Our world has gone now.
Smashed by the wars.
Now I am the keeper of his body,
bound here in the Egyptian ways,
I followed him as Pharaoh, and have now ruled 40 years.
I am the victor. But what does it all mean?
When there is no one left to remember,
The great cavalry charge of Gaugamela, or the mountains of the Hindu Kush,
When we crossed the 100,000 man army into India.
He was a God, Cadmos
or as close as anything I've ever seen.
"Tyrant!" they yelled so easily, I laugh.
No tyrant ever gave back so much.
And what do they know of the world, these school boys?
it takes strong man to rule.
Alexander was more, he was Prometheus, a friend to man,
He changed the world,
before him, there were tribes, and after him...
..all was possible.
There was suddenly a sense the world could be ruled by one king... be better for all.
18 Great Alexandrias he built, it was an empire not of land and gold...
..but of the mind. Hellenic civilization.
Open. To All!
How can I say it? How can I tell you what it is like to be young?
To dream, big dreams,
..to believe when Alexander looked you in the eye,
You could do anything. Anything!
In his presence, by the light of Apollo, we were better than ourselves.
Truly, I've known many great men in my life,
but only one colossus,
And only now in old
do I understand who this force of nature really was.
Or do I?
Did such a man as Alexander exist?
Of course not, they idolize him, make him better than he was.
Men, all men reach and fall,
reach and fall.
The east, the vast Persian empire, ruled almost all the known world.
The west, once great greek city states,
Thebes, Athens, Sparta, had fallen from pride.
For a hundred years now, the persian kings had bribed the greeks with their gold,
To fight as mercenaries,
it was Philip, the one eyed, that changed all this.
Uniting tribes of illiterate sheep herders, from the high and low lands,
With his blood and guts, he built a professional army,
Brought the devious greeks to their knees.
He then turned his eye on Persia,
where it was said the new, great King Darius himself,
on his throne in Babylon, feared Philip.
It was from these loins of war, that Alexander was born, in Pella.
Pella Macedonia
Some called his mother, Queen Olympias, a sorceress,
and said that Alexander was the child of Dionysus...
..others, Zeus.
But truly, there was not a man in Macedonia who didn't look at father and son,
side by side, and wonder.
Trust the ones who give you love
life has just begun, son.
Her skin is water, her tongue is fire.
She's your friend
Take it,
If you hesitate she will strike,
Remember that, never hesitate.
Yes, they are like people, you can love them for years,
feed them, nurture them, but still,
they can turn on you.
Come...
He calls me a barbarian! Philip makes a mockery of Dionysus every night!
Women are the only ones who know Dionysus.
My little Achilles.
Stay, Alexander, down.
What is it you..
6 months to this day.
No no, not here.
Drop, bitch, to your king,
King of what? Sheepherders? Men?
*laughing*
I, am of Achilles royal blood.
The blood of Heracles runs in my veins.
Your are nothing but a drunken whore.
You're a foul-mouthed tentative bitch from Hades, And I curse the very name of you!
You think people respect you? You think they dont know your bastards?
Damn your sorceress soul! Keep him here like one of your snakes?
I told you not! I told you not!
You'll obey me.
I will not.
You'll obey me or I'll kill you.. with my own hands.
Stop! Stop! Stop!
Your majesty! No!
..in the name of the Gods!
He will never be yours, NEVER!
In my womb I carried my avenger.
8 years later
In the world he grew up to, I have come to believe it was in friendship,
..that Alexander found his sanity.
You don't need much to fight, when you're in the front ranks of a battle...
..Facing some northern barbarian tribe. Courage won't be in the lining of your stomach, Nearchus...
..it's in the heart of a man!
You dont need to eat everyday...or until you're full, Ptolemy..
..but only to lie in bed in the morning, when you can have some good bean soup, Cassander...
..after a force night march. Come on, Alexander! Come on!
Who'd ever respect you as a king? You think it's because of your father?
The first rule of war is to do what you ask your men to do:
no more, no less.
That's it, well done my student! Good wrestling! That's what I want!
come come come...You did well but you lost,
..now both of you will congratulate the other. Go on!
Would you want me to let you win, Alexander?
Your right. But I promise you I will beat you one day, Hephaistion.
It was said later that Alexander was never defeated
except by Hephaistion's thighs.
Although an inferior race,
the persians control at least four fifths of the known world,
But is it possible, the source of Egypt's mighty river Nile,
could rise in these distance mountains of the outer earth?
If so, an experienced navigator could find his way,
here, by this river east,
down into the great plains of India,
Out into the eastern ocean, and into the world,
and by this route, up the Nile, back to Egypt,
into the middle sea, and home, to Greece.
Now if only these frogs could look outward and act on their favorite position of the center,
Greece could rule the world.
Why is it master, in myth these lands you speak of are known?
India, where Heracles, and Dionysus traveled.
All these men who went east: Thesius, Jason, Achilles...were victorious?
From generation to generation their stories have been past on. Why?
..unless there was truth to them?
Tales of amazons?
No, Alexander, only common people believe these tales.
..As they believe most anything.
We are here precisely to educate ourselves against such foolish passions.
But if we are superior to the persians as you say,
why do we not rule them?
It is, it has always been our greek dream to go east.
The east has a way of swallowing men and their dreams.
Master, master...
Yes?
Master?
Out with it, out with it.
Why are the persians so cruel?
That is not the subject for today, Nearchus.
But it is true, the oriental races are known for their barbarity,
and their slavish devotion to their senses,
Excess in all things, is the undoing of men!
That is why we Greeks are superior.
We practice control of our senses, moderation. We hope!
And what of Achilles at Troy master? Was he not excessive?
Achilles simply lacks restraint. He dominates other men so completely,
that even when he withdraws from battle, crazed with grief,
..over his dead lover Patroclus, he seriously endangers his own army!
He is a deeply selfish man.
Then would you say that the love between Achilles and Patroclus is a corrupting one?
When men lie together in lust, it is a surrender to the passions,
and does nothing for the excellence in us,
..nor does any other excess, Cassander, ..jealousy among them,
but when men lie together and knowledge and virtue are passed between them,
that is pure, and excellent,
when they compete to bring out the good,
the best in each other, this is the love between men,
that can build the city state and lift us from our frog pond.
Philip brought such as Aristotle from Athens to educate our rough people,
and growing more ambitious, he now planned the invasion of Persia.
Is that the best you can do, Cleitus? Back to the phalanx with you!
I'll ride him myself!
No one can ride that beast your majesty.
He's been beaten far too often.
My noble king, he's a high spirited animal, yeah.. HIGH SPIRITED!
..and worthy of Philip of Macedon. But for three and a half coins...I couldn't possibly make a profit on him. But for you..
Why would I want such a beast? I already have a wife!
Do I seem so old?
A broken neck comes free, fool. He's too nervous for battle. You'll sell him for meat.
Buy him for me father, I'll ride him.
And if you don't?
I'll pay for him myself.
With what, your singing voice?
I'll pay you.
I tell you the horse can't be ridden lad, his mind is broken.
He can be ridden, by me.
If you can rule that horse I'll make him yours! At half the price.
That horse will kill him Philip. It'll break the boy in two.
Really? Perhaps you'll make a musician out of him yet.
The boy does not have the craft, Philip. He could hurt himself.
He will have to figure that out for himself. It's time.
You do not like your shadow. Do ya?
It is like a dark spirit coming up sketchy,
See? That's us.
It's just a trick of Apollo's.
He's the god of, Sun.
But I'll show you how to outwit him, ..you and me together.
Bucephalus. That is what I'll call you... strong and stubborn.
Bucephalus and Alexander.
Come now, let's ride together.
Ahhhh, he's got some tight in 'em yet!
Attalus, Cleitus, for Zeus's sake, he beat ya man!
Now Bucephalus, show them.
My son, my son!
You remember Achilles?
He is my favorite.
Why?
Because he loved Patroclus and avenged his death.
And his fate?
That he must die young, but with great glory.
Did he have a choice?
Oh yes: to live a long life, but there would be no glory.
You dream of glory Alexander, your mother encourages you.
There is no glory with out suffering, and this she will not allow.
One day I will be on walls like these.
Prometheus stole the secret of fire and gave it to man,
Made Zeus so angry,
he chained Prometheus to a rock in the Great Caucasas,
and each day, his eagle pecked out the poor man's liver,
each night it grew back again, so that it could be eaten the next day,
miserable fate.
Why?
Who knows these things, anyway,
Oedipus, tore out his eyes,
He found out, he'd murdered his father, and married his mother,
knowledge that came too late,
Medea. She slaughtered her two children in vengeance,
When Jason left her for a younger wife.
My mother would never hurt me.
Never easy to escape our mothers Alexander,
All your life, beware of women. They're far more dangerous than men.
Heracles, even after he accomplished his 12 labors,
He was punished with madness, slaughtered his 3 children
Poor Heracles. Great Heracles.
All greatness comes from loss.
Even you, the Gods will one day judge harshly.
When I'm king like you one day father.
Don't rush the day boy. You risk all!
My father threw me into battle before I knew how to fight.
When I'd killed my first man he said "Now you know"
I hated him then,
But I understand why now. A king isn't born Alexander,
He is made... by stealing, by suffering,
A king must know how to hurt those he loves.
It is lonely. Ask Heracles.
ask any of them! Fate is cruel.
No man or woman could be too powerful or too beautiful, without disaster befalling.
They laugh when you rise too high,
..crush everything you built with the wind.
The glory they give, in the end..they take away.
They make of us slaves.
8 years later
Pregnant. So soon! The little whore..
You will marry her in the spring, during Dionysus' festival,
And when her first son is born, her sweet uncle Attalus,
Will convince Philip to name the boy, his successor,
With himself as regent.
And you,
you will be sent on some impossible mission,
Against some monstrous northern tribe, to be mutilated.
In one more meaningless battle over cattle.
And I, no longer queen, will be put to death with your sister,
And the remaining members of our family.
I wish, sometimes you could see the light mother.
The truth is, he's taken nothing from you that you have not been long without.
The only way is to strike. Announce your marriage to a Macedonian, NOW.
Beget a child of pure blood,
he would be one of them, not mine,
And he would have no choice but to make you king,
..there is still Kynnane.
Eurydice was perfect. If your father, that pig had not ravaged her first!
Say nothing more of my father! Do you hear me? Say nothing.
Your right, forgive me,
a mother loves too much.
Who shall I sing to sleep at night anymore?
I wish, I wish we could spend more time together,
like we used to, when you were the sweetest boy.
There's never been time mother,
since I was a child, I have been groomed to be ever the best.
Aaw my poor child, like Achilles,
cursed by your greatness.
Take my strength.
You must never confuse your feelings with your duties, Alexander.
A king must make public gestures for the common people.
I know, but you will be 19 this summer,
and the girls already say you dont like them,
You like Hephaistion more,
I understand it is natural for a young man,
But if you go to Asia with out leaving your successor you risk all.
Hephaistion loves me,
..as I am, not who.
Loves? Loves?
In the name of Dionysus,
...understand how Philip thinks. For your own sake.
Your life hangs in the balance,
..his spies are inside your closest...
Stop!
I am his only worthy son, you crazed woman,
he would never hurt me,
Even if Eurydice had a boy, he'd be 20 before he would let him rule.
Yes, and you would be 40,
old and wise, like Parmenion, and Philip's young son would be 20,
Like you, now. But raised by him.
His blood. He will never give you the throne now, Alexander.
NEVER.
Ahhh, come Alexander drink this sadness away!
It's only thirst can quench sorrow, Ptolemy.
There is only one thing better than winning a battle son,
..and that's the taste of a new woman.
You'll find it far sweeter than self pity.
Pausianas, you bore me.
Alexander, Alexander I've found you the right girl.
What's your name?
Antigone.
Huh, what's your name?
Antigone.
I love you my lil' imp!
And I love you Cleitus.
Would you prefer a seat, Cleitus?
I'll sleep in my grave, Hephaistion.
I prefer dancing!
A toast! a toast!
I drink to our great friends and to our new union,
Macedonia and Greece! Equals in greatness!
to Philip our King!
without whom this union could not be possible.
Come, Attalus! Leave some damn air in the hall!
And last I drink to the king's marriage..
to my niece, Eurydice. A Macedonian queen we can be proud of!
To Philip and Eurydice, and to their legitimate sons!
You son of a dog, come then!
This is my wedding not some public brawl!
Apologize by Zeus before you dishonor me.
You defend the man who called my mother a whore and me a bastard!.. and I dishonor you?
Ah! You listen like your mother! Attalus is my family now, the same as you.
Then choose your relatives more carefully.
Don't expect me to sit here and watch you shame yourself.
Shame?
You insult me!
I insult you? Am I not fit to lick the ground my mother walks on?
You dog!.. questioning your queen!
Shame? I have nothing to be ashamed of you arrogant brat,
I'll marry the girl if I want,
And I'll have as many sons as I want and there's nothing you or your harpy mother could do about it!
Why, you drunken man, must you think everything I do and say comes from my mother?
Because I know her heart, by Hera.
And I see her in your eyes. You come at this throne too much!
Now we all know that she-wolf of a mother of yours wants me dead!
Well you can both dream, boy!
Come, Philip, this is the wine talking, leave the boy! It'll wait 'til morning.
No, I command you!
Apologize to your kinsmen.
Apologize!
NO kinsmen to me.
Goodnight old man, and when my mother re-marries,
I'll invite you to her wedding.
You bastard!
You'll obey me, come here!
And this is the man who is going to take you from Greece to Persia?
He can't even make it from one couch to the next.
Get out of my palace! You're exiled, you bastard!
Banished from the land! You're not welcome here!
You're no son of mine.
Everything, suddenly changed for him,
His father, King Philip, was murdered,
..and Alexander 20
..became the new ruler of Macedonia.
And breaking their treaties with us, dismissing Alexander as an untried boy,
Several Greek city-states,
rose up in revolt, much to Persia's delight, and
.. half-sponsored by their gold.
And truly Alexander could love like no other,
but to betray him was to arrouse a vast and frightening anger,
..and he massacred several thousand of the men of that tragic city, Thebes,
and sold the survivors into slavery.
This, as intended, stunned and defeated the greeks,
and though in the end he treated most populations with..magnanimity,
it is these exceptions,
Thebes, Gaza in Syria and later, Persepholis in Persia and others,
..that are always remembered by those who hate Alexander and all he stood for.
At 21, Alexander invaded Asia
with an army of 40,000 trained men.
And liberating one city state after the other,
he conquered all of western Asia, south to Egypt,
where he was declared Pharoah of Egypt,
worshiped as a god.
It was in Egypt that the respected oracle at Siwah
declared him the true son of Zeus.
He finally provoked Darius himself to battle
in the heart of the Persian empire, near Babylon.
Gaugamela, Persia
It was mad, 40,000 of us against 250,000 barbarians.
It was the day Alexander had waited for all his life.
Alexander. Son of a god.
It was a myth of course, at least it started as a myth,
I know, I was there, I saw his eyes.
There... in the crack of the Persian line, we'll go for the head.
Kill their eyes?
The gods have brought him to us at last!
If I die, it's one Macedonian,
..but the Persians they cannot move with out Darius' command.
Here, right here we cut the throat of the Persian army.
This is madness, you will never get withing a hundred paces of him.
Have you seen the sheer size of his force, Alexander?
Not IF you hold him on the left, my brave Parmenion,
with your son, Philotas, for just one, two hours tomorrow.
And you, unbreakable Antigonus. The center phalanx.
Perdiccas.
Leonnatus.
Nearchus.
Polyperchon.
If you pin them on the walls of Ursyrisus here in the center,
their cavalry will follow me out to the right,
..and when bold Cassander breaks,
stretching their left, a hole will open,
Then I and my cavalry, our revered Cleitus,
Ptolemy and Hephaistion will strike through that gap,
and deal the death blow to Darius' head.
Alexander, even with luck, timing, the gods, we must route them tomorrow,
destroy their army completely!
..Or we'll be picked apart by bandit tribes on a long journey home.
Right.
You speak of home and retreat,
but do you understand, Parmenion,
..Babylon is my new home.
Alexander, if we must fight,
..do so with stealth, use your numbers well,
we should attack tonight when they least expect us.
I didn't cross Asia to steal this victory, Cassander.
No, you are too honorable for that,
No doubt influenced from sleeping with tales of Troy under your pillow.
But your father was no lover of Homer's.
The lands west of the Euphrates handed over. The hand of his daughter in marriage,
..since when has a greek ever been given such honors?
This are not honors, Parmenion. They are bribes!
..which the greeks have accepted.. TOO LONG!
Do you forget that the man who murdered my father lies across the valley floor?
Come Alexander, we are still not really sure if it was Persian gold behind the assassination.
Your father taught you never to surrender your reason, to your passion.
Now I urge you to regroup!
Fall back to the coast, raise a larger force.
I would.. if I were Parmenion.
but I am Alexander.
And no more than Earth has two Suns will Asia bear two kings.
These are my terms, and if Darius isn't a coward who hides behind his men,
..then he will come to me tomorrow,
And when he bows down to Greece,
..Alexander'll be merciful.
By Aries' chains he's got balls, Men!
And we'll give the man his due, Parmenion!
..and lads feast tonight, for tomorrow we will dine in Hades.
To whom do you pray?
Phobos.
Fear.
..a bad omen.
More so for Darius.
I have come to believe that fear of death drives all men, Hephaistion.
This we didn't learn as school boys.
It is the cause of all our misfortunes.
So, mighty Crateros!
Your majesty.
Are you ready for tomorrow's dawn?
Ah, it's been too long coming if you ask me, I mean...they're skittish as colts.
Good, fear makes men fight better.
Post your sentries alertly, but rest them well.
Don't you worry General, I have been known to sleep with my eyes open as a baby's arse.
Only 'cause someone might steal his loot sire.
After tomorrow even the thrifty among you will shall be kings.
God be with us your majesty.
We'll stain the ground with Persian blood, my king.
I've always believed, Alexander..
..this seems so much bigger than us.
Did Patroclus doubt Achilles when they stood side by side at seige of Troy?
Patroclus died first.
If you do, if you were to fall Hephaistion, even though Macedonia would lose a king,
I will avenge you.. and follow you down to the house of death.
I would do the same.
On the eve of battle it is hardest to be alone.
Then perhaps,
perhaps this is farewell then,
my Alexander.
Fear not Hephaistion,
we are at the beginning.
Blood makes the world rise.
blood makes the rain fall.
blood makes the earth grow.
In blood
..all men are born and die.
Blood is the food of the gods below.
Help me Bucephalus, today we ride to our destiny.
Neoptolemos, I remember you the day you took the seige tower at Tyre.
You were a giant! And today how will you fight?
Dexippos. By Athena... how far was it you threw your man wrestling at the last Olympic games?
Will you match it with your spear?
And Timander, son of Menander, a great soldier to my father,
...I still mourn your brother Hodeus,
Who died so bravely at Halicarnassus.
What an honored family you descend from Timander!
You fight for them today.
You have all honored your country and your ancestors,
And now we come to this most distant place in Asia,
Where across from us
Darius has at last gathered a vast army...
But ask yourselves, Who is this great king,
who pays assassins in gold coins to murder my father,
our king, in a most despicable, and cowardly manner,
and who is this great King Darius who enslaves his own men to fight?
Who is this king, but a king of air?
These men do not fight for their homes.
They fight because this king tells them they must.
We are here today, as Macedonian free men.
Some of you, perhaps myself,
Will not live to see the sun set over these mountains today,
But I say to you, what every warrior has known since the beginning of time,
Conquer your fear, and I promise you will conquer death.
You will answer, I was here this day at Gaugamela,
for the freedom
and glory
of Greece!
ZEUS be WITH US!!
Where does he go?
Don't know majesty.
Envelope him, Bessos.
He makes a mistake, Fadnippos.
Yes, my king.
Be brave men.
Macedonian Left
...and keep watching the calvary on the left!
Pick up the pace!
Prepare to repel chariots!
Alexander! Go!
Left Turn!
Father! We must fall back to the gally, Father!
Hurry and get word to Alexander. MOVE!
Come Macedonians! Ride! Ride!
Break for the hole!
Son!
Go and tell Alexander yourself,
..and if he won't listen, then survive me, and avenge this betrayal.
Pay attention lad, your father still watches over you!
Darius!
Ride your horses!
Darius!
Go! Go!
We can reach those mountains by sunset,
..go all night and catch Darius at dawn.
Provision the horses!
Alexander, Alexander my father is lost,
..they've overrun the flank and they're into the baggage train!
Parmenion's crumbling!
Ah!!!!
Alexander if you chase them, you risk losing your army here.
And if we capture him we gain an empire.
You can run to the ends of the earth you coward,
But you will never run far enough.
To Parmenion!
You bleed free my lord, May I tend to your wound?
No, Hermolaos, not now.
There's far worse than me, go to them, help them.
Your majesty,
You're very brave. What shall I call you?
Gloukas, my king.
Gloukas. And where is your home?
Illyria.
Let your body go loose.
Think of home now. Be brave again, Gloukas.
and you will live on in glory.
Alexander.
The Persian Empire, the greatest the world had yet known, was destroyed.
And Alexander at 25 was now King of all.
Alexander once said to me, "We are most alone when we are with the myths."
Babylon, Persia
And thus it came to pass in a dream as mythical to all greeks
as Achilles defeating the Trojans,
That there is one glorious moment in time,
Alexander was loved by all.
But in the end, I believe Babylon was a far easier mistress to enter,
..than she was to leave.
Imagine the minds that conceived this!
With architects and engineers like these,
..we can build cities such as we only dreamed.
Aristotle may have called them barbarians, but he never saw Babylon!
We have enough gold here to support another three generations of Macedonian armies.
Macedonia would soon corrupt, Cassander,
..wealth in great quantities brings the crows.
Not for the men who fought I trust?
We'll pay them well, Antigonus.
But not as mercenaries for future services.
Now you sound like Philip.
Philip never saw Babylon.
No he didn't, Hefaistion.
Alexander, I know you think me a stiff old sod, but,
..whatever our differences, know this day,
Your father would be very proud of you.
Thank you, Parmenion.
And I ask you to forgive me, my own anger. My pride.
They too, blind me.
Yes, the grandsons of goat herders,
..we now rule two million square miles.
Not if we keep giving it all away!
But, none of you fear that this great fortune,
..may drive us all to destruction.
You over value us. For as long as Darius breathes, he is the legitimate King of Asia,
..and I but the king of air.
But he has no power, Alexander!
He's lost in the mountains with no army.
As long as he's lost, Philotas, he can be believed in.
Only when he's found will it be decided.
It seems you've already made up your mind, Alexander.
We must finish what we failed to do at Gaugamela, Parmenium.
We must hunt Darius down, if it be to the ends of Earth.
That was not your father's mission.
And I am not my father.
Come on, have you so quickly forgotten? Fortune favors the bold!
By the gods! What is this?
A wonder Darius fled, when he had this to come back to!
I venture one for every night of the year.
Help me Aphrodite! How will I ever go back to Lysimacheia after this?
I advise you not to touch the anatomy. Here, I'll take care of it for you.
Aristotle was, perhaps, present.
Do these images fool us with their beauty and degrade our souls?
Great King Alexander!
The princess of the thousand roses, and eldest daughter of the formerly great King Darius.
Stateira!
Noble Alexander.
I come to beg for the lives of my sisters,
my mother, my grandmother.
You are not wrong, Princess Stateira.
He, too, is Alexander.
Please, I plead for my families lives,
sell me as a slave, great king, but please..
Look now, in my eyes,
Princess,
and tell me, how would you like to be treated?
As I am, a princess.
Then so be it. You and your family shall be treated as my family.
You shall live in this palace as long as you choose,
Have you any other requests for me my noble Princess?
No, everything I wish,
I have...
Requested.
You truly are a queen.
Yes, she would be a perfect match for you, but you do nothing.
Three months you have been in Babylon, and leave me in Pella,
..at the mercy of your enemies, of which you have many.
Antipater, accustomed now to the power that you have given him,
I must watch him grow stronger.
I am certain that he communicates secretly with Parmenion,
..who is dangerous. But beware most of all of those closest to you,
They are like snakes and can be turned.
General Crateros!
Cassander is Antipater's son.
Even Cleitus, your fathers favorite.
And Ptolemy, your friend, yes,
..but beware of men who think too much, they blind themselves.
Only Hephaistion do I leave out,
..but all of them you make rich, while your mother and yourself,
You leave in generous poverty.
Why won't you ever believe me?
It is only a dark mind like mine that can know these secrets of the heart.
For they are dark, Alexander.
So dark. But in you,
..the son of Zeus, lies the light of the world!
Your companions will be shadows in the underworld,
..when you are a name living forever in history,
..as the most glorious shining light of youth.
Forever young. Forever inspiring!
Never will there be an Alexander like you,
Alexander the Great!
Remember, bring me to Babylon as you promised.
I can only help you, for they know if they harm you,
..they will face my wrath, as Queen of Babylon.
It's a high ransom she charges for nine months lodging in the womb.
Bring her, Alexander. It will give her such joy!
Joy?
..and on the cracked mirror of her dreams.
Stay with me tonight, Hephaistion.
I'll take my own bath. Thank you, Bagoas.
The generals question your obsession with Darius.
They say it was never meant for you to be King of Asia.
Naturally. They want only to return to their homes, rich with gold.
But I've seen the future, Hephaistion! I've seen it now a thousand times, on a thousand faces.
These people want, need change.
Aristotle was wrong about them.
How so?
Look at those we have conquered. They leave their dead unburied,
They smash their enemies skulls and drink from it's dust, they mate in public,
What can they think, or sing or write, when none can read?
But as Alexander's army they can go where they never thought possible!
They can soldier, work in the cities,
the Alexandrias, from Egypt to the outer ocean.
We can connect these lands, Hephaistion! And the people,
Some say these Alexandrias have become extensions of Alexander himself,
They draw people into the cities so as to make slaves.
But we've freed them, Hephaistion, from the Persia where everyone lived as slaves!
To free the people of the world,
..such would be beyond the glory of Achilles.
Beyond Heracles! A feat to rival Prometheus,
..who was always a friend to man.
Remember the fates of these heroes. They suffered greatly.
Oh we all suffer. Your father, mine.
They all came to the end of their time,
..and in the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.
You once said the fear of death drives all men,
Are there no other forces?
Is there not love in your life?
Alexander?
I wonder sometimes, if it is not your mother you run from,
So many years, so many miles between you,
What is it you fear?
Who knows these things?
When I was a child, my mother thought me devine, my father weak.
Which am I, Hephaistion?
Weak or Divine?
All I know is I trust only you in this world,
I've missed you. I need you.
It is you I love Hephaistion, no other.
You still hold your head cocked,
Like that,
I have stopped that.
No like a deer listening in the wind,
You strike me still Alexander.
You have eyes like no other,
Oh, I sounded stupid as school boy,
You're everything I care for,
..and by the sweet breath of Aphrodite,
I am so jealous of losing you to this world you want so badly.
You'll never lose me Hephaistion,
I will be with you always,
until the end.
Northeastern Persia
The campaign in the northeast of Persia..
..turned into a hard guerilla war of almost three years.
We chased Darius towards Bactria, but missed taking him by hours.
He was dying when we found him sire,
He asked for water, he drank and died.
The great king Darius had been betrayed by his own commanders.
Fully honoring his corpse,
Alexander hunted down these commanders to unknown lands.
Crossing even beyond the river Oxos, into Sogdia.
We fought them as far as the unknown steppes of Scythia,
Where only legendary heroes had once taught.
The surveyors told us we were now in the borders of where Europe and Asia meet.
In fact, we were totally lost.
Here Alexander founded his tenth Alexandria,
..and settled it with veterans, their women, and any who would dare the frontier life.
Unable to accept defeat in any form,
Alexander persisted in breaking every tribe that resisted,
Until the day he received the head of his last enemy in surrender.
For Alexander, there could be no pretender to the throne of Asia,
..which now included all of Sogdia and Bactria.
It was here that Alexander made one of his most mysterious decisions.
Her eyes tell me, she cares for you Alexander,
Perhaps too much.
In the ways of my country,
Those who love too much, lose everything,
Those who love with irony, last.
Your father must been turning in his grave Alexander,
After all this time, a hill Chief's daughter.
By Athena's justice, this girl has spirit!
And what's the point Alexander?
Just take her as your concubine.
Because I want a son,
Damn you, Philotas.
But then half your nobles have sisters you'd make fine Macedonian mothers.
To take an Asian as my queen not a captive,
Is a sign of deep respect for our subjects,
It will, more than anything, bring us together, unify us.
Which is not to say I won't take a Macedonian one day.
As a second wife, and insult Macedonia.
Alexander! This is about the HONOR of our kingdom.
Exactly, what can be won Alexander?
We came here to Asia to punish them for their crimes. We've achieved that.
Seven years from home,
Now we drift from one far region to another,
Chasing nomads and bandits, when Macedonia bleeds it's manpower..
For what? To build roads in Asia? To give these people cities?
To found cities, and expand our reach is not to drift Parmenion.
What benefit to Macedon?
It's far richer than before!
Look what you give them!
With respect for your age, Parmenion, had you fought better at Gaugamela,
..when your flank was crumbling, we could have had Darius.
How dare you Nearchus!
GENERAL Nearchus to you boy.
Alexander spread our flag too thin! There was nothing my father, any of you could have done.
Sit down.
Alexander, I have known you since you were born,
I supported you at your father's death.
At the very least, for Zeus's sake,
..and in respect to the council that chose you king,
Give us a Macedonian heir. A MACEDONIAN heir.
You have been heard clearly.
PARMENION!
And after the wedding you will take brigades back to Babylon,
Where I look to you, and Antipater in Greece, to maintain our empire and supply this expedition.
I will away to the north with my advance army at Marakand.
And I pray to Apollo you soon realize how far you've turned from your father's path!
Ah damn you Parmenion by the gods and your Apollo!
What was in my father's guts?
Was it over ripened reason like yours?
He never lusted for war Alexander!.. or enjoyed it so!
He consulted his peers in counsel, among equals, hmmn? The Macedonian way.
He didn't make decisions based on his personal desires.
I have taken us further than my father ever dreamed.
Old man, we are in new worlds.
Alexander, be reasonable!
Were they ever meant to be our equals?
Share our rewards? You remember what Aristotle said,
An Asian? What would a wedding vow ever mean to a race that has never kept their word to a Greek?
Aristotle be damned!
By Zeus and all the gods,
What makes you so much better than them, Cassander?
Better than you really are, in you and those like you is this.
Alexander.
What disturbs me most is not your lack of respect for my judgement,
..It's your contempt for a world far older than ours.
And so ten years after his mother's insistence he marry a Macedonian,
Our union, Greek and barbarian,
The most powerful man in the world,
..took a girl of no political significance. Why?
Some say it was for alliance with the tribes.
Others, the desire for a successor,
And yet others said Alexander truly fell in love.
Who Roxane really was,
I doubt that any of us ever saw further than the pools of those black eyes.
Alexander. Special for you!
On this glorious occasion,
I toast this great army that has given so much,
And in honor of them, those of you who set out with us seven long years ago,
I pronounce, all your debts paid forthwith from the royal treasury.
And in honor of my bride,
My beautiful bride,
We recognize the many women who shared the long hard road with us,
I grant them doweries befitting a proper marriage.
But what about our boys?
And lastly, lastly the gods demand no less of us,
That your children with these women be given a proper greek education,
and military training,
Under our protection,
..so as to be the new soldiers of our kingdom in Asia.
I found it in Egypt,
The man that sold it to me said,
..it came from a time when man worshipped sun and stars.
I'll always think of you..
as the sun, Alexander,
And I pray your dream will shine on all men.
I wish you a son! You're a great man!
You love him?
He is Hephaistion.
There are many different ways to love Roxane, come.
You have no fear,
it's fitting,
..a man searches for a woman at Earth's top,
And finds her.
The myth becomes real.
Great man, scared?
You I kill now.
Do it! End it!
I would do the same.
I'll die a fool, for this..
love.
My life is now yours.
You will have my son.
Who is this woman you call your queen, Alexander?
A hill girl? You with your breeding,
Already she makes enemies, with her strong, clumsy nature,
Do not confuse us, I was never a barbarian as Philip said,
We are of Achilles royal blood,
Zeus is your father.
Oh I understand. She brings you some happiness,
But hear me when I tell you act, and act soon,
And after seven years, people wonder, "..who is this king Alexander?"
I have given you ample proof,
Antipater daily undermines your authority,
Return to Babylon and strengthen your center,
Or come home to Macedonia and reorganize,
But do not chase your dream further east!
Your life, and mine depend on it.
Remember
my only thoughts are of you,
As you, too, must face your glorious destiny,
Think kindly of your mother. Provide for me,
protect me from your enemies when you are gone,
And remember always,
..it is I who loves you more than any.
If only you were not a pale reflection from my mother's heart.
Who did this?
Tell me.
Hermolaos
Never will you find a man as devoted as I...
The conspiracy deeply upset Alexander,
Not only because it involved the young pages, who'd shared his dream,
But, more intimately, it implicated Philotas,
His companion from boyhood, who was captain of Alexander's royal guards.
Alexander, remember me for who I am.
I do remember you Philotas, but not as you remember yourself.
It appears to me and your peers here that true weather of your soul is ambition.
NO...
None of us defended Philotas,
..But then again, none of us ever liked him,
And of course his power was carved up by the rest of us.
Before he died, we tortured him,
To find out what his father Parmenion knew,
But this we never learned,
But what to do with Parmenion and his 20,000 troops guarding our supply lines,
was a far more delicate matter,
Was he innnocent in this?
..or had he decided to act before age further withered his power?
We'll be divided.
The men will follow their king.
Alexander won't be there.
Necessity required Alexander to act,
And he'd sealed the camp within the hour of the first accusations against Philotas.
Then go Antigonus. And Cleitus.
..and go quickly.
Three days hard riding sent Antigonus and Cleitus to Parmenion.
His soldiers accepted the finding of guilt against Parmenion,
As they understood that the head of family is responsible for the behavior of all.
Cleitus, Antigonus.
I remember a remark of Bagoas' once,
That love eluded Alexander as much, if not more,
..than finding the end of the world.
In the spring, Alexander marched an army of 150,000,
Across the passes of the Hindu Kush,
Into the unknown,
In his dream, It was the promised route..