Blood makes the world rise.
Blood makes the rain fall.
Blood makes the earth grow.
And in blood...
...all men are born...
...and die.
Blood is the food of the gods below.
Come, Bucephalus. Today we ride to our destiny.
Cavalry, group! Regroup!
Phalanx, turn right!
Phalanx!
Attention!
Neoptolemus! I remember you the day you jumped the siege 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, Addaios, who died so bravely at Halicarnassus.
What an honored family you descend from, Timander.
You fight for them today!
You've 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
Yes, these Persians do seem to be so many!
But look again at this horde and 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?
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.
And when they fight, they will melt away like the air...
...because they know no loyalty to a king of slaves.
But we are not here today as slaves!
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, you will conquer death!
When they ask why you fought so bravely,
you will answer, "I was here this day at Gaugamela...
...for the freedom...
...and glory...
...of Greece!"
Zeus be with us!
Cassander!
Four columns, go!
Where does he go?
I don't know, Majesty.
Envelop him, Bessus.
Hephaistion, go!
Phalanx!
Forward, march!
He makes a mistake, Pharnakes.
Yes, great King.
Be brave, men! Be brave!
Steady on the left, lads!
Bend if you must, but never break, and keep watching the cavalry on the left!
Pick up the pace!
Prepare to repel chariots!
Forward...
...march!
Push them back!
Stay in line! Stay in line!
Hold! Hold!
Cassander!
Go!
Forward, men!
Left turn!
Infantry, clear. Out, now!
Circle to the left!
Hold your position!
Hold!
We must fall back to the gully, Father.
No, hold.
Where is he? We're far too thin! Get word to Alexander! Move!
Yes, sir!
Come, Macedonians! Ride!
Ride!
To Alexander!
Shields, break off!
The shields are here!
Drive for the hole!
Forward!
Back and to the left! Back and to the left!
Philotas!
Father!
Go, 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!
Find your horses!
Darius!
Go! Go!
No!
We can reach those mountains by sunset! Go all night and catch Darius at dawn!
Provision the horses!
Alexander! Alexander!
My father's lost! They've overrun the flank! They're into the baggage train!
Parmenion's crumbling!
Alexander, if you chase him, 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'll never run far enough!
To Parmenion!
You bleed free, my lord. May I tend to your wounds?
No, Hermolaus, not now.
There's far worse than me, go to them.
Your Majesty!
You're very brave.
What shall I call you?
Glaukos, my King!
Glaukos!
- And where's your home? - Illyria.
Let your body go loose.
Think of home now.
Be brave again, Glaukos...
and you will live on in glory.
Alexander.
The Persian Empire, the greatest the world had yet known, was destroyed
And Alexander at twenty-five was now king of all.
Alexander once said to me:
We are most alone when we are with the myths.
And thus, it came to pass, in a dream as mythical...
to all Greeks as Achilles defeating the Trojans,
at this one glorious moment in time...
...Alexander was loved by all.
But in the end, I believe...
Imagine the minds that conceived this.
With architects and engineers like these, we could build cities such as we've 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.
And 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, Antigonous...but not as mercenaries for future services.
Now you sound like Philip.
Philip never saw Babylon.
No, he didn't, Hephaistion.
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.
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!
But...
...none of you fear that this great fortune...
...may drive us all to destruction.
You overvalue 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.
We must finish what we failed to do at Gaugamela.
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?
No 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 Lysimache after this?
I advise you not to touch, Leonnatus. Here, I'll take care of it for you.
Apologies.
Yes, I see.
Aristotle was perhaps prescient.
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 family's lives.
- Sell me as a slave, Great King, but please do not- - 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.
...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.
Cassander is Antipater's son...
Even Cleitus, your father's 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'll give her such joy.
Joy?
When I'm 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.
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've conquered.
They leave their dead unburied,
they smash their enemies' skulls, and drink them as 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 or work in the cities...
...the Alexandrias, from Egypt to the Outer Ocean.
We could 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 of them.
But we 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 Herakles...
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's 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 divine, 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.
No, like a deer, listening in the wind. You strike me still, Alexander.
And you have eyes like no other.
I sound as stupid as a schoolboy about it.
You're everything I care for...
...and by the sweet breath of Aphrodite...
...I'm so jealous of losing you to this world you want so badly.
You'll never lose me, Hephaistion.
I'll be with you always.
Till the end.
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 into unknown lands...
...crossing even beyond the River Oxus into Sogdia...
...where only legendary heroes had once trod.
The surveyors told us we were now on the borders of where Europe and Asia meet.
In fact, as our new maps showed, 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...
... and those who love with irony...
... last.
Your father must be turning in his grave. After all this time, a hill chief's daughter.
This girl has spirit!
But what's the point, Alexander? Just take her as your concubine.
Because I want a son. Damn you, Philotas!
Then half your nobles have sisters who'd make fine Macedonian mothers.
To take an Asian as my Queen, not a captive, is a sign of deep respect.
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? You 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 its manpower!
For what? To build roads in Asia?
To give these people cities?
To found cities and expand our reach is not to drift.
- What benefit to Macedon? - It's far richer than before!
- Look what you give them! - With respect for your age...
... had you fought better at Gaugamela when your flank was crumbling-
How dare you, Nearchus!
General Nearchus to you, boy.
Alexander spread our flank too thin!
There was nothing my father, any of you, could have done!
Philotas!
Alexander, I've known you since you were born.
I supported you at your father's death.
At the very least, for Zeus' sake...
... and in respect to the Council that chose you King...
... give us a Macedonian heir!
A Macedonian heir!
You have been heard clearly.
And after the wedding, you'll take two brigades back to Babylon...
... where I look to you, and Antipater in Greece...
... to maintain our Empire and supply this expedition.
I'll winter in the north with my advance army at Marakand.
I pray to Apollo you soon realize how far you've turned from your father's path!
Damn you, Parmenion, by the gods and your Apollo!
War was in my father's guts, wasn't overripe and reason like yours!
He never lusted for war, Alexander, or enjoyed it so!
He consulted his peers in council...
... among equals, the Macedonian way!
He didn't make decisions based on his personal desires!
I've taken us further than my father ever dreamed!
Old man, we're 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.
What disturbs me most is not your lack of respect for my judgment...
... but your contempt for a world far older than ours.
And so ten years after his mother's insistence he marry a Macedonian...
Through our union, Greek and barbarian may be reconciled in peace.
... 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've shared the long, hard road with us...
... and grant them dowries befitting a proper marriage!
And 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!