Original subtitles

(volcano rumbling)

(dramatic music)

(dinosaurs screeching)

(dinosaurs roars)

(airplane whirring)

(thunder crashes)

(whale calling)

(astronauts chattering)

They say I sprang from a carpet

and stood naked as Venus before Caesar,

the most powerful man in the world.

In Rome, they called me the royal whore.

Yeah, I really have shared a bed with two emperors.

I needed one of them. I loved the other.

But the third wanted to conquer my country violently.

But he wouldn't get me.

(mysterious suspenseful music)

(birds cawing) (waves crashing)

I was the queen of Egypt in uncertain times.

My brother disputed the throne

and had expelled me from Alexandria.

Julius Caesar landed there with his navy.

He wanted influence in Egypt for Rome.

(armor clatters) Come on! Push on, men!

(dramatic music) (swords clanging)

Surrounded by poor advisors,

my brother was not only fighting against me

but also against the Romans.

My life was in danger.

Move it! Let us go!

I needed an ally against my brother

and only Caesar was powerful enough.

I had to go to him, no matter what the cost would be.

Stop. What have you got?

For the cook, figs and dates, the first grapes.

And what are you carrying?

It's the new bedding for Caesar. Silk.

Okay, good. Go on in.

I had to smuggle myself into my own palace

where Caesar had accommodated himself.

He wanted to negotiate with me and my brother.

(suspenseful music)

If I were quicker than my brother,

then perhaps I could win over the Roman.

Careful. A guard.

(footsteps tapping)

And how to win over the most powerful man in the world?

By any means.

Go now.

Everything depended on this moment.

My fate lay in his hands.

The navy's blocking the port.

This moment would decide everything.

(dramatic music)

He who collected countries and women like trophies

is whom I had to win over.

Greetings, Caesar.

What do you want?

Your soldiers aren't safe in the streets.

My brother will declare war on you.

Do you want to leave Alexandria alive or dead?

My legions are on their way.

And you think they will arrive in time to get you out?

Did you come here just to ask me that?

(Cleopatra speaks in foreign language)

We have an agreement or have you forgotten that?

My father paid you a fortune so that Rome would protect us.

And the Senate has recognized me as queen, do you get that?

Your father is dead. And you are powerless.

Well, I am still queen and I have Egypt behind me.

But not Alexandria.

I have gathered an army. It is on its way here.

We should fight together, or else.

Or else what?

Don't you understand what is happening outside?

They'll cut off your head,

and all of your enemies in the Senate, they will rejoice.

You should consider about my offer.

We will see.

Caesar was right.

Both his navy and his legions arrived on time

and quelled the uprising against Rome.

(gentle music) (water lapping)

Do you like my Alexandria?

Yeah, but now it's my Alexandria.

Do you really think the Roman Senate

will just give up Egypt so that you become more powerful?

I'm the victor.

And you are my spoils.

I am nobody's spoils!

(water splashing)

What about my alliance with Rome?

Perhaps we should renew the friendship?

His legionaries are calling all over Rome,

he's every woman's man.

No woman is safe from him.

And I heard he's even taking the men to bed. (giggles)

Ah! Veni, vidi, vici.

He came, he saw, he conquered.

No, he didn't. But I came, I saw, I conquered.

The pact has been sealed.

Egypt will not be a province of Rome,

and we will remain free.

What more do you want?

But will it stay like that?

How do you want to be attached to him?

I heard that his wife is infertile.

He has no heirs.

(ominous music)

My Egypt with all of its treasures.

I was heir to a 3,000-year-old culture.

Rome envied us.

And Caesar needed the fertile land on the Nile as a granary

to keep the Romans in good spirits with gifts of grain

and to feed his legionaries.

(grains clattering)

Who, if not me, could guarantee him that?

And what of the olive oil from Karnak?

500 amphorae are on their way.

There is also 50 balls of linen from Thebes.

1,000 swords and spears from Heliopolis.

And 200 taels of gold from Nubia.

300. We need 300 taels.

(sighs) And how many bushels of wheat

are we giving Caesar's legions?

200,000.

400,000.

But, my noble queen, the harvests were bad,

the farmers are starving.

If we want peace with Caesar, then we must supply it.

Or do you want some Roman tax collector in our land?

(dramatic music)

I was expecting our child,

my first baby, and my security for the future.

But what did it mean for him?

For us? For Rome?

(gentle music)

Caesar had power and he had powerful opponents.

They were just waiting for him to make a mistake.

Here.

(suspenseful music)

For you, my king.

In Rome, kings aren't popular.

In fact, they are put to death.

Kings are what have made Egypt great.

There are simply too many gibbering idiots in Rome

who still believe that we live in a republic.

Then I don't understand why you hesitate.

At last, he took us to Rome, into the lion's den.

Many revered him like a king.

But in the Senate, they hated and feared him.

We lived in one of his villas on the other side of the Tiber

and not in his house.

Because Caesar was married, after all.

But everyone knew that I was his lover

and that Ptolemy Caesar was his son.

(gentle thoughtful music)

What a scandal.

They called me the royal whore of the Nile

and our son, a bastard.

But nevertheless, we were the attraction.

If I invited them to Caesar's villa, they all came.

All of Rome's high society.

(guests chattering) (guests laughing)

You don't say. (laughs)

Yeah, we'll see.

I mean, she's got an engaging personality,

there's simply no denying that.

And she certainly has other talents. (chuckles)

He's 54-years-old, and she's 23.

But we all know that's how men are, after all.

Shh! She's coming.

What I didn't know what these Roman geese

were gaggling about behind my back.

(guests chattering)

Do you think he wants to be king

and stand at her side in Alexandria?

(scoffs) King of Alexandria, you say? In Rome.

Caesar should be quite careful.

Yeah.

It's not only Cicero that suspects

that he wants to destroy the republic.

Ah, Cicero!

It warms my heart that you have accepted my invitation.

I am honored to be in your presence, my queen.

If I am not mistaken,

didn't you just announce that the Senate

must tear kings limb from limb?

Is that the elders' custom?

With respect, we are Romans.

We are not Persians, nor are we Greeks.

We are free citizens, my queen.

You see, for us, autocracy is tyranny, a lack of freedom.

And we could just never accept it.

But we respect the kings of the east.

That is, if they keep the peace with our republic.

And above all, we respect you, my queen.

But what is so bad about having a king, hmm?

How long has your republic been ripped apart

by costly civil war?

Still, you lead the people to ruin and war.

You all deserve a man who fosters peace and unity,

a man such as Alexander the Great.

(Cicero chuckles)

But sometime I would like to read

your writing on the republic.

Cicero, a snake in the grass,

who secretly fanned the hatred against us.

How are your wife and daughters, Senator?

Nice hairstyle. Is that the fashion in Rome?

(tense music)

Caesar didn't show his face in that snake pit.

He didn't want to pour more oil on the fire.

But it was no use.

Cicero was right.

Caesar is a tyrant.

And Cleopatra, a danger to the republic.

We must eliminate him before it's too late.

Everyone agrees.

Do we know where it'll be done?

There, where he commits his crimes against the republic,

in the Senate.

(wind whooshing) (relaxed music)

(birds cawing)

And then on the ides of March,

they ambushed him in the Senate

and treacherously stabbed him to death.

He had become too powerful for those cowardly murderers.

(thunder rumbling)

But he also had friends who bid him farewell.

(fire crackling)

Why had he gone to the Senate?

Why had he thrown all caution to the wind?

Why did he jeopardize all of our plans,

our hopes, our entire future?

Mama, I can't sleep, I'm scared.

Come here, sweetheart.

(gentle majestic music)

Caesar's closest friend, Antony, spoke from the heart.

Caesar, the father of the fatherland, this hero is dead.

(fire crackling)

He conquered the Gauls and he defeated the Teutons.

Our ships didn't just travel on the Rhone and the Moselle,

but to the Rhine River as well.

Lands whose names we didn't know,

places we didn't know existed.

He conquered all of them.

When he appeared before the enemy in Pontus,

he came, he saw, and he conquered in a single day.

He united with Egypt

and brought you all a lot of money from there.

He was not there, as you like to think,

for his own pleasure.

Now he is dead!

Not from illness, not from age.

Caesar didn't fall in battle,

he was murdered here in the middle of Rome!

(crowd yelling)

We should leave Rome. Civil war's coming.

Struck down by daggers, you lie here,

where you often spoke to the people.

Woe over your blood-spattered hair, your shredded toga.

(suspenseful music)

By your weak and wretched enemies, you were murdered!

Down with Caesar's murderers!

Yeah! Down with Caesar's murderer!

(crowd yelling) (crowd jeering)

Down with Caesar's murderers!

Down with Caesar's murderers!

(ominous music)

Even after his death,

Caesar divided the Romans.

His supporters and enemies attacked each other.

(tense music)

We were no longer safe.

We had to go back to our home in Egypt.

(footsteps thudding)

There she is.

Quick, this way!

Our fate now lay in the hands

of the future rulers of Rome.

On Caesar's nephew, Octavian.

I will hunt down his murderers and avenge him.

They are powerful men.

Wouldn't it be smarter if we worked together?

And on Marc Antony,

Caesar's colleague in the consulate.

You mean, we march separately and win together?

And we'll split the empire?

I get the west, including Italy.

You get Greece,

Asia,

and Egypt.

Here is where the border will be.

And you will give me 30,000 legionaries.

(chuckles) 30,000?

Impossible. I can't get more than 20,000 in Italy.

If I need the navy, you will send it to me.

(dramatic music)

When you need it, it'll come to you.

Let's shake on it, then.

(gentle thoughtful music)

Egypt and Rome had to find

a new suitable arrangement.

(wind whistling)

How would Antony approach me?

Would he try to conquer me or attempt to overthrow me?

Or would he recognize me as Caesar did as queen of Egypt?

Antony wanted to know who he was dealing with.

He summoned me to him several times.

But I made him wait.

(armor rattling)

All of the kings of the east have paid homage to me,

not to mention the queens as well.

She's the only one who hasn't.

And now you are going to go to her. (scoffs)

She will get to know who I am.

I think I should lose some weight.

What do we know about him?

He's married, and his wife does everything for him.

She sends him soldiers and equipment.

And she even leads campaigns for him.

Now that's what I call love.

He is supposed to be uneducated, a philistine.

Supposed to be? He is one.

He loves coarse jokes

and hanging around all the worst drinking holes.

His people don't know him as a general.

I've been told he goes to libraries

and listens to philosophers.

Listens, perhaps. But understands?

And besides, he's a drunk and a womanizer.

He will devour you.

He's celebrated as the new Dionysus.

A few queens have already lain in his bed.

Don't break your head over this. Let's get ready.

She just used Caesar.

Don't forget that she led him to his doom.

Be careful.

(sword clangs)

Then we will finally see whether I measure up to a queen.

(people laughing)

{Cleopatra] At last, he came to me.

I prepared a reception fit for a king, for him.

(dramatic music)

I appeared before him as Isis,

as the goddess of love.

As was the custom in Egypt.

I...

Shh!

Just enjoy it.

(gentle sensual music)

(Antony groans)

(Cleopatra giggles)

(both moaning)

(Cleopatra giggles)

With Caesar, I wanted to save my life and my crown.

With Antony?

I fell in love.

For him, I would give everything.

(wind whistling)

For three long years, we didn't see each other.

He had to go and fight with his legions

in the east of the kingdom and defend his power in Rome.

But we had something in common together.

I had carried twins below my heart.

Alexander Helios, my sun, and Cleopatra Selene, my moon.

When I heard that his wife had died, I had hopes.

I'm sorry, Highness.

He has remarried.

He's married his rival Octavian's sister, Octavia.

(objects clattering)

Out!

Leave me be!

(Cleopatra sobbing)

(suspenseful music) (crowd chattering)

Antony! (man cheering)

Antony!

Yeah! (laughs)

Antony!

Yes! Victorious!

While Antony hadn't married me,

he simply couldn't leave me, nor could he leave Egypt.

He needed us for his plans.

(crowd cheering)

And he loved our culture, our way of living, our freedoms.

(horse hooves clattering)

(horse whinnying)

All right, Antony!

And only I could give him

such a grand reception.

(horse whinnies) (crowd cheering)

He returned as a victorious general.

To me.

To Alexandria.

Where are we right now?

What kind of men are leading us?

Men, who simply squander their spoils on oriental sluts?

I'm not surprised he grovels before her.

After all, she finances his wars.

Who knows whether he would have won without her?

(chuckles) And now he prefers to celebrate

his victory in Alexandria instead of in Rome.

The Senate will be in an uproar.

And the Romans too.

(crowd cheering)

Just look at them.

He'll give parts of the empire to his bastard children.

(scoffs) Our general next to the queen of kings.

Next to her? I'd say under her.

He acts as if he were a god on earth.

He's not a Roman anymore.

In the end,

he will make Alexandria the capital of the empire.

Octavian, he must put an end to this.

Do you love her?

You are the one that I love.

Then prove it.

I have already acknowledged our children.

That's not enough for me.

I want you to divorce Octavia.

You know I can't do that.

You can't or you don't want to?

Try to understand. Did Caesar get divorced for you?

I didn't ask him, but I'm asking you.

She's a Roman.

Roman? So what?

(sighs) Don't you get it?

She's Octavian's sister and the seal of our alliance.

He's just waiting for me to break it.

You are such a coward.

A divorce would mean all-out war.

Against you, too!

Do you want that?

No, I didn't want war.

But then what I had always feared happened.

The rivalry between Octavian and Antony

turned to open hostility.

That is betrayal.

(quill scraping)

You had promised me a fleet,

and what do you send me for the war against the Parthians?

A few ridiculous ships.

(tense music)

They're our common enemies.

You promised me 20,000 legionnaires, remember that?

And then you send me barely 2,000?

I couldn't get any more than that, my dear Antony.

No Roman will serve that Egyptian whore.

I meant to say queen, of course.

What has changed you so much, Octavian?

Are you jealous that I'm sleeping with a queen?

I gave you my sister to take as your wife

and you and that slut Cleopatra betray her.

Don't you have any lovers? You just sleep with Livia?

Surely you have bedded Lucia, Anna, or Valeria,

or maybe even all three of them.

But isn't it important which woman that you're in love with?

And even so, they're Roman and not Egyptian sluts.

What did Cleopatra say

when she appeared before you dressed as Venus?

"Either we (sniffs) or there'll be war"?

We divided the empire between us,

but then you go ahead and sell off the entire east?

You are making Romans into submissive eunuchs of a woman,

and you, you're making yourself a slave to a whore.

Shall I write that?

Word for word.

(paper scrunching)

(gentle mysterious music)

(liquid trickling)

Nothing. Octavian left absolutely nothing out.

He even took love to the battlefield

and dragged it through the mud.

But I won the first victory.

(metal rattling)

Antony divorced Octavia and committed himself to me.

(metal rattling)

For her brother, that was the moment to strike.

Octavian wanted to destroy Antony.

And for me and Egypt?

Conquest.

Because the tribes of Egypt and the people of Egypt

(dramatic music)

have acted against the Roman people

and diplomacy has completely failed,

because the Roman people have commanded it

there will be war with the Egyptians,

and the Senate was in agreement and decided on war.

We'll wage war with the honorable Egyptians.

That's why I hereby declare, with the Roman people,

war on honorable Egypt and the honorable people of Egypt.

The war

begins right now.

(spear whooshing)

(metal rattling)

The battle commenced,

in Actium on Grecian waters.

(waves crashing)

Octavian had trapped our navy

and cut off supplies to our army.

Octavian is playing for time.

He doesn't want to fight the battle.

We have to do something.

Our soldiers are in desperate need.

They are starving, half of them have fallen ill.

Every day, troops are defecting to him.

We can't keep this up much longer.

In a word, we're trapped.

(soldiers footsteps thudding) (gentle pensive music)

There is always a way out.

(scoffs) I wouldn't say so. (chuckles)

It must also be said that it's not only bad in Rome

that we have a woman among the generals.

All right.

We withdraw overland to Athens and we'll regroup there.

And the naval forces, including my ships, for that matter.

Do you want to burn them in the port?

There are no better ships on the high seas

than the Egyptian ones.

You and all your oriental followers

have been holding us back long enough.

That's enough!

At sea, we have no chance against Octavian.

Not if we put our navies together.

We combine our naval forces.

We'll ram anything that gets in our way.

And then we break through.

What are they doing? They're crazy!

(wood smashing)

We can't break through.

They'll encircle us and then board us.

Have your scouts asked the fishermen about the current?

Mine have.

Octavian can't keep his formation on the open sea.

With the wind at our backs, we can do it.

That's exactly what a woman would do,

but not our legionaries.

In Rome, they'll say we fled like cowards.

The decision must be made honorably on the battlefield.

You can have honor carved on your tombstone.

This is about more than that, you idiot!

Do not listen to her!

Are you fighting for Rome or for this woman?

Has she put you on a chain yet?

You aren't just making a mockery of yourself,

but of us as well.

Quiet!

(tense music) (birds cawing)

It is simply the better plan. We break through.

(dramatic music)

And so the battle took its course

as I had predicted.

(wood crashing)

And when the wind picked up,

we set sail and reached the open sea.

They have broken through

with several legions and also taken the war chest.

So you have failed?

And now she has escaped us?

What about Antony?

His ship has been boarded.

But he's escaped together with Cleopatra.

(stick clatters)

Don't you get it?

They didn't just escape. They have saved everything.

Yeah, but he lost a few legions.

And that drunk weakling won't keep it up for much longer.

Enough of this!

That snake of a queen is more dangerous than he is.

(tense ominous music)

Announce in Rome that we have won.

(sand scraping)

(waves whooshing) (suspenseful music)

We sailed our glorious fleet

back to Alexandria, thinking that we were safe.

(gentle mysterious music) (women laughing)

We were intoxicated with our success,

and we celebrated our rebirth.

(swords clanging) (upbeat mysterious music)

It felt as if the carefree times of years past

had returned to us.

(shields thudding)

(swords clanging)

(Cleopatra laughing)

(crowd cheering)

Every legion-

Shh!

All of your legions.

What about them?

They have all defected to Octavian.

They think he's the victor.

(tense music)

(Antony roars)

(wind whistling)

(sword dinging)

What are you thinking?

I had never seen him like that,

as if he had lost everything.

Just tell me.

(sword clangs)

(suspenseful music)

Talk to me.

I'm finished.

Marc Antony doesn't capitulate.

Octavian will humiliate you, he will take your honor,

your children, us.

Do something! (sobbing)

(dramatic music)

I will challenge him to a duel.

(Cleopatra sobbing)

(gentle pensive music)

It was pure desperation.

Antony wanted to fight for his honor.

But why would Octavian face

such a brave and fearless fighter in a one-on-one duel?

(sword scraping)

When?

He says no. There won't be a duel, and--

And what?

He says there are many routes to death

open to you.

(solemn music)

There was no hope left.

Octavian wanted Antony dead.

What is it?

And afterwards?

Perhaps he would show mercy

and at least let the children live.

I had to act.

Apollodorus.

Go to Antony.

Tell him...

Tell him there's no hope left for us.

Tell him I have ended my life.

He will throw himself on his sword.

Octavian wants him alive,

at least this way he can save his dignity.

Tell him I did it out of love for him.

I will wait for him in the afterlife.

Go on now! Leave me alone.

Octavian is a ruthless monster.

Do you think that you will get anything from him

if Antony is dead?

(gentle emotive music)

Cleopatra has ended her life.

She says you will see each other again in the afterlife.

(gentle somber music)

(sword scraping)

(Cleopatra screaming)

(Cleopatra crying)

We had sworn to live with dignity

(swords squelching) (Antony groans)

and to die with dignity.

(quill tapping)

Have you finished the list?

She says the gold in Dendera isn't hers,

but the Temple of Horus's.

And Octavian? He did as he always did.

He had the face of a child,

and yet he was cold and ruthless.

Give me the state treasure,

and I will see what I can do for you.

Caesar ensured that I was a friend

and ally of Rome always.

You are his heir, right?

And Caesarion is his biological son.

Do you have that in writing?

(tense music)

You forget that we are at war with one another.

One which I didn't start.

You will return to Rome.

As queen or as your spoils?

As Cleopatra.

(gentle suspenseful music)

And my children?

I hear that Caesarion is out of the country.

I will find him.

(solemn music)

My love.

My lord, who went to the land of silence.

I'll follow you.

In peace.

(dramatic music)

(Cleopatra inhales)

(gentle solemn music)

Olympos, do you have it?

(snake hissing)

It is worthy of a queen and a goddess.

Here?

Place it in the crook of your arm, in the vein.

Will it be quick? A few seconds?

It can take quite a long time.

One bite is extremely painful.

(snake hisses)

(snake hissing)

I'm not afraid of pain.

What we don't have is time.

Octavian wants to lead me through Rome in chains,

but I won't grace his victory parade.

It must work quick, Olympos.

Do it the philosophers' way, with a cup of hemlock.

Wolfsbane and a little bit of opium to relieve the pain.

Announce everywhere, Cleopatra has entered the abyss,

that a cobra has bitten her and taken her life,

a death worthy of her Highness, the queen of Egypt.

Octavian may conquer Egypt

but

he will not conquer me.

(dramatic majestic music)

We'll meet again, together with Osiris.

We will live forever.

(majestic pensive music)

(solemn dramatic music)