Alexander

Alexander Monologues

Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.

Look at those we've conquered. They leave their dead unburied, they smash their enemies skulls and drink them as dust, they mate in public! How can they think, or sing, or write when none can read? But as Alexander's army they could go where they never thought possible. They can soldier, or work in the cities. From the Alexandrias, from Egypt to the outer ocean. We could connect these lands, Hephaistion. And the people.

But we've freed them, Hephaistion, from the Persias, where everyone lived as slaves! To free the people of the world! Such would be beyond the glory of Achilles. Beyond Heracles! A feat to rival Prometheus, who was always a friend to man.

We all suffer. Your father, mine. They all came to the end of their time and in the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.

Who knows these things? When I was a child my mother thought me divine; my father, weak. Which am I, Hephaistion? Weak or divine? All I know is I trust only you in this world. I've missed you. I need you. It is you I love, Hephaistion. No other.

n the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.

The greatest honor a man can ever achieve is to live with great courage, and to die with his countrymen, in battle for his home.

Yes, I have Babylon. But each land, each boundary I cross lets drip away another illusion. I sense, death will be the last. Yet still I push harder and harder to reach this... home.

Where has our eagle gone? We must go on, Ptolemy... until we find an end.

These are not honors, Parmenion, they're bribes! Which the Greeks have accepted too long! You forget, Parmenion, that the man who murdered my father lies across the valley floor.

I would, if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander. And no more than earth has two suns will Asia bear two kings. These are my terms. And if Darius isn't a coward who hides behind his men then he'll come to me tomorrow. And *when* he bows down to Greece, Alexander will be merciful.

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, out to the middle sea. And then we'll move on Carthage, and that great island Cecily; they'll pay large tribute. After that the Romans - good fighters, but we'll beat them. And then explore the northern forests, and add the pillars of Heracles 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.

But you dream Crateros... Your simplicity long ended, when you took Persian mistresses and children, and you thickened your holdings with plunder and jewels... Because you have fallen in love with all the things in life that destroy men... do you not see... and you, as well as I, know, that as the year decline and the memories stale and all your great victories fade it will always be remembered, you left your king in Asia

May all those who come here after us know, when they see this altar, that titans were once here.

Isn't it a lovely thing to live with great courage and to die leaving an everlasting fame? Come, Macedonians, why do you retreat? Do you want to live forever? In the name of Zeus, attack!

If only you were not a pale reflection of my mother's heart.

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.

Who is this great king, Darius, who enslaves his own men to fight? Who is this king but a king of air? They fight because this king tells them they must. And when they fight, they will melt away like the air because they know no loyalty to a king of slaves. But we are not here today as slaves! We are here today as Macedonian free men!

You lie and lie and lie! So many lies you've spun like a sorceress, confusing me!

As the years decline and the memories stale, and all your great victories fade, it will always be remembered that you left your king in Asia!

You and I together, one last time Bucephalus.

If only thirst could quench sorrow, Ptolemy.

Stay with me tonight, Hephaistion.

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