Alexander the Great Page #8

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Look, it's burning. Look!

Look, it's on fire! It burns.

As should this palace, a symbol to

all the world that the holy war is ended,

that the Persian Empire is no more,

that Alexander has revenged Greece.

Women, who followed the camp

of Alexander all over Asia

and dreamed of this day

when we should return to Greece,

shall I, Barsine,

throw the first torch for you?

Or will you, Alexander, throw it for us?

No.

No. Put them out.

Put the flames out! It's my palace!

My palace! Mine! Mine! Mine!

It must not be said of Alexander

that wherever he passed only charred

ruins remain as his monument.

It will be said of Alexander

what he has always wanted said.

You think me too drunk not to know

that you, too, seek to betray me?

- Betray?

- Either that, or you cannot understand.

- I understand too well.

- What?

The fire that burns inside you,

put that out, too.

- That's heaven's fire.

- Alexander, let there be an end.

- Why? So that you can hold me chained?

- Yes.

- Is this the degree of your love?

- My love has no degree.

You fear I'll leave you for another woman.

No other woman is my rival

except your mother,

and your frenzied desire

to outdo your father!

I am not Philip's son.

I am the son of God.

The world is my domain,

and my mission is to rule it and rebuild it.

We will march to the end of the world.

It's men who must follow you, not gods.

Men will. All men will!

Athenians!

Alexander asks that we now

formally proclaim him a god,

son of Zeus Ammon.

"O Athenians, when will you see

your days of glory again?"

Demosthenes once asked.

Well, now you have your answer - never!

Alexander, who could

have conquered for us,

but now conquers for himself

and stands master of two worlds -

Europe and Asia!

In ten short years

he has conquered the world.

He has fought his way

2,000 miles to Babylon.

Miletus, Sidon, Tyre...

all these great cities

have fallen before him.

He has entered Egypt.

He has crossed the Euphrates.

Babylon, Persepolis, Susa -

all are his treasure houses.

He has done away with Darius, and made

himself king of kings over all his domain.

Master of two worlds, he has achieved

what no man has achieved in history.

And now he has crossed

into the lands of India.

He has gone further than

any man or god before him.

He has conquered man.

He has outdone the gods!

Make the resolution, Demosthenes.

Proclaim him a god.

Proclaim Alexander a god!

Why should the blood of thousands be

shed to gratify the ambition of one man,

who has disowned his father and

insanely affects kinship with the gods?

This I've heard the soldiers say.

You will proceed to Ecbatana.

You will take command, to ensure our

lines of communication against attack.

Farewell, Parmenio.

Philotas, you are under arrest...

for high treason.

No more. No more.

Whatever you want me to say, I'll say.

It's true, I plotted against you.

(groans)

I and my father Parmenio!

For your pleasure, great king,

a contest of skill between

a Macedonian and a Persian.

20 gold talents, the province of Bactria -

my king has been very generous to me...

I'll wager it all against

one of your Persian robes,

which I, too, must now learn to wear,

that my Macedonian there can beat

any Persian that you bring against him.

Come, Persians, will you wager?

Will you fight?

- Will you hold your tongue?

- No.

That's for slaves to do, not free men.

Either I am that,

or do not invite me to dine.

Or drink, for the wine

has gone to your head.

Your father, Philip,

won many battles as drunk as Dionysus.

Send in your man.

- Let him live.

- No. Let him die,

as have so many Macedonians, by order!

- Cleitus, brother.

- Can I be a brother to a god?

It is by the blood of Macedonians

that you have grown so great.

- We were the victors, not the Persians.

- There are no victors nor vanquished.

There are vanquished. All those

who came with you are vanquished.

If you cannot hold your tongue, go!

Your tongue is thick with wine, too.

Is that seemly for the king of kings?

Cleitus is dismissed by Alexander!

- In heaven's name, go!

- No, till I've had my say.

Then stand on your drunken feet,

if you can, and say it!

You cast aside every man

who's helped you, even your father.

I?

- I saved his life at Chaeronea.

- I saved yours at Granicus.

- He bore me a grudge for this.

- As you bear me one.

As you do to any man who

might throw a shadow on your glory.

There is no man alive

who can throw a shadow on my glory.

There are dead men who can, and do!

Philip, Attalus, Parmenio.

- These words are little short of treason!

- They are not short of truth.

Let those who will bow before

your Persian robes and throne,

and accept that you have

disclaimed your father

and pass yourself off as the son of God!

Let go of me! Am I Darius,

to be held prisoner by my friends?

Let go!

"Are these your customs? Is it thus

that Greece rewards her heroes?"

"Shall one man claim

the trophies won by thousands?"

I quote from Euripides,

your favourite poet,

as did Pausanias and your mother,

before Philip's murder!

Go now!

To Philip,

Attalus...

and Parmenio.

Cleitus, brother!

Cleitus, brother!

Is this Alexander,

who cries because he has killed a man?

Can this be he, who lies there, crying in

fear of the law and of the tongues of men,

when he himself is the law

and the measure of right and wrong?

Whatever is done

by supreme power is right.

These are words.

And Cleitus is dead, and I killed him.

We will go back, Macedonians.

And I, Ptolemy,

companion of Alexander,

later Pharaoh of Egypt,

bear witness to the terrible return

from India to Babylon.

For the first time in the ten years

since he left Macedonia,

Alexander, sick and weary, retreated.

But he turned even

this retreat into victory.

For within him, out of the death of Cleitus,

a new idea was born, a new

understanding, a new driving force -

that it was not lands that must be

conquered, but the hearts of men.

And at the end of the thirsty road,

at Susa,

Alexander pledged himself

and us to this new idea.

(priest) Make this union fruitful

as the seeds of the earth,

and let the children of Alexander, a Greek,

and Roxane, a Persian,

be of both worlds and live in one.

(priests) And let this be true

of all you Greeks and Persians

who are married here this day at Susa.

And let this be true

of all you Greeks and Persians

who are married here this day at Susa.

And let this be true

of all you Greeks and Persians

who are married here this day...

(fanfare)

To you, you men and women with whom

I have lived and with whom I have died -

Philip, Eurydice,

Parmenio, Philotas, Darius...

and Cleitus... my brother -

I offer this prayer.

And to you for peace I pray,

that Macedonians and Persians

and all the people of my empire

will always be alike.

Not merely subjects, but people

who will live and build together

in harmony and unity

of heart and of mind.

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