Alexander Page #7

But if you go to Asia without 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.

I know these things, Alexander.

You are nothing to him.

His spies are inside your closest circle...

...to ensure that

you don't plot against him.

And still you sleep.

You will not live out this year

unless you act!

Stop!

I'm his only worthy son.

You crazed woman.

He'd never hurt me.

Even if Eurydice had a boy,

he'd be 20 before he'd 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.

What would you have me do?

Whatever is necessary.

Where have you lost your mind?

It would be civil war,

clan against clan, chaos.

Yes. And you would win.

Because the young ones

love you like a god.

I forbid you to ever talk to me like that!

Such a man would be forever chased

by the Furies!

What have you to fear from the Furies...

...for killing an impostor to the throne...

...before he murders you

and your mother?

Why won't you ever believe me?

Philip did not want you.

You had a condition of the breathing...

...and he wanted to leave you

in the mountains...

...for the birds to peck at your eyes.

What you don't know, my poor child.

Lanice knows nothing of this.

Lanice.

I was there.

Lanice was not.

No, Alexander...

...Zeus is your father.

I laid with him that night in the wind,

as sure as any mortal man.

Never have I been made love to

as I was then.

Enough.

Half the mothers in Greece

share such a fantasy.

I warn you, Mother.

Make no mistake.

You will treat this girl as nothing

more important than his other wives.

You will behave as we always have.

As the first.

I wonder...

...did you ever love him?

What?

I never stopped.

What is it, Orestes?

I beg your forgiveness, my king.

I cannot be part of this.

Who did this?

Tell me.

-Say it!

-Hermolaus!

Death to all tyrants.

I didn't do this!

I've known you and loved you

as long as I know.

Never will you find a man

as devoted as I.

The conspiracy, such as it was...

...deeply upset Alexander.

Not only because it involved

the young people who shared his dream...

...but more intimately, it implicated

Philotas, his companion from boyhood...

...when a page confessed that a few days

before, he'd informed Philotas...

-Alexander.

-... of the plot.

Remember me for who I am.

I do remember you, Philotas,

but not as you remember yourself.

And it appears to me and others here

from the testimony given by your mistress...

...that the true weather of your soul

is ambition.

No.

We all felt there was more here

than sexual bickering.

Alexander wanted the truth and

Philotas' answers were lacking merit.

Please take him away.

Alexander put him silently and quickly

to trial by his peers...

...and whether plotter or opportunist,

Philotas was found guilty of treason.

-No, Alexander, no!

-Remove him.

The suspects were all executed.

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.

What to do with Parmenion and his

...was a far more delicate matter.

Was he innocent in this?

Or had he decided to act before

age further withered his power?

-The men will follow their king.

-Alexander won't be there.

Necessity required Alexander to act...

...and he 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, the general

most loyal to Philip.

His soldiers accepted the finding of guilt

against Parmenion...

...as they understood well

the code of vengeance...

...that made the head of family

responsible for the behavior of all.

Many of us felt we were better off

without that pompous thorn, Parmenion...

...as Alexander promoted all of us

generously.

If we issue the gold bullion in the name

of Alexander then we meet a resistance.

Cleitus. Antigonus.

Parmenion.

Come, Alexander,

drink this sadness away.

If only thirst could quench sorrow,

Ptolemy.

There's 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.

-Pausanias, you bore me.

-Alexander!

-Be gone with you.

-Alexander, I found you the right girl.

-What's your name, darling?

-Antigone.

-What's your name?

-Antigone.

-I love you.

-And I love you, Cleitus.

-Please, no!

-There you go.

I'll sleep in my grave, Hephaistion.

While alive, I prefer dancing.

Pausanias.

Who's your new friend?

-There's your new friend.

-Please don't!

Don't! Please, no! No.

A toast.

A toast!

I drink to our Greek friends

and to our new union...

...Macedonia and Greece,

equals in greatness!

And 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!

Don't!

What am I, you son of a dog?

Come, then.

What a disgrace.

Shut up!

-Shut up, all of you!

-Please.

This is my wedding,

not some public brawl.

Insolent pup.

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?

-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.

-You insult me!

-I insult you!

A man not fit to lick the ground

my mother walks on.

-You dog, questioning your queen.

-Shame?

I'll marry the girl if I want,

and I'll have as many sons as I want.

There's nothing you

or your harpy mother can do.

Why, 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 covet this throne too much.

We all know that she-wolf

of a mother of yours wants me dead.

Well, you can both dream, boy.

Philip, this is the wine talking.

Leave the boy. It'll wait.

Now!

I command you.

Apologize to your kinsman.

Apologize.

No kinsman to me.

Good night, old man.

And when my mother remarries,

I'll invite you to her wedding.

You bastard!

You'll obey me. Come here.

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!

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