Alexander Page #11

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.

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?

- 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.

By necessity, Alexander

had her uncle Attalus executed.

He lives! Alexander!

Men of Macedon...

...we're going home.

- What?

- What?

- Home?

- We're going.

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.

Great Zeus...

...we have worshipped you in blood.

Look kindly on our homeward steps...

...and smile upon our backs.

May all those who come here after us

know, when they see this altar...

...that Titans were once here.

Making his devotions to the gods

at the end of the great journey...

...Alexander bade the East farewell

and marched his army directly west...

...across the great Gedrosian desert...

...seeking the shortest route home

to Babylon.

Here, he watched helplessly

the cruel breaking of his army.

Not by any human foe...

...but by nature.

To this day, there is no accounting

of how many died.

It was the worst blunder of his life.

And when he finally reentered Babylon,

after six years in the Far East...

...Alexander again seized the imagination

of the world by taking two more wives.

Now Alexander had three wives,

two lovers...

...a contentious mother

and a turbulent Greece...

...satraps of dubious loyalty

in several provinces...

...generals questioning his every decision.

And beneath it all, a restive new army

made up of 10 Asians for every Greek...

...all held together by one slender thread.

They took another reading.

The harbor can only be dredged to 20 feet.

Then get a second opinion from

the Phoenicians. It goes deeper.

Alexander. We'll well over 12,000 talents

on wood alone for the fleet.

And their armor costs are staggering.

- Cast another dye, we shall back them.

- How?

Our armor... Our Treasury...

With our future, Cassander,

the best capital we have.

Even so, I seriously doubt the Phoenicians

can make a timber quote in time.

Perhaps we could sail with fewer ships

or delay until the spring...

There'll be no delays, Nearchus.

- Ptolemy, how goes our library?

- The trees are falling as we speak.

Good. We must not forget our libraries.

All the Alexandrias we have,

I want libraries.

- 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 nights' rest will do it.

But no wine or cold chicken.

With the regimen of cares

that I've put in place...

Come, doctor.

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.

I remember the young man who wanted

to be Achilles...

...and then outdid him.

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 will die together.

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,

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?

Hephaistion?

No!

- 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, 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 I've ever loved.

May all the Furies through time

damn your miserable heart. Obey me.

Alexander.

I have your child. Alexander.

- Alexander, we have a son.

- No.

- The child.

- Oh, Your Majesty, no.

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.

- To the myths.

Yes, come on. Finish it.

To the next dawn.

My little Achilles.

- Bless you, Alexander.

- Lord, we love you.

Bless you, Alexander.

My lord, these herbs are from Delphi.

They saved my brother.

- Rest yourself.

- Thank you.

We love you, Alexander.

Alexander.

Alexander.

We love you, Alexander...

...and your seed.

Keep moving, men, please.

Yes, come.

Come to Babylon. I await you.

Your only loving son.

For the men.

Bagoas.

Can you prop me up a little?

It catches me.

I've never been so idle.

The fleet will never get out by spring.

I must go.

You have given me all.

- Bagoas.

- And you have given me...

...the happiest times of my life,

Alexander.

Happy? What is happy?

While in your mind and body

are stretched to breaking...

...you have no thought beyond the next.

And you look back then...

...and there it was, happiness.

In the doing, never the thinking.

Still, you have made me so happy.

It is done, Bagoas.

It is done.

Wait. We have his son.

Alexander. Wait.

Wait.

Vultures. Wait.

We have his son.

Just three more months.

Please live.

Alexander, the army will divide.

Satrapies will revolt.

Without orders, there'll be war.

We beg you. Tell us who.

Who will rule this great empire?

- Who do you want to, Alexander?

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