All language subtitles for Butterfly.Effect.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10_English

- [Narrator] Our
history is no more

than a series of
incredible events.

Each one of us can
influence its course.

The tiniest of our
decisions can influence

the future of mankind.

To know the past is to
anticipate the future.

In 336 B.C.,

while at the peak of his glory,

Philip II of Macedon is murdered

by a member of his
personal guard.

Two years later, his son,

Alexander III, narrowly
escapes
death on the battlefield.

In 328 B.C., Alexander III,
now called Alexander the
Great,

decides to push back the
boundaries of the known world.

These three intimately
connected events

are the key moments

in one of the most exciting
of human adventures.

We shall see which.

(ominous orchestral music)

Today the world consists
of some 200 countries.

Half of them are democracies.

People there are born free
and equal under the law.

They can speak freely and
choose their own rulers.

For these people, these
rights are natural,

and they're prepared to
fight to maintain them.

But there was a time when
the very idea of equality

had never been articulated.

A time when only a handful of
men dreamed of a free world.

This period is antiquity.

The foundations of our
civilization were laid then.

It is the age of philosophers,

legendary warriors
and mighty deeds.

(ancient singing)

In 350 B.C., the
Mediterranean world

is dominated by two
completely opposite peoples,

the Greeks and the Persians.

Persia is immense,
its wealth fantastic,

and its art refined.

It is governed by local lords
obedient to a great king.

He rules over regions
with differing cultures,

but is careful to
respect local customs.

Under his administration,
a vast network

of communication and
irrigation is developed.

The authority of the
great king is absolute.

The good of the empire comes
before everything else.

Persia is the king.

An alien world to the Greeks,

who consider it a
barbaric system.

In Greece it's the opposite.

Each city is independent.

Athens, Sparta, Thebes
govern themselves

and are constantly at
war with one another.

In Greece, the nation
does not exist.

You are Athenian, not Greek.

Each city is a
laboratory of ideas

where philosophers debate
the best form of government.

Greece is the city.

In Persia, a man
has no significance.

In Greece, he is
the center of all.

The two peoples cannot
understand each other.

So, they confront each other.

- [Narrator] Welcome to
the memory of humanity.

Here we can control time,

analyze and compare
billions of events,

and alter them to rewrite
history endlessly.

The Athenians
invented democracy.

Of all the systems they
tried,
this was the least damaging.

However, it is a far cry from
our present day democracy.

Imagine that we could transpose
the ancient Greek system

to our contemporary cities.

New York, for example.

The megalopolis would
be totally independent.

City dwellers would consider
themselves New Yorkers

rather than Americans.

The city would have its own army

and would not
recognize the authority

of the President of
the United States.

It would choose its own
policies, its currency,

and its educational program.

It would regularly be at war
with Dallas or Los Angeles.

It would only enter into
alliances with those cities

when faced with imminent danger.

All citizens would be free
and equal under the law,

and would be able to put
forward and to vote for laws.

All the citizens, not
all of the inhabitants.

Because, in ancient
Greece, to be a citizen,

you had to be not only a man,

which excludes half
the population,

but a free man, not a slave.

And, of course, not a foreigner.

In addition, you had to be rich,

so as not to need to work,

and thus be able to take
part in political debates.

Transpose to our period,

a mere 2% of New Yorkers would
be considered as citizens.

Which is not exactly our
conception of democracy today.

During the Greek
period, as in our own,

the system is not perfect.

We still have some way to go
before humanity as a whole

really gets an equal chance.

Let's continue.

- [Narrator] In Greece,
the cities are divided.

Persia waits and watches.

Persia has long desired
the Greek lands,

and the history of
the two countries

is strewn with epic battles.

Marathon, Thermopylae,
Plataea, Salamis.

(upbeat string music)

Twice, the Persian empire
raises a mighty army

and invades Greece.

Twice, the Greek cities
put aside their differences

and unite to fight a
numerically superior enemy.

These invasions
spark a deep hatred

of the Persians
among the Greeks,

and they dream of revenge.

At this moment, King
Philip II enters stage.

He is not Greek, but Macedonian,

a people tolerated
by the Greeks.

For example, the Macedonians
are allowed to enter

the Olympic games.

And Philip has a plan.

Put an end to the wars
between the Greek cities,

provide Greece with a
strong central power,

and then invade Persia.

With a combination of
ruse and military force,

Philip achieves his
first two objectives.

The Greek cities
end their quarrels

and finally, reluctantly,
recognize his authority.

Finally, he can
now turn to Persia

and return the affront.

Philip fears nothing and nobody.

He does not wear his
armor all the time,

however, threats can
come from any quarter.

Including one's own camp.

Before the eyes of
his son, Alexander,

Philip II is murdered
by a royal guard.

Is it personal revenge?

Is it a plot?

The truth has vanished
with the centuries.

On the death of Philip,

the new king is
called Alexander III.

He's only 20, and all of
Greece
is asking the same question.

Will this young man
measure up to his father?

- [Narrator] Unity is strength.

Look at the battles between
Persians and Greeks.

The evidence is clear.

On the field of battle,
the Greek army wins.

The Greeks explain this
simply as their superiority

over all other peoples,

a flattering explanation,
but a false one.

The key lies in the strategy.

Whereas the Persians fight
without any real cohesion,

the Greeks gather in
formations they call
phalanxes.

These are tight groups
armed with long spears

and presenting a
wall of shields,

a wall bristling with spikes.

When a phalanx advances
directly at the enemy,

nothing can stop it.

Nothing apart from
another phalanx.

When faced with
superior enemy numbers,

the phalanxes can
hold a front line.

But they cannot achieve
victory by themselves.

They are accompanied by heavy
cavalry on their flanks,

whose aim is to attack
the enemy from the rear.

This is the famous
hammer and anvil tactic,

still taught in military
academies to this day.

2,000 years later, the
Zulus used a similar tactic

to crush the
British in a battle.

And yet the British
were armed with rifles.

Even the finest of soldiers
can
lose if they are poorly led.

Philip was an excellent general.

But what about Alexander?

- [Narrator] On the
death of Philip,

the Greek cities think they
will regain their freedom,

a grave error of judgment.

Although while
Alexander is very young,

he already has the
soul of a conqueror.

Like Philip, he excels
in the art of warfare.

And like his father,
he can drink to excess

and fly into a rage.

From his mother Olympius,
Alexander inherited

his ambitious, calculating mind.

He knows how to
take time to think,

especially as during his youth

he was instructed by the
famous philosopher Aristotle.

Alexander is an
inexhaustible warrior,

curious about everything,

and paradoxically, capable
of infinite tenderness

as well as terrible rages.

He assumes the role of king
without batting an eye.

When the city of Thebes revolts,

Alexander reacts at
once with authority.

Thebes is vanquished
and razed to the ground.

The message is clearly received
by the other Greek cities.

There will be no more revolts.

Everybody steps in line.

As his father
dreamed before him,

Alexander can now
turn to Persia.

In 334 B.C., he crosses the sea

and attacks Asia.

In May we had the
first confrontation
with the Persian army,

the Battle of Granicus.

As always, Alexander
rides in the front line

at the head of
his elite cavalry.

Surrounded by enemies,

he is wounded within
an inch of his life.

But his loyal protector Cleitus

saves him in the nick of time.

The adventure might
have ended there,

with the young king dying on
the field of honor, age 22.

But Alexander continues
his irresistible march.

Miletus, Halicarnassus,
then Issus,

where he crushes
the army of Darius,

the great king of Persia,
who flees for his life.

And after the city of Tyre,
it's the Egyptian campaign.

There he founds Alexandria
and becomes Pharaoh.

He then enters Syria.

He crosses the Euphrates
and the Tigris.

On October the 1st, Alexander
finds the army of Darius

in his path at Gaugamela.

Alexander's men are outnumbered,

far from home, and
faced with a huge army.

But the Greek phalanxes
absorb the shock.

They allow Alexander
and his cavalry

to charge directly upon Darius

in the heart of the enemy army.

A mad gamble, 100 to one.

The charge is heroic.

Alexander comes almost
within striking distance

of the Persian king.

Darius abandons the battlefield.

Persia is the king.

When the king flees,
the army follows.

It's a debacle.

At the end of October,
Alexander takes Babylon,

and then Persepolis.

Darius, fleeing, is murdered

and handed over
to the young king.

The victory is total.

The Persian empire has
just changed masters.

To achieve this victory,
Alexander had to be ruthless.

Prisoners executed,
cities destroyed.

But once the victor,
he shows himself to be

extraordinarily merciful
towards the vanquished.

He respects their customs,

supports the existing
administration,

and even recruits
Persians into his army.

Aristotle had
taught him to behave

as an equal with the Greeks,

but as a master
with the barbarians.

Alexander chooses a fresh path,

at the risk of making
enemies in his own camp.

As of now the Greek
soldiers fight side by side

with their Persian counterparts.

- [Narrator] To conquer,

strength is not enough.

Where his generals saw only
a simple military campaign,

Alexander looks further.

He imagines a world united
under his authority,

where everyone lives in peace.

Alexander does not want to
destroy the Persian empire,

he just wants to
take control over it.

Better still, he wants to
merge it into the Greek world

to form one universal world.

For some, a
revolutionary vision.

For many, insanity.

Because from the dawn of time,

each people has unfailingly
considered itself

superior to others,

and the Greeks are no
exception to the rule.

Let's fast forward
to the 19th century.

The British were faced
with the same questions.

Their vast empire covered a
huge diversity of peoples.

But the difference
from Alexander is this.

There's no question of merging

into a spirit of universality.

It's a question of imposing
a model upon the vanquished.

Modern racism, whereby
certain people think

they are naturally
superior to others,

dates from this period.

The British of the 19th century

have much in common with
certain Greeks of antiquity.

Convinced of their
superiority over the Persians.

And for these Greeks,
Alexander is going too far.

- [Narrator] It starts
with the yearning

for the time of Philip,
Alexander's father.

With him things would've
been much simpler.

With Persepolis destroyed,
and Darius dead,

we would have subjugated
the Persian people

and then come home in triumph.

But for Alexander, the
adventure is only beginning.

The king of Macedon, Pharaoh
of Egypt, great king of Persia

considers himself the
equal of the gods.

He thirsts for ever
more conquests,

to the east and to the west.

Everything is now possible.

Coming under
increasing criticism,

Alexander starts to see
traitors on all sides,

and he might be right.

Parmenion, a leading general
of Philip's generation,

is more and more virulent
in his criticism.

He pays with his life.

During a typical Macedonian
evening of drinking

one man gets carried away.

Not any man. Cleitus.

The most loyal of
Alexander's lieutenants,

the man who saved his life
only a few years earlier.

In front of all,
Cleitus harks back

to the period of King Philip.

He criticizes the presence
of Persian barbarians

alongside noble Greeks.

He goes so far as
to insult the king.

Both men are drunk.

Alexander, in a fit of rage,

kills Cleitus with
his bare hands,

and immediately regrets it.

Faithful to his dream
of one universal world,

Alexander marries
a Persian woman.

He orders 10,000 of
his men to do the same.

The king of the Macedonians
dresses in Asian style,

recruits Darius's former
soldiers into his army,

even into his own
personal guards.

Those close to him
ask him to stop there

and consolidate his conquests.

His generals beg him to give
his men a well-earned rest.

Alexander could return
to Macedonia for a while,

reassure his people, and
consolidate his power.

Then he could launch
a new campaign

towards the west in Italy.

Against all advice,
Alexander decides

to venture further afield.

Now he wants to conquer India.

The die is cast.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] We have just
reached a turning point.

(curious music)

A turning point is a key event,

a cross roads in our history

where the world swings
one way or the other.

What would've
happened if Alexander

had decided to turn around
and go back to Greece?

At this moment, he has the
advantage of immense glory,

a monumental war chest,

the best army in the world,

and an insatiable
thirst for discovery.

He didn't have to be
satisfied with Persia.

He would've certainly conquered

the rest of the Mediterranean,

Italy, Gaul, Spain,
North Africa.

Greek and Persian cultures
would've been mingled

with those of the
Celts and the Latins.

The Roman empire would
never have come to be.

He would've left a
Greco-Persian world,

a universal world, as
Alexander had dreamed.

Closer to our time,
another man was faced

with the same type of choice.

After forcing
Europe to its knees,

Napoleon weighed the pros
and the cons for a long time

before invading Russia

at the head of his grand army.

A choice that finally brought
about the fall of his empire.

Back with Alexander,
to Parmenion,

who is reported
as saying to him,

"If I were Alexander,
I would stop here."

The king is said
to have replied,

"So would I, if I
were Parmenion."

Amongst Greek philosophers,

karos is the art of
making the right choice

at the right time.

But to achieve this,
one must distinguish

between perseverance
and stubbornness.

Does Alexander make
the right choice

when he directs his
armies towards India?

(thunder rumbling)

- [Narrator] The India campaign

is the one campaign too many.

From Greece, Alexander's army

has already traveled
9,000 miles.

His men now fight
because they have to.

Their heart is no longer in it.

After the battle of Hydaspes,

and despite yet another victory,

the army categorically
refuses to go on.

Even the veterans
have had enough.

With iron in his soul,
Alexander
orders the return home,

a journey that will
prove long and difficult.

Haunted by the questionable
death of his most loyal
friend,

Alexander is stricken with
fever in the spring of 323.

During the night of
10th to 11th of June

in the year of 323 B.C.,

Alexander III of Macedon,

known as Alexander
the Great, dies.

He was at the head of
the greatest empire

ever known at that time.

He was just 33 years old.

In shock, his generals are lost.

Alexander has a child but
he's far too young to rule.

So who is to command?

Who must fill this immense void?

Very soon, they are all trying

to take advantage
of the situation.

Former brothers in arms
finally come to blows.

Alexander's generals will
tear his empire apart.

Nothing will remain.

Even his son is murdered.

Mighty kingdoms will be
created from this breakup,

but none of them
will be strong enough

to counter a rising power.

(dramatic rock music)

On the other side of
the Mediterranean,

on the Mount Palatine, in
the heart of faraway Italy,

a young city is destined
for a great future.

But that is another story.

- [Narrator] So
who was Alexander?

For some, a bloodthirsty tyrant.

For others, a
humanistic conqueror.

This page of history was
written 2,000 years ago.

It comes down to us
through testimonies

that have survived the ages.

On several occasions these texts

come close to disappearing.

Some of them have
been lost forever.

Sometimes fantasized, sometimes
exploited for propaganda,

rewritten on many an occasion,

the history of our ancestors
has been modified and altered

by generations of human beings.

It is for the historian
to seek the truth.

Like an investigator, he or
she must discover information,

sift the true from the false,

remain as objective as one can.

A task that is made
all the more difficult

because our history is
in perpetual motion.

Our judgment of events changes
with every new discovery,

and most importantly,
with our point of view.

During the American
war of independence,

the British considered the
colonials in revolt as
rebels.

They saw themselves as patriots.

During the French revolution,

King Louis XVI
referred to the rioters

when speaking of those
fighting
under the name of citizen.

The Iraq War is seen by some

as a war of liberation
in the name of democracy.

For others, it is
an illegal invasion

intended to seize oil supplies.

(techno music)

The facts remain the same,

but interpretations
change radically

according to points
of view and interests.

So what of Alexander?

Tyrant or humanist?

Over the centuries, many have
opted to see him as a guide

who has allowed them to dare
to follow their own path.

In his name, some of the most
insane and ambitious projects

have come to pass.

His image has come
down the centuries

and it still inspires us today.

Alexander the Great,
the invincible conqueror

who went to the
end of the world,

the man who united
people by his will alone.

Maybe after all, that is the
greatest of his legacies.

(dramatic orchestral music)