We were now a mobile Empire, stretching back thousands of miles to Greece...
... cooks and architects, doctors and surveyors,
moneylenders and wives, children, lovers, whores,
and forget not the slaves...
... that anonymous, bent, working spine of this new beast.
Ravaged or expanded, for better or worse...
... no occupied territory remained the same again.
Although devoted to Roxane, Alexander's visits to her tent diminished...
as a year, then two, went by without a successor...
... wounding Alexander's great pride.
The surveyors are saying that Zeus chained Prometheus up there...
... in one of those caves.
They say there's a giant eagle's nest just above it.
I suppose he drops down each night to peck out poor Prometheus' liver.
You remember what Aristotle told us of these mountains?
Yes, I do.
When we reached these heights, we'd look back and see Macedonia to the West...
... and the Outer Ocean to the East...
... but I fear this world is far larger than anyone dreamed.
A world of Titans.
The scouts have been up every known trail, Alexander.
There is no way across...
... except to the south...
... into India.
Were we gods, we'd breach these walls to the Eastern Ocean.
We will, Alexander. In a few years' time, we will return.
But first the men must see their homes.
Have you found your home, Ptolemy?
More and more, I think it will be Alexandria.
Well, at least it's hot!
Thais, she loved it there.
Women bring men home.
I have no such feeling.
You have Babylon, Alexander...
... where your mother awaits your invitation.
Yes, I have Babylon.
But each land, each boundary I cross...
... I strip away another illusion.
I sense Death will be the last...
... yet still I push harder and harder to reach this...
home.
Where has our eagle gone?
We must go on, Ptolemy...
... until we find an End.
India, the land where the sun was born...
... fabled to be even richer than Persia...
... had never been explored or conquered.
From the beginning, he struggled to unify a land without a center.
Kings who conspired against one another...
... a labyrinth of tribes, urged on by zealots and philosophers...
... to die by the thousands for their strange gods.
Crateros, in the advance party, fought against men with hairy skins...
... who were tiny and lived in the tops of trees.
They're in the trees!
Until Hephaistion convinced us these were animals who imitated men...
... but wore their own skin.
Keep that away from me.
They called this tribe ''monkey''.
It's a monkey.
- Look, Roxane. - Very intelligent.
Hello, little man.
Do they speak?
No, but they do sing and make noises.
And then there was the rain.
Never before had we seen water that fell from the gods...
... for sixty days and nights.
You know better, Machatas!
What's your son going to say?
Come on, man, the older you get, the stronger!
Right, my King.
Give me my horse, Alexander. I'll be with you, at your side.
Watch out for the serpent!
Look out! Look out for the snake!
Hold it! Hold it tight!
Cleitus, bring the snake healers!
Pauvanus! Someone bring Pauvanus!
What happened, lad?
It's to the neck.
Zeus, no! Hold on, Dimnus.
Be brave! Be brave.
Oh, Zeus... no.
Our quest for gold and glory evaporated as we realized there was none to be had.
Tempers worsened.
We massacred all Indians who resisted...
... and with the local water putrid, we drank the strong wine.
As we moved southeast...
... Alexander often returned the lands we conquered to their defeated kings...
... so as to make of them allies.
But this did not sit well with the Army, who began to wonder...
... if Alexander was on some crazed quest to imitate the glory of Herakles.
Give him a kiss!
A kiss for the boy!
To Bagoas!
Bagoas!
And to my mother's god, Dionysus...
... who we're told by our Indian allies, traveled here before Herakles,
some six thousand years ago!
To a hero!
Roxane!
You lose face!
These Indians, they are a low, evil people!
You don't try to understand them.
I try.
But this I know, Alexander...
... in Persia you are great King.
Here, they hate you!
Let us go back to Babylon.
There you are strong.
We'll talk about this later.
Yes, later.
Talk.
I shall come, tonight.
And I shall wait.
Good night, my King.
Your Majesty...
I'll toast to Bagoas!
To Bagoas!
And the 30,000 beautiful Persian boys...
... we're training to fight in this great Army!
And to the memory of Philip!
Had he lived to see his Macedonians transformed into such...
... a pretty Army!
To Philip! To a real hero!
To Philip!
A hero!
And to Cleitus and his new appointment as satrap of Bactria!
Cleitus! Cleitus!
That's a fancy way of putting it, Ptolemy...
... but we all know what a pension and an exile is after thirty years' service!
You call governing this major province ''exile''?
Has Your Majesty given any of his closest companions...
... a province so far from home?
Then you won't make a very good satrap, will you, Cleitus?
So be it!
Let me rot in Macedonian rags...
... rather than shine in Eastern pomp!
I won't quake and bow down like the sycophants you have around you.
Hephaistion...
... Nearchus, Perdiccas!
As Governor of one of our most Asian of satrapies, Cleitus...
... does it not occur to you, that if my Persian subjects bow down before me...
... it's important for them to do so?
Do I insist on Greeks doing the same?
You accept Greek offerings as a son of Zeus, do you not?
Only when offered.
Then why don't you refuse these vain flatteries?
What freedom is this, to bow before you?
You bow before Herakles, do you not? And he was mortal...
... but a son of Zeus.
How can you, so young, compare yourself to Herakles?
Why not?
I've achieved more in my years...
... traveled as far, probably farther.
Herakles did it by himself!
Did you conquer Asia by yourself, Alexander?
Who planned the Asian invasion?
Was it not your father?
Or is his blood no longer good enough?
Zeus-Amon, is it?
You insult me, Cleitus! You mock my family! Be careful!
Never would your father have taken barbarians as his friends...
... or asked us to fight with them as equals in war! Are we not good enough?
I remember a time when we could talk as men, straight to the eye.
None of this scraping and groveling!
And now you kiss them...
... take a barbarian childless wife, and dare call her Queen!
Go quickly, Cleitus, before you ruin your life.
Doesn't your great pride fear the gods any longer?
This Army, this Army's your blood, boy!
Without it, you're nothing!
You no longer serve the purpose of this march! Get him from my sight!
I don't serve your purpose?
What was I serving when I saved your puppy life at Gaugamela?
Do you think we'll be forced now to mate with brown apes, to please Your Highness?
Turn out the guards! Arrest him for treason!
Who's with him?
I call Father Zeus to witness.
I call you to trial before him!
We'll see how deep this conspiracy cuts!
Take him!
You speak about plots against you? What about poor Parmenion?
You made me do your foul deed. Have you no shame? Hypocrite!
Despot! False King!
You and your barbarian mother live in shame!
Cleitus?
No. No. Cleitus?
- Let me pass! - None can enter, your Highness.
I am the queen!
I want to see him. I've waited 3 days.
He says none. Not even you.
He needs me!
No. He doesn't.
And he needs you?
Hephaistion, you make a mistake.
The Army needs your reassurance...
... Alexander.
Yes, like a old lover they forgive, but they will never forget.
You know more than any...
... great deeds are done by men who took and never regretted.
You're Alexander!
Pity and grief will only destroy you.
Have I become so arrogant that I am blind?
Sometimes...
... to expect the best of everyone is arrogance.
Then Cleitus spoke true.
I have become a tyrant.
You're mortal.
And they know it.
And they forgive you because you make them proud of themselves.
I failed, utterly.
Philip, King of Macedonia...
... and leader of the Greeks.
All my life I've waited to see Greeks grovel with respect for Macedonia.
Today is that day.
They say already, ''Philip was a great general...
... but Alexander is simply great.''
But if you ever insult me again, I'll kill you.
I've missed ya! In the spring, Persia!
You'll command my horse from the right.
I'm honored, Father. I wouldn't miss it for all the gold in the world.
Which you one day will have!
Making himself a 13th god.
He's drunk so much wine, my poor Philip, he's lost his mind!
Your Majesty.
Attalus.
I hope the Prince is enjoying the spectacle as much as our Regent.
He's very tired.
Pausanias! Bring the rest of the Guard!
Royal Guard!
To the arena!
March!
No guard, Your Majesty? In all this crowd? Greeks all over the place
Cleitus! My Cleitus!
This man you can always trust, Alexander!
Treat him as you would me. He'll guard your back for you.
Yes, Father.
My people are guard enough today, Cleitus!
Let these Greeks see for themselves how I can walk through my people...
... then let them call me ''tyrant!''
Bring the Main Guard in after my entry only.
Cleitus, make sure the wine flows steady all day. I want them to like me.
Weren't you told? I go in alone.
You follow with the Main Guard.
Go on.
Father, it's best I go with you.
You want the world to see you're my successor.
Is that what she wants?
Don't look so hurt all the time, Alexander, be a man!
Count yourself lucky you were here at all today, after your public display!
By Herakles, by Zeus, by all the gods, obey me this once!
Have courage, Father, and go on your way rejoicing that at each step...
... you may recall your valor.
And now Our Beloved King, Philip...
... in whose honor these wedding games begin!
Pausanias, I told you--
They murdered our king!
Murder! Murder!
The king is slain!
The king lives!
Alexander, son of Philip!
May the gods bless the king!
You're king now. You're king.
May the gods bless Alexander!
Get out.
Go.
How can you behave so shamelessly in public?
Because it was meant to be.
This isn't how I wanted to become king.
No one blames you.
They blame me already behind my back! In secret!
Slander is not power.
Shame is?
Who killed my father?
Tell me, or shall I put you on trial for his murder?
Pausanias.
He had help! Did you help him?
No, never.
Why? Why would I?
So many wanted it, Greeks, Persians, men... .
You're mad! You're cursed!
You've unleashed Furies, you don't even know their power!
Now who is exaggerating?
Even if it was the wish of your heart.
That's a lie! He was my father, I loved him!
He was not your father! You owe no blood debt to that man!
You lie and lie and lie!
So many lies you've spun, like a sorceress, confusing me!
Look at you.
Look at you, you are everything that he was not.
He was coarse, you are refined.
He was a General, and you are a king!
He could not rule himself...
... and you shall rule the world!
You're so cursed by all the gods when you speak like this.
Such thick pride, and no mourning for your husband.
Mourn... him.
What do you know of Philip?
No, Alexander. Zeus is your father.
Act like it!
My first act would be to kill you!
You murdered me in my cradle.
You birthed me in a sack of hate...
... hate you have for those stronger than you, hate you have for men!
I taught you my heart, Alexander...
... and by Zeus and Dionysus, you grew beautiful!
Damn your sorceress soul!
Your soul is mine, Alexander.
No! No!
You've taken from me everything I've ever loved and made me you!
Stop it! Stop acting like a boy!
You're a king! Act like one!
Parmenion is with us, for once!
Execute Attalus without delay, then confiscate their lands, and root out that family forever.
Eurydice? Never!
Laugh, you monster!
You heartbreaker!
How will you live out the year like this, hm?
Have you learned nothing from Philip?
No, from you, Mother.
The best!
What have I done to make you hate me so?
One day, you will understand this...
... but I have only you in my heart...
I know what you need.
Now is the time.
The gods favor you.
Great wealth, power, conquest...
... all you desire, the world is yours!
Take it!
Take it.
He never saw his mother again.
And while he was away, fighting the Northern tribes...
...Olympias had Philip's new wife, Eurydice, and her infant son murdered.
Your Majesty?
By necessity, he had her uncle, Attalus, executed.
Of course you have fears.
We all have fears, because no one has ever gone this far before!
And now we are weeks from the Encircling Ocean, our route home.
We'll build a fleet of ships and sail all the way back down the Nile to Egypt!
And from Alexandria, we shall be home within weeks!
There to be reunited with our loved ones...
...to share our great treasures and tales of Asia...
...and to enjoy our imperishable glory to the ends of time!
Follow Alexander!
What?
Silence?
We're with you, Alexander!
Peucestas.
A hero!
Where are these great Amazons of myth who dare to fight and kill men?
Where have they gone?
We'll never leave you, Alexander!
You, Meleager...
...who are these tribes ahead compared to those we've vanquished?
Lysimachus?
Antigonous?
You break my heart.
You men, afraid?
My king.
I don't like no bellyaching, I won't tolerate it in any of my units.
But I lost many a man.
Young ones, never been with a woman.
Some died of disease.
Some were butchered in Scythia, by the banks of the Oxus.
Some died good.
Some just didn't get no luck...
...but they died.
40,000 I come over with eight years ago...
...and we march after you, more than ten thousand miles.
In the rain and the sun, we fought for you.
Some of us, fifty battles we've been in.
We killed many a barbarian.
And now when I look around, how many of them faces do I see?
And now you want us to fight more of these crazy monkey tribes east of here.
We hear talk of thousands of these elephant monsters, cross a hundred more rivers!
Crateros!
Good Crateros!
Who better than you to speak, most noble of men.
But you know there's no part of me without a scar or a bone broken.
By sword, knife, stone, catapult, and club...
...I've shared every hardship with all of you!
Aye, you have, my king, and we love you for it!
But by Zeus, too many have died!
You have no children, Alexander...
...and we're just humble men, we seek no disturbance with the gods.
All we wish for...is to see our children...
...and our wives, and our grandchildren, one last time...
...before we join our brothers in that dark House they call Hades!
Yes! You're right, Crateros!
I have been negligent.
I should have sent you veterans home sooner and I will!
The first of you shall be the Silver Shields.
And then every man who's served 7 years...
...with full pensions from our treasury!
And respected...
...rich, loved, you'll be treated by your wives and children as heroes
...for the rest of your lives...
...and enjoy a peaceful death!
But you dream, Crateros!
Your simplicity long ended when you took Persian mistresses and children...
...and you thickened your holdings with plunder and jewels...
...because you've fallen in love with all the things in life that destroy men!
Do you not see!
And you, as well as I, know...
...that as the years decline and the memories stale...
...and all your great victories fade it will always be remembered,
you left your king in Asia!
For I will go on, with my Asians!
We're tired of glory!
To the jackals with you then, Alexander!
We come for you and you discard us! Shame!
We want to see our wives and children before we die!
I've got children I haven't even seen!
I want to see my children!
Trust Alexander!
Let him speak!
I paid for your bastard children! I've taken nothing for myself!
And all I've asked of you was one more month!
Shame!
That's your King!
What would your father say?
I've taken you further than my father ever dreamed!
Too far!
So go home! I look to the barbarians for their courage!
I go east!
He wants us all dead, so no one can speak of his crimes!
Who said that?
We'll never make it back to Macedonia!
You despicable coward! Come forth! Make your accusations public!
Why? So you can have us killed?
Son of Zeus!
You desecrate your real father's memory
Or did you murder him like you did Cleitus?
Hide! Hide in this mob! Because I will take your life--
Get back to your tents, you cowards!
You insult my honor and my paternity!
Arrest him!
And him! Yes!
And you, this loudmouth Demetrios!
You call me murderer? I have no such blood on my hands!
And him. Yes, you'll know the pain of treason!
You mock my shame for Cleitus and say I would harm a hair of my father's head!
After all I've done for you, you swine!
You cowards! Traitors!
Come on, then! Where are your daggers?
He drove on, south to the Outer Ocean.
In smashing the mutiny and executing the ringleaders...
...he did nothing, to my mind, that any general in wartime would not have done.
But clearly the Army was divided...
...and Alexander was no longer loved by all.
Stay calm.
Together we are strong as gods!
Cover with your left...
...strike hard with your right.
Fear is rot! A waste of time!
Lock shields!
Battle positions!
Move!
Choppers, prepare your knives!
Follow me!
Shields steady!
Strike hard, boys! Strike hard!
Come, Macedonians!
Why do you hang back! Hurry!
Split to thirds!
Regroup and encircle!
Behind us! Cover your back!
Hold the line!
- We're surrounded! - We must hold!
No! Cavalry on me!
Follow Alexander!
Charge!
The phalanx is in jeopardy!
Meleager, ride to Pharnakes and tell him return to the center at once!
Amyntas, find Hephaistion at the riverbank and bring all cavalry to the center!
We must reach Crateros before it's too late!
Hephaistion! To the center!
Come, Macedonians! Ride! Ride!
Coenus! Get out of there!
No!
Hold together, Macedonians!
Regroup!
The horses won't go! On foot then!
Fall back, men!
Fall back!
Come, Bucephalus.
You see... Fear not, my friend...
...it is only sun and shadow.
You and I, together, one last time, Bucephalus.
Retreat!
Isn't it a lovely thing to live with great courage...
...and to die living an everlasting fame?
Come, Macedonians,
why do you retreat? Do you want to live forever?
In the name of Zeus, attack!
Attack!
Alexander!
The King is down!
To the King!
In the name of your king!
Nearchus, how is he? How is he?
It was the bloodiest of his battles.
Pure butchery...
...the end of all reason.
We'd never be men again.
He lives! Alexander!
Men of Macedon...
...we're going home!
The gods be with you, Alexander! We love you!
We're going home!
His life should have ended in India...
but that's myth.
In life, Herakles died of a poisoned shirt...
...given him in error by his jealous wife.
Making his devotions to the gods at the end of the great journey...
...Alexander bade the East farewell, and marched this army directly west...
...across the great Gedrosian Desert...
...seeking the shortest route home to Babylon.
To this day, there is no accounting of how many died.
It was the worst blunder of his life.
And when he finally re-entered Babylon, after six years in the far East...
...Alexander again seized the imagination of the world...
...by taking two more wives.
Just last night he was...
It's the water, Your Majesty!
He mixed it with the wine.
But, how can this be? Typhus, of India?
I wouldn't tax yourself, Your Majesty. A few good night's rest will do it.
But no wine or cold chicken--
I feel better.
Soon, I'll be up.
We leave for Arabia in the spring and I couldn't leave without you.
Arabia
You used to dress me up like a sheik...
...wave your wooden scimitar.
You were the only one who'd never let me win.
The only one who's ever been honest with me.
You saved me from myself.
Please don't leave me, Hephaistion.
My Alexander.
I remember the young man who wants to be Achilles...
...and then outdid him.
And you Patroclus.
And then what happened?
Ours is a myth only young men believe.
But how beautiful a myth it was.
We reach...we fall.
Oh, Hephaistion!
I worry for you without me.
I am nothing without you!
Come, fight, Hephaistion!
We'll die together.
It's our destiny.
We'll have children with our wives...
...and our sons will play together as we once did.
A thousand ships we'll launch from here, Hephaistion.
We'll round Arabia...
...and sail up the Gulf to Egypt.
From there we'll build a channel through the desert and out to the Middle Sea.
And then we'll move on Carthage.
And that great island, Sicily, they'll pay large tribute.
After that, the Roman tribe, good fighters!
We'll beat them...
...and then explore the northern forests,
...and out the Pillars of Herakles to the Western Ocean!
And then one day, not ten years from now...
...Babylon, with its deep-water harbor, will be the center of the World!
The Alexandrias will grow, populations will mix and travel freely.
Asia and Europe will come together.
And we'll grow old, Hephaistion...
...looking out our balcony at this New World.
Hephaistion?
Where is this Doctor?
I can't explain this, your Majesty.
It's not possible! I swear by Apollo--
Execute him!
Take him out, now, and execute him!
Come away
Liars! Liars! You all hated him! All of you!
Get out!
Get out, now!
Be gone with you! Harpies! Get out! Get out!
Are you drunk again? Get out.
- He's dead. - Who?
Many hated him...
...but I don't think any other would have dared!
Hephaistion is dead?
Are you mad?
You monster!
Are you mad?
You've taken from me all that I've ever loved!
May all the Furies through time damn your miserable heart!
Obey me!
I have your child!
Alexander, I have your child!
Alexander, my husband, my King! We have a son!
My poor, poor, ill-fated son!
Never touch me again!
No!
One last toast...
...before the dawn.
To my old...friends!
And to the myths!
Yes! Go on! Finish it!
To the next dawn!
Rest your eyes my little son
Yes, come.
Come to Babylon...
I await you. Your only, loving son.
Wait!
Vultures!
Your son, Alexander!
Just three more months!
Please live!
Alexander, we beg you.
Tell us who.
Who will rule this great empire? Who do you want, Alexander?
Fear not. We are at the beginning.
The myth becomes real.
Beyond Herakles...
I'll be on walls like these.
When this is over, all that matters is what you've done.
I'll remember.
Zeus is your father!
The Army will divide.
Satrapies will revolt. Without your orders, there'll be war.
Pray tell us, who?
It is I who love you more than any.
What did he say?
To the best.
He said, ''To the best.''
No, he said, ''To Crateros.''
To Crateros? Why would he say Crateros?
Babylon, Persia June 323 B.C.
On the 10th of June...
...a month short of his 33rd year,
Alexander's great heart...
...finally gave out, and as he vowed, he joined Hephaistion.
But in his short life, he achieved, without doubt...
...the mythic glory of his ancestor Achilles...
...and more.
His sacrifice was an early death...
...but in keeping to his side of the bargain...
...I cannot help but feel Alexander conquered Death as well.
Olympias' transgression in the murder of his father...
...is to my mind, a probability.
His? A burden.
Alexander was too in love with glory for him to steal it.
But by blood, and blood alone...
...he was guilty.
The body stays in Babylon.
Within hours, we were fighting like jackals for his corpse.
The wars of the world had begun.
40 years off and on they endured...
...Cassander in Greece, Crateros
and Antigonous in western Asia...
...Solucas and Perdiccas in the East, myself in Egypt...
...until we divided his Empire in four parts.
Gentlemen, we are not savages!
Cassander certainly proved his will to power...
...when seven years later, he had Olympias executed.
And within twelve years, he achieved...
...the complete destruction of Alexander's bloodline...
...when he poisoned Roxane and Alexander's thirteen-year-old son...
...the true heir to the Empire.
But the truth is never simple...
...and yet it is.
The truth is, we did kill him.
By silence, we consented.
Because we couldn't go on.
What did we have to look forward to but to be discarded in the end like Cleitus!
After all this time, to give away our wealth to Asian sycophants we despised?
Mixing the races, ''harmony'', pah!
Oh, he talked of these things...
But wasn't it really about Alexander, and another population ready to obey him?
I never believed in his dream.
None of us did.
That's the truth of his life.
The dreamers exhaust us.
They must die before they kill us with their blasted dreams!
Just throw all that away, Cadmos.
It's an old fool's rubbish.
You shall write,
He died of fever and a weakened condition.
Yes, great Pharaoh.
He could've stayed home in Macedonia, married, raised a family.
He'd have died a celebrated man.
But this was not Alexander.
All his life...
...he fought to free himself from fear.
And by this, and this alone, he was made free...
...the freest man I've ever known!
His tragedy was one of increasing loneliness...
...and impatience with those who could not understand.
And if his desire to reconcile Greek and barbarian...
...ended in failure...
...well, what failure!
His failure towered over other men's successes.
I've lived,
I've lived long life, Cadmos...
...but the glory and the memory of man...
...will always belong to the ones who follow their great visions.
And the greatest of these is the one they now call...
...''Megas Alexandros''.
The greatest Alexander of them all.