Cleopatra Page #7

No more honors designed to pacify me.

I would rather have nothing.

Remain what I am at heart.

A humble man, anxious only to serve.

Why are the eyes of a statue

always without life?

Have any of you here seen the Nile?

Spare yourselves the journey.

She carries it within her eyes.

I suggest, Caesar,

that the hour is late.

Very late for Rome.

I was speaking, Cassius! I was...

Now, where was I?

"Anxious to serve."

Yes, I've served.

Served for all of my life.

I've won for Rome

more than half of the world.

Most of you owe your honors

and fortunes to me.

And now I want you to do as I say.

You will appoint me...

...emperor of Rome.

There is no need to resume your seats.

On behalf of all, thank you,

Majesty, for your hospitality.

Good night.

Thank you and good night.

They resent being summoned here for

meetings properly held in the Senate.

Resent it, do they?

I cannot understand...

...that the eyes of a statue

should be always without life.

They resent me.

To flaunt me like this.

They'll use it to keep from you

that which is yours.

By divine right, is that not so?

Yes. It is.

By divine right.

We shall have the Senate,

in its deliberations, deliberate that.

Are you quite sure

what it is you want...

...so desperately?

I've always been sure.

And Caesar?

Does anyone speak for him?

No.

Good night.

Tell me, Brutus, is it proper

to stand before this goddess...

...Caesar's set here in the temple?

- Or must we, as Romans, kneel?

Not yet. See there, where room

has been left for another deity?

When the god Caesar stands beside the

goddess Cleopatra...

...then Rome will crawl before them.

When that day comes, if it comes.

- He demanded we make him emperor.

- Only once, and it was his sickness.

His sickness grows worse.

Soon it will kill us.

He asked once to be made emperor,

but he's since decreed himself god!

Emperor and god. No longer just king,

but emperor and god!

- Brutus, open your eyes!

- What do you want of me?

When the people think

upon the honor of Rome...

...they think upon one man:

Brutus.

By that honor and

by the responsibility you carry...

...Brutus, save Rome from Caesar!

You cannot ask me to destroy him.

Then let Caesar destroy Rome.

Antony has just come from a meeting

of my friends with good news.

Tomorrow at the Senate, Lucius Cotta

will move that I be made king.

It will pass.

But I don't understand.

King and emperor.

And it will pass?

The last few months,

I've been enjoying...

...one of the few privileges

of being dictator.

I have been appointing senators.

Slightly more than half the Senate

has been appointed by me.

Once again, the army of Mithradates...

...on its way all the time.

It will pass.

Tomorrow, the ides of March,

a day to be remembered...

...the Senate will declare me

king of Rome.

King, yes, but not of Rome.

Not of Rome? What are you saying?

They'll offer you king

of the Roman Empire, outside Italy.

They're afraid, Caesar.

Even your friends.

Afraid of the people.

- Perhaps in time...

- To be afraid of the people.

To waste time on the people.

King of all but Rome?

What is there? The huts of Gaul?

The caves of Britain?

The whole of the empire outside Italy.

I will not accept.

They mean it to be an empty gesture.

Another title to please your fancy,

flatter your ego.

Nothing more.

And it will pass.

Then accept it, Caesar.

I have never settled

for half a victory.

Nor will you now.

Caesar, mighty Caesar...

...all I can say

is what you've taught me:

Take a little, then a little more

until finally you have it all.

Let them declare you king.

Even if it's only

of a tree in Asia Minor.

The rest will come to you.

To redo once more everything

I have already done?

It's what you have never done, what

you never conquered that waits for you.

The great legions of Rome in the outer

empire that will become your legions.

The gold, the power of Egypt.

Your Egypt.

Caesar, you can conquer

and hold the world as your own.

Won't you understand?

Kings are not elected.

Gods are not elected.

Why, not only Rome but all of Italy

upon which Rome stands...

...must fall in your hands

like a drop of sweat.

Let them make you what they choose.

I'll serve with you.

My legions with yours.

Together we'll conquer a world beyond

the wildest dreams of Alexander.

Rome.

What was Rome when Sulla died...

...when Crassus lost the armies

in Parthia?

These same men came after me

through the streets...

...howling like frightened dogs,

"Caesar, save us!"

They would've made me king then.

I wouldn't let them then.

He was thrown over the wall.

It's not a pretty sight.

Titus, the moneylender.

Why should he be killed savagely

and brought here?

Obviously, I am being warned.

Perhaps I am next.

They dare to threaten you?

- Caesarion. Where was my son...?

- Not far away.

It frightened him.

- Lepidus, how many legions has he now?

- Fifteen. Perhaps more.

- Where?

- Scythia.

You and I will dine

with Lepidus tonight.

We'll talk of armies and battlefields

and lists of men to die.

Tomorrow in the Senate, let them offer

the sands of Libya as my kingdom...

...I will accept.

This is great Caesar...

...beloved by Rome...

...and at least one of us...

...who must die so that Rome may live.

If it must be done, then let us do it

unashamed and unafraid.

If the world is to know that

Rome will not have a king...

...then let us make it the honorable

act of free men in the light of day.

In the light of what day, Brutus?

Tomorrow?

In the curia of the Senate?

And shall we be armed, all of us?

Decimus, come to Caesar's villa early

tomorrow to escort him to the Senate.

Cimber, Marc Antony must not enter

the curia with Caesar.

On a pretext, lead him aside to speak

of what you heard at Lepidus' house.

I remember something odd.

At one point,

Caesar asked of each of us...

...what manner of death

we would choose.

And Caesar, when it came to him,

looked straight at me and said:

"Sudden."

Odd, isn't it?

I was afraid I'd find you

still asleep.

Caesarion is.

He was awake most of the night.

Did the storm frighten him?

He said not, but it did.

I could tell.

Have you time to come in?

Decimus awaits. He came by expressly

to accompany me to the Senate.

Decimus? Has he done this before?

A shrewd politician.

He hopes to benefit

by arriving with me, this day of days.

IKeep Antony close by.

You too?

The ladies of Rome seem to have caught

each other's fears this morning.

Like a head cold.

Calpurnia pleaded with me

not to go to the Senate at all.

Why? Why would she

not want you to go?

Oh, the bad night. Nothing else.

She awoke screaming in her sleep.

The thunder, the lightning.

She dreamed that she saw me murdered.

That she saw me...

...or a statue of me covered in blood.

The servants told her of seeing

men of fire in the heavens...

...odd happenings and so forth.

Strange birds were seen in the Forum.

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