In the beginning, God created beast and man
so that both might live in friendship
and share dominion over a world at peace.
But in the fullness of time, evil men betrayed God's trust,
and in disobedience to His holy word
waged bloody wars,
not only against their own kind,
but against the apes, whom they reduced to slavery..
Then God, in His wrath, sent the world a savior,
miraculously born of two apes,
who descended on Earth from Earth's own future.
And man was afraid,
for both parent apes possessed the power of speech.
Come on!
Cornelius!
[Gunfire]
so both were brutally murdered.
But the child ape survived
and grew up to set his fellow creatures free
from the yoke of human slavery..
Do.
No!
Yet in the aftermath of this victory.,
the surface of the world was ravaged
by the vilest war in human history..
The great cities of the world split as under
and were flattened.
And out of one such city,
our savior led a remnant of those who survived
in search of greener pastures,
where ape and human might forever live in friendship
according to divine will.
His name was Caesar,
and this is his story. in those far-off days.
You'll never make it,Jake.
Nah, we'll make it.
I'll show you how.
Thanks, Aldo.
You will call me by my proper rank--General!
Yes, General.
Don't put him in the corral.
I won't be long.
Ape shall never kill ape.
Shall ape ever kill man?
You're late, General Aldo.
Come and read this to the class.
I won't.
You won't because you can't,
and you can't because you don't want to learn,
and it is my duty to report this to Caesar.
[Growls]
If my father were a gorilla,
we'd be learning riding instead of writing.
[Laughter]
Silence.
Cornelius, you are Caesar's son and heir.
Being a good rider isn't enough for being a good ruler,
though in human history,
quite a number of military dictators
seem to have thought so.
Now, all of you take up
your charcoal sticks and your parchments
and copy down what I've written.
The best shall be hung from these hooks.
I can think of better things to hang from those hooks.
But, Virgil, can we tamper with time?
- Accept my premise. -What premise?
That since man once learned to travel faster than sound,
he could later have learned to travel faster than light.
We accept.
Imagine a musician giving a live broadcast
from what was once London to what was once New York
on a Wednesday.
He then travels faster than light
from London to New York,
where he arrives--as physicists would confirm--
on the previous Tuesday,
listens to his own broadcast on the Wednesday,
dislikes its quality intensely,
then travels back faster than light to London
in time for him to decide not to give his broadcast.
Come. I'll prove it to you logically.
Good, Cornelius,
but you've made a mistake here.
You have put a " B"
in place of the second " P".
Teacher, have you forgotten your own name?
Everyone has always called me teacher that I had forgotten.
"Ape shall never kill Abe."
Thank you, Cornelius.
That was a very kind thought.
Gorillas. All right, Aldo,
let's start with you.
General Aldo.
With respect, General Aldo,
this is barely legible
and will have to be written again.
Your capital "A" leans over like a tent in a high wind.
Ha ha ha!
And your capital " K"...
"Ape shall never kill Abe."
No, Aldo! No!
Teacher!
Teacher, you've spoken the unspeakable.
In all our years of slavery to mankind,
the word " no" was the one word
we were electrically conditioned to fear.
Caesar has forbidden you its utterance in perpetuity.
An ape may say no to a human,
but a human may never again say no to an ape.
Tell him you're sorry, Abe, and go home
while you've still got a home to go to.
I'll put in a good word for you with Caesar.
General Aldo, I'm sorry.
The writing you destroyed was by Caesar's son.
I did not want you to suffer Caesar's anger!
What do I care for Caesar's anger?
Let me give you a taste of mine!
Grab him!
Stop, teacher! Grab him!
Stop!
Grab him. Grab the teacher!
Stop!
We'll teach the teacher a lesson.
Throw him in the corral, where all humans belong.
I said stop, Aldo.
He broke the law.
With his own mouth, he broke the first law.
I am the law. What has he done?
Caesar, I was there.
Teacher only reverted to type under provocation.
He spoke like a slave master in the old days of our servitude.
When we were conditioned to mechanical obedience.
He uttered a negative imperative.
Could you put that into words
which even Caesar could understand?
Um, he said, " No, Aldo. No."
[Grunts]
The schoolroom was wrecked.
The class is ended.
The schoolroom is closed!
Now we'll go back to riding horses!
Aldo!
You and your friends
will return to the schoolroom
and put it back in order.
Abe, no gorilla is to be dismissed
until everything is back in its place.
Yes, Caesar.
Father, since there won't be any more school today,
may I go out and play?
Can't you study in the house?
I could, Father, but...
Run along and play.
Where are my students?
I was just in the midst
of explaining my theory of time relativity.
If Caesar permits, I would like my--
Caesar permits.
You look concerned, MacDonald.
I am, Caesar.
I think that Aldo's hatred
is not confined to humans.
Look out!
I think Aldo may be riding for a fall.
If only my mother and father,
whom I was too young to remember,
if only they'd lived,
perhaps they would have taught me
if it was right to kill evil
so that good should prevail.
But you know, Caesar, history shows--
oh, no, no, no. That is human history,
not ape history.
Ape never kills ape.
oh, here's the list
of our winter supplies so far.
I've got to be getting along.
I'm starving. I could eat a horse.
A horse?
oh, you remember Lisa.
They used to eat lots of things--
dead cattle, dead chickens, dead pigs.
Now we live and chew nuts
at our master's command.
That will be all, Julie.
Thank you.
We are not your masters.
We're not your equals.
MacDonald, I believe that
when you truly grow to know and trust a person,
you cannot help but like him.
When we grow to know and trust your people,
then we shall all be equals
and remain so until the end of the world.
Which may be sooner than you think.
You are such a pessimist!
or a prophet.
Now that apes are at the helm,
the Earth will sail safely through space
until the end of time,
and Virgil says time has no end,
so you see I cannot believe you.
Would you believe it if you heard it
from the lips of your own parents?
Are my parents alive?
No, but their images and their voices are.
MacDonald, when you talk about my parents,
please do not speak in riddles.
I cannot see them. I cannot hear them.
They came out of the future.
They cannot give me knowledge.
Caesar, you can see them.
You can hear them,
and they can give you knowledge.
How?
Under the dead city where we once lived
in the archives near the old command post,
there are tapes-- sealed tapes--
of Cornelius and Zira
being examined by officials of the American government.
When my brother was Governor Breck's assistant,
he told me about them.
I know where they are,
and I know that they concern Earth's future,
from which your parents came.
But the city was flattened.
The bomb left nothing.
Except, I suspect...
the archive section.
Indeed, many sections of the underground city
were designed to survive the impact
of a 10-megaton overblast.
Well, then the tapes and pictures of my parents--
Are still down there.
ohh...
oh, MacDonald.
I want to see what they look like.
I suppose every orphan does.
I want to hear
what they thought and knew.
The city's radioactive.
oh, yeah, well... let me see.
Who is there among your people
who knows something about radioactivity?
No one.
And among mine?
Who knows everything about everything?
oh... oh, Virgil.
Go find him.
Lisa, you remember your parents.
I was too young when they died to remember mine.
I don't want to have to remember my husband.
I want to love him now.
Well, Virgil will be with us.
Now, we'll take good care.
Say good-bye to Cornelius.
I don't want him to know I'm afraid.
Cornelius.
Father.
I'm going on a journey.
What will you bring me back?
What would you like?
More nuts for my squirrel.
He's growing fast.
So are you.
one day, you will be as tall as a king.
Mandemus.
He's asleep.
Not eternally, I trust.
Mandemus.
Who's there?
Caesar.
What does Caesar want?
Weapons.
For what purpose?
For self-protection
in the pursuit of knowledge.
Self-protection against whom or what?
We don't know.
Well, then what is the point of protecting yourself
against a danger of which you have no knowledge
in pursuit of a knowledge you do not possess?
oh, God.
Is it a knowledge for good or evil?
All knowledge is for good.
only the use to which you put it can be good or evil.
Well put.
Thank you.
The sun is rising.
I should like to get this matter settled before it sets.
Caesar has appointed me
not only as the keeper of this armory,
but as the keeper of his own conscience.
That is why I have asked six boring questions
and now propose to ask a seventh
before issuing or not issuing the weapons you require.
What is the nature of the knowledge
you cannot seek without weapons?
The knowledge of Earth's ultimate fate
recorded on tapes
in the archives of the forbidden city...
Which is contaminated,
but still may be inhabited by humans.
Hmm. Come in.
Name your protective pick.
Three submachine guns.
For?
The removal of obstacles.
Hmm.
1 ...
2...
3.
Now what?
Ammunition.
I really don't hold with knowing the future,
even my own which is short.
A geiger counter.
I mean, if we knew for a fact there was an afterlife,
and that the afterlife was bliss eternal,
we'd all commit suicide in order to be able to enjoy it.
Pistols.
To remove smaller obstacles?
It's a 3-day journey.
With Caesar's permission, MacDonald may want to
shoot, cook, and eat a rabbit.
But who needs three pistols
to shoot one rabbit?
Enjoy your meal.
Thank you.
He may be old, but he's got a mind like a razor.
When I was a boy, he was my teacher.
Let's collect our stores and be on our way.
There it is...
or was.
Like a storm at sea, but solidified.
By a bomb from an armory 1,000 times the size of ours.
And nobody to keep its owner's conscience.
This is the hell
my forefathers used to speak about.
[Geiger Counter Ticking]
Do you know where we are, MacDonald?
Yes.
Now, this is-- I mean was--11th Avenue.
Ape Management was 2 blocks east from here.
The archives section, 2 blocks west,
corner of Breck and Agamon.
Get us there quickly.
[Ticking]
The governor's very irritable lately.
Who wouldn't be, living in this hell
of radiation for all these years?
If the bomb hadn't killed the old governor,
boredom certainly would have.
Alma, I just want somebody to talk to, anybody.
We are at best brave
and at worst mad to be here.
This background radiation alone
will give us 300 roentgens per hour.
Meaning?
That unless we leave this place within 2 hours,
we shall become inmates.
This is a ghost city.
I want to put some flesh on it.
Radioactive flesh?
Well, we're all radiated, but at least we're active.
[Ticking]
[Ticking Gets Louder]
It's getting stronger. We must hurry.
[Alarm Beeps]
oh, Governor, look! F-6! F-6!
[Beeping]
Alert Mendez.
Mendez to control room. Mendez to control room.
Somebody's breached the warning system at entry F-6.
one of our scavengers.
No. It's been locked for years.
It couldn't have been one of us.
It must have been someone else.
Well, that's impossible. There is no one else.
We must act quickly.
- Alma. - Yes, sir?
Work the B console.
Quick, Mendez. Quick! Quick!
oh, quicker! Faster!
[Ticking]
Keep going.
No, no. Back.
This is the place.
That's Caesar,
come back to reconquer his kingdom.
Doesn't he know that the bomb did that?
[Ticking]
[Ticking Gets Louder]
We're still all right.
This way.
Quicker!
There. Hold it.
Can anything live down here for long?
oh, yes.
But in the end, not recognizably.
The black man is the brother
of my predecessor's personal assistant.
He supervised the archives.
I don't think I know the orangutan.
Look!
It's been there for years.
The late governor had this whole place equipped with cameras
to forestall ape conspiracies, as I remember.
Hmm.
Archives.
We haven't been in there since, uh...
I wonder what the devil they want in there.
We'll find the tape that we're looking for
under the heading of " Presidential Commission."
" Proceedings of the Presidential Commission
on Alien Visitors,
1973."
Is this it?
Let's see.
Yes, that's it.
Now, if this thing works,
the picture should come out
on that screen over there.
All security forces, alert.
Check out all sections in areas M-5.
Apprehend 3 strangers you will find there:
one human and two apes.
But caution. I repeat, caution.
If they resist, you may shoot,
but shoot to maim.
We want them alive for interrogation.
If we shoot, we break 12 years of peace.
Yes, it has been rather boring, hasn't it?
My mother.
Who won your war?
It wasn't our war.
It was the gorillas' war.
What did the spaceship's date meter read
after Earth's destruction?
3950.
And you talk to your pupils
about eternity.
There are only 3.
There must be more, but how many?
We'll know when we get them.
My father.
That's my father.
How did apes first acquire the power of speech?
They learned to refuse.
On a historic day, an ape spoke a word
which had been spoken to him by humans.
He said, "no. "
No wonder all of mankind thirsted for my blood
and wanted my birth aborted.
I n the year 3950, apes will destroy Earth.
Not apes, gorillas.
Besides, that's only one future.
How can there be more than one?
You remember the old motorways?
I believe that time is like an endless motorway
with an infinite number of lanes all running from the past into the future.
A driver could change his lanes
and change his future.
If you left this room right now,
you might wind up shot dead.
If you left a minute later,
you might survive.
It's a blind choice,
but you can change lanes.
I know what it is I want to change.
[Rattle]
The camera. It moved.
Are you sure?
Virgil's right.
Governor, we just lost the TV monitor.
I'm not interested in equipment failures.
It wasn't a failure. It was destroyed, sir.
We've got to find another way out of here.
Is there another way?
They got past you? Then shoot on sight.
Never mind about bringing them here.
Just get them.
Don't let anyone escape alive!
Sections 2-5 and R-7 and 8,
form a group here. Quick! Quick!
All right, move out!
Move! Move! Move!
Hurry!
Run!
I've got your guns.
We need another patrol.
Quickly, men. Hurry. Hurry.
The rest of you go to M-5.
What are you waiting for?
To R-8, through the transverse!
Aah!
All forces into exit level 3.
They're getting away! Kill them!
Kill them! Kill them!
[Gunshot]
You knew every bolt and nut in those corridors.
You have 100 armed men. How could they escape?
They were fast and smart, Governor Kolp.
Many of my men were sick,
and the chimp surprised us.
Yeah. He surprised me too, once,
But he's an animal. He's only an animal.
No, Governor.
He's more than an animal.
He can speak.
So can they all.
So speech makes them human?
Speech makes them intelligent,
and intelligence may make them not human, but humane.
Perhaps they came in peace.
Idiot. They were armed.
From what we saw on the monitor,
only for their self-protection.
Let them return in peace.
To where?
To wherever they live.
So they can return to exterminate those of us
the bomb hasn't already exterminated?
Where do they live?
They came with few provisions.
It can't be far.
Which way did they head?
They headed north, Governor.
organize scout parties,
assemble workable equipment,
and follow them to their camp.
Yes, Governor Kolp.
Why, Governor?
So that we can exterminate them.
Stop! It's Caesar!
We should have stayed in the city.
Visiting the city is forbidden.
I know. I forbade it.
Then why?
Aldo, if a king forbids his subjects to wear a crown,
that doesn't mean he can't wear one himself.
Caesar is Caesar.
He went to the city for a reason.
What reason?
I went looking for my past,
but I found our future.
Explain!
You wouldn't understand.
Aldo will make the future--with this!
Well, then Aldo may very soon
be in the past.
Hee hee.
Aah!
Cornelius!
Cornelius, are you all right?
No, Mother. I'm just dead.
Dead?
We were playing war.
War? Cornelius, hasn't your father explained
that war is not a game?
Yes, Mother.
Hasn't he also forbidden you to play with guns?
Yes, Mother.
Then you'll stop it.
Yes, Mother.
Now, come along. Father wants us.
My friends, I have convened
this extraordinary meeting of the council
in order that I may report upon an action
which I deemed necessary:
a reconnaissance expedition to the forbidden city
with Virgil and MacDonald as my aides.
Why MacDonald? Why not a soldier?
Because we went in peace
to what we thought would be a dead city.
But in case there were some survivors,
we took MacDonald with us
so that he could parley with them
and secure permission for our search.
Survivors there are...
maimed,
mutated,
hostile,
and human.
Did the humans follow you here?
We saw no sign of it,
but we must prepare for the day
when they may come out of the city,
when they may come to find us.
No humans in council! No humans in council!
- No! - No! - No!
- No!
Yes!
They are here because I sent for them.
Now that we know the danger,
we need their help and their counsel.
- No! - No! - No!
Yes!
Come. We shall not sit in council with humans.
Now, let us reason together
and make plans.
Governor, somewhere along the line of history,
this bloody chain reaction has got to stop.
A destroys B, B destroys C, C destroys A
and is destroyed by D, who destroys E.
Before anyone knows where they are,
there won't be anyone left to know anything anywhere.
Governor, the captain has come back.
We found it, Governor. We found Ape City.
Where?
This is a gorilla outpost.
Below is a valley with orchards and vineyards,
enough to feed hundreds.
Here is Ape City.
Was it very large?
It is of a size we can deal with, sir.
Were you seen?
No, sir.
Caesar was too busy with a council of war.
one day soon, they'll be coming for us.
No. We're going after them--now.
Captain, you have your orders.
Caesar, on the night of the fires,
you swore an oath that in the future
apes and humans would live together in kindness and peace.
Why are you now making every sort of preparation
to break that oath?
Because unlike the humans in our city,
those in the forbidden city are mad--
mad enough not to want peace and friendship,
but enmity and war.
Did they tell you that?
oh, yes. Yes.
By opening fire on us
without giving us a chance to explain.
You were trespassing on their territory.
But, Lisa, we didn't know the city was inhabited.
But how, if you didn't speak to them,
do you know its inhabitants are mad?
Lisa, you didn't see them.
They're...oh... They're malformed.
Like the freaks in your foster father's circus?
Were they mad?
What's malformed?
Cornelius, go to bed.
I'm giving Riki his water.
Lisa, freaks are different.
These humans are the end product
of nuclear radiation.
They are mutant, and they're mad.
Keep all emergency channels open.
Yes, Governor. All emergency channels will remain open.
If anything should miscarry,
I'll signal you as arranged.
Yes, sir.
Hurry, man. We need it!
The school bus will be operational, Governor.
The rest of the convoy
will join us at junction C.
Get moving.
[Chattering]
Riki!
Well...
they have guns.
We have no guns.
We shall take the guns,
and we shall beat them.
[All Growling]
We are the elite.
We are the super-race.
We have the right to lead.
Without us, there would be no army.
[All Growling]
We need power, guns!
[Growling]
We need power!
Guns! Guns.
Guns are power!
We shall get them,
and we'll beat them with guns.
We will smash the humans.
[Growling]
All humans!
And then we will smash Caesar!
[Twig Snaps]
Hmm?
Look!
It's Caesar's son.
And he overheard every word we said.
Cornelius, come down.
Come down, or else.
[Grunt]
Father!
Cornelius?
Mother!
Aah!
Grrr!
[Twig Snaps]
[Grunt]
Cornelius!
I only heard about it this morning.
His squirrel is missing.
He must have been looking for it.
How is Cornelius?
Hurt. He's badly hurt.
oh!
Speak the truth.
Even if we had a hospital...
I'm not going to tell Caesar, not yet.
He still believes he can change the future.
Humans, going towards our city.
I'll get him.
Aah!
Get ready to fire.
Fire!
The doctor is doing her best.
I don't believe Cornelius can live.
Caesar does.
He refuses to leave his side.
MacDonald, how can a benevolent God
allow a branch of his own tree
to crack and injure an innocent child?
It didn't crack, Virgil. It was cut.
order at council! order! order!
The humans are attacking.
They've killed one gorilla and wounded another.
Tell them.
We were scouting desert approaches to the city
and saw their army.
They fired. My companion was killed.
I have come to warn you.
And how long before they get here?
Soon.
So now, we must prepare.
Take the humans out.
Lock them all in the corral.
Aldo! Aldo, you can't do this!
You're acting against Caesar's orders.
Caesar is not here.
Hey! What the--
Hey!
Jake.
Strongman, take him to the corral.
Take all humans to the corral.
All humans, take them to the corral.
Where are you going?
Martial law has been declared.
Everybody is to stay in their homes.
By whose orders?
Go home!
We want guns! Guns are power.
Now we go and get guns!
Mandemus.
Who's there?
Aldo. General Aldo.
What do you want?
Guns! Guns!
What will you do with them?
We shall do with them what we will.
" Do what you will" is the devil's law.
And who are you, Mandemus, God?
I am the keeper of Caesar's conscience.
And I am the keeper of Caesar's army!
Under allegiance to Caesar!
Where is he?
Mandemus, as I speak,
our city is being attacked by humans
from without and within.
Who cares where Caesar is?
I care!
There is a law that weapons
may only be issued from this armory
under direct orders from Caesar
and not under threats
from one of his thicker-headed subordinates
for whom war means only personal glory.
Now, find me Caesar. I will listen to him.
First, listen to this.
Take every gun in the place, everything.
Get the ammo boxes.
Get the handguns, grenades.
Stop! Stop! Caesar forbids you!
Ah!
Well, there it is: Ape City.
When we leave,
I don't want to see one tree left standing,
2 pieces of wood nailed together,
or anything left alive.
I want it to look like that city we came from.
What the devil is all that rubbish down there?
It looks like some sort of barricade, sir.
Nothing that a couple of flame bombs won't take care of.
Caesar, forgive me,
but I couldn't get here before now.
Aldo has seized power.
He's broken into the armory
and imprisoned all humans in the corral.
MacDonald?
He was dragged from the council meeting
by Aldo's gorillas.
I can't leave Cornelius.
He needs me.
Every ape and human in Ape City needs you now.
I think you should go to Cornelius.
Father?
They...hurt me.
They want...to hurt you.
Who hurt you?
The humans?
No.
Then who?
Sh...
Shall...
Shall I be...
malformed?
No.
one day you are going to be
as tall as a king.
[Sob]
All right, Captain, lay the smoke screen.
When I give the signal, start the bombardment.
Men and equipment out of the bus.
Deploy your weapons, quickly!
All is in order, sir.
All right. Let's go.
He said they hurt him.
Who? Who would hurt him?
I think you'll have your answer,
and soon.
What do you know?
That's what I know.
You did this.
For security.
Did you also raid the armory for the same reason?
For security!
Caesar, Caesar!
I order you to stop this!
I order you to stop it now
and release those people!
See? Aldo was right. War has come.
Let's go.
Aah! Aah! Aah!
Go to the barricade! To the barricade!
[Gunfire]
Come on!
Go to the barricade!
They're laying a smoke screen.
Here they come.
Where's Aldo?
Probably the other side of the valley by now.
Hurry! Fall back, fall back!
Fall back. Go back to the village.
Get away from the fire! Fall back! Hurry!
Leave the barricade!
Fall back! Fall back! Get back to the village.
Nothing left alive!
You can't stay here any longer.
You must save yourself.
Ah!
Caesar.
Your people weakened our city
by rebelling against your human masters.
But we who survive will create a new race,
and you and yours will be brought low,
and you shall learn again
what it is to have a master.
Ha!
You're learning already...
clever ape.
oh, no.
Ape.
Clever ape.
But then, you always were clever.
I was told how you chose your own name.
But every Caesar must have his Brutus.
Did you know that, ape?
Do you understand that, ape?
And now Ape City is about to lose its king.
No, Kolp! No!
Now fight like apes!
Stop! Stop. No killing.
Take them captive.
Get moving!
No, no! Don't kill them.
Take them prisoner.
No.
No, Virgil.
All right, Virgil. Let's go.
No prisoners. No prisoners!
[Gunfire]
Dismount.
Hail Caesar!
Caesar!
We've done it!
Hold!
Let the humans go, Virgil, all of them.
No!
They stay.
Aldo says what we do now.
They have done nothing. They shall go free.
You like humans?
You want them out of the corral?
All right. Kill them!
Aah!
Kill them.
Kill them all.
Stop.
No more killing, Aldo. Put down your weapons.
Take them back to the armory.
No! We shall keep the guns!
Move, Caesar, or we shall kill you.
[Grunting]
Ape has never killed ape,
let alone an ape child.
[Grunting]
Aldo has killed an ape child.
The branch did not break.
It was cut... with a sword.
[Grunting]
[All Growling]
Aldo.
You...you killed.
Ah! Ah!
Aldo killed.
[All Growling]
Aldo has broken our most sacred law.
[All Growling]
our child.
He killed our child.
What's the matter with them?
I guess you might say they just joined the human race.
Ape has killed ape.
You murdered my son.
You murdered my son!
[Hiss]
Aah!
Should one murder be avenged by another?
only the future can tell.
So let us start building it.
If we appear to be lacking in gratitude, Caesar,
what have we to be grateful for?
If you mean to set us free,
then free us completely.
What do you mean?
We are not your children, Caesar.
We have a destiny, too--
as equals, respecting each other,
living together, with love.
Love?
The human way is violence and death.
Aldo wasn't human, was he, Caesar?
Virgil...
you are a good and wise ape.
And you, Caesar, are a good and wise king.
We'll rebuild what's ruined and begin again.
Tell me something, MacDonald.
Can we make the future what we wish?
I've heard that it's possible, Caesar.
There. Every weapon is back in its proper place.
Caesar, I want to ask a favor.
This armory's been my home for 27 years.
You may live in it for the rest of your days.
But I don't want to live in it.
No, no. Now that the danger is over,
I want to see it destroyed. Blown up.
The greatest danger of all is that danger never ends.
And so, Mandemus,
we must be patient... and wait.
We still wait, my children.
But as I look at apes and humans
living in friendship, harmony, and at peace
now some 600 years after Caesar's death,
at least we wait with hope for the future.
Lawgiver, who knows about the future?
Perhaps only the dead.