, that the hour is late.
Very late for Rome.
I was speaking, Cassius! I was...
Now, where was I?
"Anxious to serve."
Yes, I've served. Served for all of my life.
I've won for Rome more than half of the world.
Most of you owe your honors and fortunes to me.
And now I want you to do as I say.
You will appoint me...
...emperor of Rome.
There is no need to resume your seats.
On behalf of all, thank you, Majesty, for your hospitality.
Good night.
Thank you and good night.
They resent being summoned here for meetings properly held in the Senate.
Resent it, do they?
I cannot understand...
...that the eyes of a statue should be always without life.
They resent me.
To flaunt me like this.
They'll use it to keep from you that which is yours.
By divine right, is that not so?
Yes. It is.
By divine right.
We shall have the Senate, in its deliberations, deliberate that.
Are you quite sure what it is you want...
...so desperately?
I've always been sure.
And Caesar?
Does anyone speak for him?
No.
Good night.
Tell me, Brutus, is it proper to stand before this goddess...
...Caesar's set here in the temple? - Or must we, as Romans, kneel?
Not yet. See there, where room has been left for another deity?
When the god Caesar stands beside the goddess Cleopatra...
...then Rome will crawl before them.
When that day comes, if it comes.
- He demanded we make him emperor. - Only once, and it was his sickness.
His sickness grows worse. Soon it will kill us.
He asked once to be made emperor, but he's since decreed himself god!
Emperor and god. No longer just king, but emperor and god!
- Brutus, open your eyes! - What do you want of me?
When the people think upon the honor of Rome...
...they think upon one man: Brutus.
By that honor and by the responsibility you carry...
...Brutus, save Rome from Caesar!
You cannot ask me to destroy him.
Then let Caesar destroy Rome.
Antony has just come from a meeting of my friends with good news.
Tomorrow at the Senate, Lucius Cotta will move that I be made king.
It will pass.
But I don't understand.
IKing and emperor.
And it will pass?
The last few months, I've been enjoying...
...one of the few privileges of being dictator.
I have been appointing senators.
Slightly more than half the Senate has been appointed by me.
Once again, the army of Mithradates...
...on its way all the time.
It will pass.
Tomorrow, the ides of March, a day to be remembered...
...the Senate will declare me king of Rome.
IKing, yes, but not of Rome.
Not of Rome? What are you saying?
They'll offer you king of the Roman Empire, outside Italy.
They're afraid, Caesar. Even your friends.
Afraid of the people.
- Perhaps in time... - To be afraid of the people.
To waste time on the people.
IKing of all but Rome?
What is there? The huts of Gaul? The caves of Britain?
The whole of the empire outside Italy.
I will not accept.
They mean it to be an empty gesture.
Another title to please your fancy, flatter your ego.
Nothing more.
And it will pass.
Then accept it, Caesar.
I have never settled for half a victory.
Nor will you now. Caesar, mighty Caesar...
...all I can say is what you've taught me:
Take a little, then a little more until finally you have it all.
Let them declare you king.
Even if it's only of a tree in Asia Minor.
The rest will come to you.
To redo once more everything I have already done?
It's what you have never done, what you never conquered that waits for you.
The great legions of Rome in the outer empire that will become your legions.
The gold, the power of Egypt. Your Egypt.
Caesar, you can conquer and hold the world as your own.
Won't you understand?
IKings are not elected. Gods are not elected.
Why, not only Rome but all of Italy upon which Rome stands...
...must fall in your hands like a drop of sweat.
Let them make you what they choose.
I'll serve with you. My legions with yours.
Together we'll conquer a world beyond the wildest dreams of Alexander.
Rome. What was Rome when Sulla died...
...when Crassus lost the armies in Parthia?
These same men came after me through the streets...
...howling like frightened dogs, "Caesar, save us!"
They would've made me king then.
I wouldn't let them then.
He was thrown over the wall. It's not a pretty sight.
Titus, the moneylender.
Why should he be killed savagely and brought here?
Obviously, I am being warned.
Perhaps I am next.
They dare to threaten you?
- Caesarion. Where was my son...? - Not far away.
It frightened him.
- Lepidus, how many legions has he now? - Fifteen. Perhaps more.
- Where? - Scythia.
You and I will dine with Lepidus tonight.
We'll talk of armies and battlefields and lists of men to die.
Tomorrow in the Senate, let them offer the sands of Libya as my kingdom...
...I will accept.
This is great Caesar...
...beloved by Rome...
...and at least one of us...
...who must die so that Rome may live.
If it must be done, then let us do it unashamed and unafraid.
If the world is to know that Rome will not have a king...
...then let us make it the honorable act of free men in the light of day.
In the light of what day, Brutus?
Tomorrow?
In the curia of the Senate?
And shall we be armed, all of us?
Decimus, come to Caesar's villa early tomorrow to escort him to the Senate.
Cimber, Marc Antony must not enter the curia with Caesar.
On a pretext, lead him aside to speak of what you heard at Lepidus' house.
I remember something odd.
At one point, Caesar asked of each of us...
...what manner of death we would choose.
And Caesar, when it came to him, looked straight at me and said:
"Sudden."
Odd, isn't it?
I was afraid I'd find you still asleep.
Caesarion is. He was awake most of the night.
Did the storm frighten him?
He said not, but it did. I could tell.
Have you time to come in?
Decimus awaits. He came by expressly to accompany me to the Senate.
Decimus? Has he done this before?
A shrewd politician.
He hopes to benefit by arriving with me, this day of days.
IKeep Antony close by.
You too?
The ladies of Rome seem to have caught each other's fears this morning.
Like a head cold.
Calpurnia pleaded with me not to go to the Senate at all.
Why? Why would she not want you to go?
Oh, the bad night. Nothing else.
She awoke screaming in her sleep. The thunder, the lightning.
She dreamed that she saw me murdered. That she saw me...
...or a statue of me covered in blood.
The servants told her of seeing men of fire in the heavens...
...odd happenings and so forth.
Strange birds were seen in the Forum.
One flew into the Senate carrying a sprig of laurel which it dropped...
...at the base of Pompey's statue.
Pompey?
- Caesar, I'm afraid. - You must not tell me to stay away.
Shall I too be afraid?
Can it be said of Caesar, he gave up the world because of a thunderstorm?
That such divinity that was in him ran before mortal superstition?
I feel you need me now...
...and I cannot help you.
Then help me to live as I have lived, always differently from the rest.
The others, for whom life is merely an endless fear of dying.
Your gods...
...and mine go with you, Caesar.
The world, except for you, is filled with little men.
Fire burns.
The winds of destruction blow.
Rome...
...mighty and alone, the winds of destruction blow down upon thee!
Storms and hail shall cut down wheat...
...shall cut down birds and living things of earth.
The heavens...
...and the gods themselves.
My son!
Caesar! Caesar!
There has been much to do.
And it seems you have done it extremely well.
Is that where...?
Yes.
In Egypt, we build eternal monuments to our dead heroes.
Here, you burn them like rubbish.
Goodbye.
I've brought the 10th Legion. You have nothing to fear.
Nothing to fear? That's no reason for staying.
So much has happened so quickly.
Suddenly I have the pieces of a broken world to pick up:
Caesar, you running off at night like this.
Do you suggest that I stay? Why?
Don't ask me to be clear about my feelings right now. I'm tired.
And with you, it's never easy to say my meaning.
But you speak so well, Antony.
I've been told how excitingly you read Caesar's will...
...to the sobbing, murdering, free citizens of Rome.
Naming as his heir his great nephew, Octavian!
I knew Caesar's will and the reasons for it.
If Octavian hadn't been named...
...how many hours or minutes would you have survived?
And if Caesar had become truly king...
...do you believe he would still have named Octavian?
In any case, it's over.
Caesar...
...and the dream that was murdered with him.
First Alexander's...
...then Caesar's.
Now over. Finished.
- First, Rome must be put in order. - Rome again.
Brutus and the others must be found and killed.
- Then? - In death...
...Caesar must be granted the power and title he was denied in life.
A dead king, a dead god. Safe enough even for Rome.
Caesarion as Caesar's son could claim the title of king and his deification.
And to what court of law would my son and I take our claim?
I will present it to the Roman Senate myself.
I believe you would.
And after the noble senators have stopped laughing...
...do my son and I then declare war on Rome?
No. For this, a Caesar would be needed.
You have very little time.
Another Caesar.
But thank you. I shall remember your kindness to us.
- You give up too easily. - Do I?
Let me come to Alexandria and talk more with you.
- Whenever you like. - Now. Tonight, if I could.
In any case, try to remember.
For more than two years did Antony seek out the assassins of Caesar.
At last, at Philippi...
... he was able to set against them his legions and those of Octavian...
... who was Caesar's heir.
Cassius was the first to die...
... by his own hand.
Then Brutus and the others.
Hail Antony!
Hail Antony's legion!
You remember Philippi.
He won it.
My lord.
- This way. - But my tent is this way.
Later. I'll see him later. Octavian depresses me.
You promised.
Well, the fighting's over. We've won it all.
Your health should improve quickly.
Even if I die, my place is with you on the field.
- You were wrong to prevent me. - Caesar was ill.
Caesar? Ah, yes. I keep forgetting.
I have inherited the name. I have made it mine.
Why not? You'll never be confused with the other one.
At least your troops fought bravely, under my command.
Agrippa has kept me fully informed.
What were you doing there?
The battle was fought on land, between men, not wood bumping on water.
Why did you bring Agrippa? Were you expecting rain?
Shall we choose a piece of land, just you and I?
Be quiet. There are matters to talk about.
Have you an objection to Agrippa remaining?
I object to Agrippa at all times.
Lying here, indisposed...
...you must have had time to consider the problem.
I think it is best to continue the Triumvirate.
You and I and Lepidus.
Very well.
Lepidus shall have Africa and the islands. You, Spain and Gaul.
Rome and Italy to be administered by the three of us, jointly.
- And you? - All the rest.
Then, with Lepidus in Africa and you in the East...
...bringing order to Rome and Italy will be my problem.
- So it seems. - Spain and Gaul aren't enough.
I'll need money.
- There have been tax riots in Rome. - So I've heard.
Done.
And done.
Would Caesar approve, do you think?
Definitely. Perhaps the veil of Isis would have bothered him a bit.
Three years...
...and Rome remembers him only by the image on a gold coin.
Are they those I brought back with me?
When Octavian had them struck off...
...it was to commemorate Caesar's deification.
So that he could inherit Caesar's divinity together with all the rest.
Even a dead god cannot rewrite his will.
Antony did present Caesarion's claims to the Senate.
He kept that much of his promise.
And he will keep the rest of it.
After almost three years since Caesar's death...
...more than a year since Philippi?
Antony will come. He will need Egypt.
Egypt is you.
That's what I meant, of course. Antony will need me.
Finances! My head hurts when you talk of money.
Change the subject.
All right. News from Rome.
Octavian has forced Lepidus out of his command and into exile.
I wish I hadn't... I wish I had not drunk so much today.
So do I.
Do I trouble you, Rufio?
Yes, you do.
I'll wager Caesar was never befuddled by wine. Nothing befuddled him.
The campaign against Parthia won't be easy.
- How many legions have we left? - It's hard to tell.
- So many desertions. - Desertions?
They haven't been paid in months.
You remember when we started into Greece?
I lived with them, ate with them. I was one of them.
They seem distant to me now, as if they were a memory.
We must find the gold to pay them...
...the wheat to feed them, supplies, ships, armor.
And where do you suggest we look for all these?
- I thought perhaps further to the east. - Syria?
- Perhaps more to the south. - Ethiopia?
To the north...
- I forbid her mention! - I didn't.
I won't crawl to her! Why hasn't she offered assistance?
- She may not know. - She knows everything.
- Lf only in gratitude... - Perhaps she'll express it in person.
Then let her come. Am I so much less than Caesar?
Nor she less than queen of Egypt who you promised...
Strip them naked, they're no longer queens.
It is also difficult to tell the rank of a naked general.
And generals without armies are naked, indeed.
All right. I'll meet her halfway.
I'll send you to her.
- Order her to come. - Lf I order, I need not journey.
- Then summon her. - Even worse.
Then beg, entreat, find the word you like...
...pour perfume, whinny like a stallion. But see that she comes to me.
I understand your position, Rufio.
Surely you must understand mine.
I do not intend to join that long list of queens...
...who have quivered happily at being summoned by Lord Antony.
But surely I didn't say "summoned."
You said "invite." He meant "summon."
In any case, I am the queen of Egypt.
And I choose to remain on Egyptian soil.
Tarsus is not the other end of the world, Your Majesty.
If it were one step from Egypt, that would be too far.
I will meet with Lord Antony...
...but only on Egyptian soil.
My lady, a way must be found, a time, a place to satisfy you both.
Must it, Rufio?
Cleopatra.
Cleopatra!
It is.
It must be.
She said never, except on Egyptian soil.
"Never." Something women say to begin with.
Welcome Queen Cleopatra on my behalf.
Extend my invitation to a banquet in her honor.
- Don't you think...? - Still not convinced?
Hurry back, there's much to be done. Have the cooks sent to me.
Forgive me, noble Rufio. It is you who do not understand.
Queen Cleopatra, at present in her chamber, is on Egyptian territory...
...and intends to remain on it.
Most learned Sisogenes, forgive me...
...but this is Tarsus, not Alexandria.
You are on Tarsus, noble Rufio. I am on Egypt.
Tonight and tomorrow night, if Lord Antony desires to meet Her Majesty...
...he will come to her, to Egypt.
I shall do my best to prevail upon Lord Antony to attend.
Marc Antony, how prompt you are.
If I had not been, it would be unforgivable of me.
I hoped to be here as you came aboard.
If you had, it would be unforgivable of me.
Be more tolerant. Forgive yourself now and then.
Almost three years. Have you possibly become more beautiful?
Almost three? That long?
The time has passed so quickly.
Your necklace. It seems to be made of gold coins.
Coins of Caesar.
- Do you find it attractive? - Very.
And I find what you're wearing most becoming.
Greek, isn't it?
I have a fondness for almost all Greek things.
As an almost all-Greek thing, I'm flattered.
An unusual necklace.
Nothing but gold coins of Caesar.
- How did you come by it? - I had it made.
I wear it always.
A fabulous feast.
One is so limited when one travels by ship.
This fabulous ship...
...together with its queen, the fabulous Cleopatra.
The name of Marc Antony is not exactly unknown to the world.
- In the last year or so since we met... - Almost three.
By now you have become one-third the master of Rome.
You don't permit yourself to forget him?
That's an odd way of putting it. "Don't permit myself?"
Is it necessary to wear him around your neck?
You forget, Antony, in these almost three years...
...how full your own life has been.
They can't have been uneventful for you. You rule Egypt alone.
Oh, they have been busy, but not full.
There's a difference.
There cannot be enough hours in the days of a queen...
...and her nights have too many.
- So I fill them with memories. - Of Caesar?
And of a dream...
...that almost came true.
You may remember.
I remember that night in Rome, saying it could still come true.
You said so much that night to so many.
Let me get rid of them all.
Why? I have arranged an entertainment.
A dance in the Greek fashion to welcome the god Bacchus.
If I make a great show of going, they'll have to leave too.
Then I can return...
...and we can talk alone, you and I.
- When would you return? - In an hour, no more than two.
- How long would you stay? - Until we had nothing more to say.
Are you a strong swimmer? We sail at sunrise.
I don't understand.
Home to Alexandria, to Egypt.
You've come all this way for one night. All to make a fool of me.
Perhaps you would feel less a fool...
...if you stayed the night with me, is that it?
I've told you before.
With you, words do not come easily to me.
There is too much unsaid within me that I cannot say.
Then I cannot know it.
There is much unsaid within you too.
That is probably true of everybody.
Stay for a while.
I have known you so long but so little. Give me time.
Not I. Not Egypt and Rome together.
Not even the gods have time to give you.
But, Antony, use what you have.
Don't waste it by playing at god here in Tarsus...
...while Octavian in Rome becomes a god.
The dance, I take it, is over.
Sit up.
I want to see whether you sleep with your memories.
With so much left unsaid within you...
...it must be a relief to break and tear things.
- I want to say something now. - Perhaps some other time.
Now!
Caesar.
Conquer and conquer.
Bring the world to its knees.
"You're not a Caesar. Did you know that?
Be braver than the bravest...
...stronger than the strongest. Still no Caesar.
Caesar's done it first and better. Ruled better, loved better.
Run where you will, you can't get out. There's no way out.
The shadow of Caesar will cover you and the universe for all of time."
"Whenever you like," you said in Rome.
"Come to Alexandria whenever you like."
"Now, tonight," I said.
To bow to the throne upon which Caesar put you.
To talk of a new treaty. Caesar's can't be improved. Copy it.
Of Caesar's son. Of the dream you shared that still fills your life.
Alexander's design for a world to be ruled by you and Caesar.
Where is Antony?
Where is Marc Antony?
Antony the Great! The divine Antony!
Here.
He's...
...here.
One step behind Caesar. At the right hand of Caesar.
In the shadow of Caesar.
Tell me, how many have loved you since him?
One? Ten? Anyone? No one?
Have they kissed you with Caesar's lips? Is it his name you cry out?
Afterwards, has he reproached you and have you begged forgiveness?
You've come here, then, running over with wine and self-pity...
...to conquer Caesar.
For so long now, you've filled my life...
...like a great noise I hear everywhere in my heart.
I want to be free of you, of wanting you...
...of being afraid.
Yet, Caesar would not permit it.
But I will never...
...be free of you.
From the first instant I saw you...
...entering Rome on that monstrous stone beast...
...shining in the sun...
...like a little gold toy.
...how I envied Caesar.
Went suddenly sick with it.
Not his conquests or his triumphs.
Not his titles or the roaring of the mob.
I envied him you.
When we first met in Rome, I remembered you.
I wondered that I could ever have forgotten.
Remembered me?
Years ago, when you were a young cavalry officer...
...stationed at the palace in Alexandria under that Roman general.
- What was his name? - Gabinius.
Gabinius.
I was 12 years old, and I loved you.
- Nonsense. - It's true.
Lovers always want so much never to have loved before.
It's possible, you know.
It becomes a game. Who loved whom first?
I did.
If you noticed me at all then, you were probably terrified of me.
With good reason. Everybody knows Romans cut up little children...
...and feed them to their horses.
We'll make this our beginning.
Beginning with tonight...
...you must never envy Caesar...
...or anyone, anything again.
After all...
...this is nothing new.
For so many years...
...Antony has fed upon the crumbs...
...that fell from Julius Caesar's table.
I say...
...they are deserving of each other.
Let him stay in Egypt.
Let him fritter away his life...
...but not the possessions and the empire of the Roman people!
The Roman people!
The Roman people. What are glory and possessions to them?
Is their Antony content?
Then so are they.
Does their Antony sweep their empire...
...under Cleopatra's bed?
His adoring Romans sigh and remain content.
Let him stay however distant for however long...
...with never a thought of them.
The Roman people hold him close to their hearts.
Distant?
Perhaps from Rome but not from Caesar, I think.
Nor from Caesar's son.
Germanicus, do you speak of me?
No, I speak of Caesar.
I am Caesar.
Only while Antony remains...
...distant from Rome.
Antony!
Stay not too long in Alexandria!
Germanicus...
...stay not too long in Rome.
- How much is known to Antony? - All of it and more.
I've written him regularly. Letters, dispatches by personal messenger.
And what has he answered?
He wrote he was no longer interested in the matters I described.
That he would not return to Rome.
That he understood quite clearly what was at stake, what he would lose.
But that he would not leave you.
Let's try the goat.