Alexander the Great Page #5

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that I'm back here in Pella.

I saw it in the streets.

You need me here.

- On this, I'm firm.

- And I am, too!

Let theirs be the choice.

Philotas?

I accept.

Then it's done.

Done.

Pausanias?

How will you be able to live

without your... god, Alexander?

(Philip chuckles)

I accepted exile, not disgrace.

(laughter)

And Philip laughed?

As though I were a stable boy.

Your quarrel's not with Attalus,

but with Philip.

For Philip could have done you justice,

but he laughed.

Come take the sword,

this wretched hand of mine.

One deed, one act of glory.

My father once asked what a man should

do to hand his name down to posterity.

He replied "kill the person who has

accomplished the greatest deeds,

and then, whenever that person

is spoken of, he too will be remembered."

- Mother!

- Alexander!

Pausanias, friend,

you've had much to drink.

Go now and sleep. And tomorrow...

Tomorrow?

Tomorrow... king!

Mother... what thoughts

do you put in his head?

- None that are not already there.

- And what's in yours?

- A name.

- Whose?

A baby's, the king's new son.

Philip has named him karanos.

A name, like any other.

The king who founded the Macedonian

royal family was named karanos.

What's in Philip's mind?

(Olympias) What's in Philip's mind?

What's in Philip's mind?

What's in Philip's mind?

(crowd cheers)

Walk in front of me.

I'll walk alone.

(crowd screams)

Leave him alone.

Alexander!

May the gods curse the killer

from now till evermore,

whoever the killer may be.

Father,

neither on my hands... nor in my heart.

I swear it.

(fanfare)

(Alexander) I hear you wait

to declare who is to be your king.

According to ancient privilege,

it is the right of the army,

both by law and force of arms,

to decide who shall be their king.

The hand that plunged the dagger into my

father's body was the hand of my friend.

And I slew my friend.

My father's murder was carefully planned.

My friend was a tool

used by others for larger ends,

by men whose purses

bulge with Persian gold,

and who, for this gold, would betray

their country and their holy cause.

From Demosthenes,

the rabble-rouser in Athens,

to men here in Pella.

And there is not world enough

nor time enough

for these men to escape my vengeance.

Soldiers, you were assembled

here on the plains of Axios

by my father, Philip,

to be led to the greatest glory and riches

that any army since the world began

has ever yet achieved -

the conquest and destruction

of the Persian Empire.

Nothing is changed

but the name of the king!

(soldiers) Alexander!

Alexander! Alexander!

(chanting continues)

Delegates of the Greek states

here assembled,

at the Treaty of Corinth you elected

my father captain general of all Greece,

and pledged him loyalty.

I claim that loyalty, and his titles, now.

Corinth?

We pledge it.

Thebes?

Thessaly?

Argos?

Athens?

Do you place value on pledges

given at the point of spears?

If broken, I'll not hesitate at

the gates of Athens, as my father did.

I do not doubt that, Alexander.

And you do not have my oath.

For it is sacred only when,

as a Greek, I have free choice.

Memnon, to be exiled from Greece

for the rest of his life.

With, of course, the approval of Athens.

I also order the arrests of Aeropas

and Hermanes for high treason.

To be executed in accordance

with our ancient law.

(Alexander) Eurydice.

- She was very dear to me.

- She was as my child.

Then bury her like a queen,

not like a thief in the night.

We Macedonians are a religious people.

- A suicide must be buried in the night.

- Suicide?

So it will read.

She took her own life.

- The babe?

- Plucked from her,

and thrown into

the sacrificial flames in front of her.

For your mother is a religious woman

and seeks to appease the gods.

Is the tale too horrible for your ears?

Shall I tell you, too, who placed the noose

around her pretty, white young neck?

But I am a religious man,

and accept the will of the gods.

What's man's fate is man's fate,

both yours and mine.

O Father...

O Father Zeus,

I will lay victories upon your altar

the like of which

no man or god has ever seen.

You god, that gave him to me,

and for whom I have kept him

all these years, do not break your vow.

If his life be short, as is the prophecy,

give him in that short span of life

that which is the prophecy also:

Eternal glory to the end of time.

I now claim the whole of Asia...

land won by the spear.

(Memnon) I oppose meeting Alexander,

now in battle, at the River Granicus.

This is Asia, where space is as vast

as time, and both are on our side.

Here to the east -

mountains, desert, wasteland,

2,000 thirsty miles to Babylon.

Here, along the shores of Asia Minor -

rich cities, good harbours.

Here - Alexander, with neither

enough men, money or supplies

to do anything now but live off the land.

He must move down the coast.

What do you propose?

Retreat and destroy

everything before him.

Let him conquer nothing

but burned-out land.

And when his supplies are gone, his lines

cut... At a time and place of our choosing.

Retreat before this boy,

this adventurer, this pirate?!

This boy brought Greece to its knees

in 16 months. It took his father 20 years.

This is the Persian Empire. If necessary,

we can put a million men against him.

But not at Granicus. There we stand equal

in numbers. I fight one battle at a time.

Then let us fight it

and have done with talk!

- Talk?! Then fight it by yourselves.

- Memnon!

Darius, Emperor,

you hired my skill in war.

- He also hired your courage.

- If I doubted either, he would not be here.

Speak, Memnon.

My lords of Persia, listen well.

Alexander is like a lion

on the scent of blood.

He needs a fight, a kill,

and he needs it quickly.

If you feed the growing legend

of his invincibility,

if you give him victory in Persia,

if we are defeated at Granicus...

You seem too sure of that, Greek.

The cities along the shores

of Asia Minor will go over to him.

- For they still consider themselves Greek.

- Persian for 200 years.

Greek or Persian,

a man's roots are a man's roots.

Are they?

Is there also a doubt here of my loyalty?

My lords, let me speak bluntly.

I am a Greek, as you did call me,

taking arms against a Greek.

This is not a game for me or for my men.

We have to win, as do you.

This is a professional army we face.

You spoke bluntly, now I will.

These lands you speak of burning

are ours. The crops are ours.

Handed down to the nobles of Persia

by the great kings of Persia

thousands of years ago -

when men still lived like beasts

on those Greek islands of his.

Not a foot of land,

not a grain of wheat will be destroyed.

This is our decision, Darius, Emperor.

We will meet Alexander at Granicus,

and we will destroy his army!

And I will kill him.

- On your heads.

- On our heads.

Do you have stomach for this fight,

Memnon?

Break of day?

Our women also wait.

For time is a thief.

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