Original subtitles

[dramatic music playing]

[woman] What is it, exactly, to lead?

It is one thing to make bold plans and speak of victory to your men,

but to fill their hearts with a fire

so they willingly die for you?

As a wise man once said,

"I do not fear an army of lions led by a sheep."

"I fear an army of sheep

led by a lion."

[dramatic music intensifies, fades]

[Bessus] Help me understand it, my king.

Our numbers are unbeatable.

- If we were to attack... - [Darius] Stop, Bessus.

Just look.

Breathe it in.

[birds chirping]

That reckless boy king would have to take pause at such a glorious sight.

But "unbeatable," Bessus?

A man of your experience using that word.

I think we have the numerical advantage.

We had that at Granicus too.

And you, Mazaeus.

You think our hammer can crack this nut?

I think under these circumstances...

You can drop the diplomacy, Mazaeus.

Our enemy has shown we cannot rely on brute force.

Our enemy is riding his luck.

Which is why we need to take the fight to him on our terms.

We will isolate this bastard and get rid of him.

Once and for all.

[woman] But the wise man also knows that if you seek victory above all else...

you need an army of lions

led by the biggest lion of all.

[dramatic music intensifies]

[music fades, echoes]

[man panting]

[panting continues]

Bad news?

We're facing the largest army on Earth

led by Darius.

For Darius, the defeat at Granicus makes it clear that this is a serious problem.

Even more so as he sees Alexander going down,

sort of, the Levant towards Egypt,

that he's coming to do some serious damage to the empire.

So he then gathers an imperial army

to confront Alexander on that Levantine coast at Issus.

Darius is determined to stop him in his tracks right there.

Sir.

The Persians are retaking Issus.

Of course they are.

That will sever our supply lines, reinforcements, communications.

Not to mention where our wounded are being treated.

Alex.

We'll be completely cut off.

[Parmenion] You asked for a stand-up fight.

Well, it'll happen there.

But I'm not sure you'll want it.

Alexander, you need to hear this for yourself.

[Carolyn] You have to imagine Alexander and Darius are moving through mountains.

They don't have a drone they can send to try and see where their opponents are,

so they're relying on reports and strategy

and anticipating what their opponents might do.

- [man strains, punches] - [man 2 grunts]

- [punching continues] - Ptol, that's enough.

[spits]

[pants]

[Parmenion] A patrol caught him in the Beilan Pass, spying on our lines.

Turns out he knows a lot about the Persian troop numbers too

with the right prompting.

Don't you? Huh?

Darius has called in reinforcements,

the city garrison of Babylon,

along with several thousand local conscripts.

It gives them a standing army of... 100,000 men.

Versus our 40,000.

Look, Alex.

We need to at least consider a retreat.

Or it'll be the kind of massacre only the Androctasiae can dream of.

What?

Do you not know any mythology?

He means the spirits of slaughter, Ptol.

But I disagree.

Darius is running this by the book.

Meaning?

I've read it.

It's a well-worn Persian tactic.

He'll trap us here...

between the Amanus Mountains and the sea,

then use their superior numbers...

to crush us.

Those same mountains and sea prevent him from outflanking us.

Meaning he can't bring his entire force to bear on us all at once.

Parmenion, can you hold their horses?

For how long?

Get me enough time to drive at them and they'll fold. I know it.

There's no small risk to this strategy.

But also no small merit.

I'll do my duty on the field.

Then let's take the battle to them.

It's clear from the outset that Darius doesn't expect this

to be a minor confrontation or a stepping stone to a larger battle.

He wants this to be decisive.

He wants to deal with the issue and get Alexander out of the way,

so he's kind of throwing everything he has at this battle.

[dramatic music playing]

- [metal rattles] - [men speak in the distance]

[Alexander] Macedonians.

Already, danger has threatened you.

And you...

You have looked it triumphantly in the face.

[crowd] Yeah!

But this time, the struggle will be between a victorious army

and an enemy already once vanquished.

[soldiers laugh]

And don't forget.

They are Persians.

[crowd laughs, boos]

Men who, for centuries, have lived soft and luxurious lives.

[crowd whoops, boos]

While, for generations past,

we of Macedon have been trained in warfare.

[crowd cheers]

There is a stain...

upon your houses.

An infestation led by a degenerate king with one aim.

- [man 1] Yeah. - [man 2] Yeah.

[Darius] To sully all that is good

and pure about Persia.

[man] Yeah.

[Darius] My question to you.

Will you let him?

[crowd] No!

Will you stand by and watch him take your homes, your livelihoods?

[all] No!

Let their filthy Greek hands molest your wives?

[crowd] No!

[Darius shouts] Then I say fight!

Not for me, not for Persia,

but for yourselves!

[crowd] Yeah!

[Lloyd] When Darius travels, he takes the whole of the court with him.

[crowd chants] Persia!

[Lloyd] Queen Stateira, Barsine, his daughter,

were all present themselves.

It was an absolute standard royal Persian practice

to bring the women close to the battlefield.

That suggests to me that Darius thinks the outcome of this

is already secured,

that his wife and his family are going to see the spectacle

of the king slaughtering his enemies.

[crowd] Yeah!

[Lloyd] Hopefully, as far as Darius is concerned,

he'll put an end to this mess once and for all.

But, above all, remember this.

We are free men,

and they are mercenaries fighting for Darius,

fighting for pay.

But we...

Brothers,

we will be fighting for Macedon,

- and our hearts will be in it. - [crowd roars]

Yeah!

[soldiers cheer, roar]

Yes! Come on!

[heroic music playing over cheers]

Yeah!

[yells]

[Ali] The interesting thing here for Alexander is that

he only has to lose one battle and that's it. If he loses that battle,

you can be pretty sure that Darius isn't going to be magnanimous,

because he sees him as a rebel.

Of course, the stakes are pretty high for Darius too.

I mean, let's not underestimate those.

If Darius loses, basically, he loses the western part of the Persian empire.

[dramatic music playing]

[music wanes]

The terrain of the battlefield really did work against the Persians,

particularly because of the size of their army

and their dependence on cavalry.

I mean, basically you're almost in a little bowl, right?

You know, sort of squashed between the foothills

of a not insignificant mountain range

and the Mediterranean coast.

And so, although Darius had a greater number of troops,

they're squashed together, and they don't have the space to maneuver

as effectively as they could on a flatter, more open battlefield.

[Lloyd] Persians are using a force of 100,000 men

as opposed to something like 40,000 troops that Alexander has.

So the odds are certainly stacked against him.

[Ali] The Persians become a little bit overconfident

because they seem to have superiority in numbers,

but what really matters is command and control, not the numbers.

If Alexander is going to win this battle,

then he has to win it on his terms

and employ the usual off-center tactics

that he's always employed and have always been successful for him.

[weapons rattle]

[weapons rattle]

[soldier] Yeah!

[horse neighs]

[men shouting]

- [swords clinking] - [shouting continues]

[man cries in pain]

[man screams]

[man screams in pain]

[grunts]

[man screams]

[man shouts]

- [Alexander] Shields up! - [arrows whistle]

[man screams in pain]

[roars]

[man screams]

[Lloyd] The Persians swarm around Alexander's troops,

especially those led by Parmenion.

It's looking pretty desperate for them.

Several major players on the Macedonian side

are killed at that point.

[groans in pain]

Where the hell is he?

Mazaeus. Quickly!

Target their left flank. Their cavalry is starting to fall.

I will hit them hard.

Troops! Charge!

[Lloyd] The Persian way of fighting in battle,

it tends to be that the commander, in this case, Darius himself,

they tend to stay at the center of the army so they're surrounded.

Okay? So it's about keeping them safe,

but also, of course, issuing orders from the center itself.

And that's in complete contrast to Alexander's way of doing it,

who likes to cut through the center all the time and actually get to the head,

to the charge.

So it's a very different fighting technique to Alexander's.

- [men shouting] - [swords clinking]

[men screaming]

- [grunts] - [man screams]

- [strains] - [man groans]

We need to buy him more time.

[straining]

Hoplites! Hold the line! Hold the line!

[Persian groans]

[man screams]

[grunts]

[Lloyd] Alexander clearly sees that this is not going well.

One of his major players, Parmenion, his friend, is in desperate danger.

[man groans in pain]

[dramatic music plays over battle noises]

[Lloyd] Alexander suddenly sees that there's an opening,

and, as ever the opportunist,

Alexander seizes the moment

and takes decisive action.

Cavalry, on me!

- Charge! - [soldier] Go!

The war-winning aspect with Alexander's army is his cavalry.

And why is that? Because he's able to move.

And he's able to move with alarming speed.

[Carolyn] He kicks things off.

He starts it with his charge from the right companion cavalry

heading towards the Persian lines.

But this isn't a haphazard, flat-out gallop towards the Persians.

Alexander has deliberately picked a spot in the Persian lines

that he thinks is going to be the weakest,

where he sees the potential for an opening, and it works.

[Darius] Hold the line!

Hold the line!

[dramatic music playing]

[soldiers shouting]

[swords clinking]

[man screams]

[music wanes]

[Lloyd] All the classical sources agree, and it's even in the iconography as well,

that, for the first time, Alexander and Darius lock eyes on one another.

It must have been quite remarkable.

You know, these two great kings, these two warriors are there,

and the history of the world is going to be formed

by what happens in the next few seconds.

[dramatic music playing]

- [Alexander strains] - [man grunts]

[man shouts]

I think if he could've, he would've killed Darius there and then.

- [men shout] - [swords clink]

[Bessus] Clear a path! Clear a path!

[sword swishes]

We can't leave the men!

Sir, my duty is to the king, to Persia.

- [horse neighs] - [man] Move it! Ha-ya!

- No! - [horse neighs]

Darius's bodyguards are quick to maneuver Darius out of the way.

They immediately turn the chariot off the field.

[Carolyn] Darius has to leave the battlefield.

Darius cannot die on that battlefield.

It's not because he's a coward.

It's not because he's running away for any personal reason.

It's because of what he represents.

If Darius dies on the battlefield, that is the end of the Persian house.

- [horse neighs] - [soldiers shout]

[swords clinking]

Alex, the battle has turned. We can win this.

No. We can win the war. Come!

So, basically, Alexander is able

to make a tactical assessment of the battlefield really quickly

and to respond to it.

And he sees the weakness in the opposing ranks,

and that's what Alexander takes advantage of.

It is a very, very bold maneuver.

And it works.

[men shouting]

[Lloyd] With Darius gone from the scene,

the instinct that all the Persian soldiers have

is to follow their king, of course. And this is essentially what happens.

First of all, the middle lines, those that were around Darius, go with him

until only the front line is left, and they too then begin to peel away.

And this is when the Macedonians simply hack them down.

They are slaughtered to a man as they are leaving the battlefield.

The loss of the Battle of Issus meant for Darius

that his Western satrapies are gone

and now are going to be in the hands of Alexander.

They are facing a new military force,

and the traditional Persian army is not capable of withstanding Alexander.

[dramatic music playing]

- [music ends] - [horse neighs]

[Mazaeus] My king.

Mazaeus, send word to your garrison to regroup...

Sir, please.

- With the remaining Kardakes... - Darius!

Where are the women?

Barsine and Stateira.

[horse neighs softly]

[dramatic music playing]

Quickly, give me your horse.

- [Bessus] Sir... Sir. - [Darius] We're going back.

It's too dangerous. For Persia, your safety must be the priority.

[yells] But they are Persia!

After the battle, Alexander is able to, basically, take the spoils of victory,

which is Darius's camp.

That camp included Darius's family.

So, he advances to the royal tent where we have a rather fateful meeting.

- [man strains] - [Persians groan]

King Alexander.

My husband will not tolerate any bad treatment.

[scoffs]

You're not Alexander.

[Alexander] No, he is.

As much as I am.

[sword sheathes]

I read that Persian rulers bring their families to battle.

[chuckles]

So this is how Darius wages war.

[whistles]

Such...

luxury.

[Lloyd] For the Persians,

Persianness and the centrality of Persia was everything.

Civilization was the hub of Persia.

The further away you went from that, the more barbaric you became.

So this outcrop of land which is called Macedonia,

for the Persians, was the ultimate site of barbarity.

[Stateira] Just get behind me.

Stateira would have thought of Alexander as the ultimate barbarian.

If you even breathe on her...

What?

- I will make it my mission... - No.

No.

What kind of barbarian do you think I am?

Please.

- I've not harmed you. - No.

And you won't either.

Because we have no value to you dead.

Then, if only in this regard, we have an understanding.

They can gather their belongings and bring them.

The women must have been terrified.

Or if not terrified, resigned to an unenviable fate.

Let's be honest. The fate of most women

on the losing side of a battle in antiquity was rape and death

or enslavement,

regardless of their status.

And so, when Alexander entered the tent,

they knew they were at his mercy.

Uh, their fate was entirely in his hands.

[hawk squawks]

[Touraj] I think taking Darius's wife and daughter

sent a huge signal, uh, to many of the mercenaries

and Darius's immediate followers

that the king, who cannot even take care of their own children and wife,

how could they defend the empire?

- [Darius] Any word? - I have no words.

- Mazaeus... - We let them be taken.

Don't.

You...

[breathes shakily]

...underestimated Alexander.

You're right.

And for that, I'm sorry.

But we are Persians.

We do not cower.

We do not panic.

Certainly not with 60,000 men still on the field.

What good are they when that thug

is holding my fiancée, your daughter, captive.

I know.

I know you're right.

They are the world to me.

[wind blowing]

- [dramatic music playing] - [horse neighs]

So that is what I will offer them.

What?

A bribe?

Will that work?

Trust me.

He's Macedonian.

Find me a messenger.

[Jennifer] Darius realizes that he needs to get his family back

because Stateira, given her high royal status,

had provided a legitimacy to him in his early days of kingship.

So he sends Alexander a letter.

- We have the momentum. - [man] My king.

No, Ptolemy, now is not the right time.

The right time? Parmenion, his army is scattered.

They're licking their wounds. Now is the time. Let's finish this.

The Persians may be scattered, but they still substantially outnumber us.

Without reinforcements, we could suffer the fate of Antaeus.

- He was crushed to death by Herakles. - Yeah, I got that one.

Then perhaps we should just stay here and give up.

It's an offer from Darius.

We keep all the territories and cities we've taken so far,

plus a ransom.

Ten thousand gold talents.

- What does he ask in return? - [Alexander] His family, mainly.

But also an end to our war.

It's a bribe for my obedience.

[Parmenion] It's a good offer, sir.

Think of all the cities you conquered for Macedon.

If I were Alexander, I would take it.

And if I were Parmenion, I would too.

Alex,

it pains me, but...

[scoffs] He's right.

You've proved yourself, more than anyone could've envisioned.

If I consider this, I am no better than Attalus.

Taking the Persian coin with my head bowed?

[Parmenion] And what is the alternative?

Stretch our dwindling resources to breaking point?

And thereby, truly test our mettle?

Well, I hope, for your sake, Parmenion, it doesn't come to that.

Look at you all.

Am I the only one who still has fire in his heart?

[Lloyd] The classical sources suggest that rather than go headlong into battle again,

Darius was prepared to offer Alexander, uh, various gifts,

everything from gold and silver coinage,

or even, one classical source says, half of his empire.

That is to say, if Alexander now takes everything that he conquered so far,

Darius would be satisfied, and let's just call it quits.

[Alexander] Good morning.

I trust the new accommodation is to your liking?

The beds comfortable?

Is there something you need?

Please, sit.

It would be very unusual for Alexander

not to seek to gain information out of his captives.

It would be almost negligent of him not to.

We don't know, for instance, if Stateira had a rapport with Alexander.

You know, could he have gone to her for advice about her husband,

the running of the empire? We simply don't know.

It's pretty clear if they're there in the baggage train,

they would've been a valuable source of information for Alexander

about what's going on at the inner sanctum of the Persian Empire, and also,

all sorts of things about the psychology of Darius would've been revealed.

If you're the wife and daughter of the Persian king

who's just abandoned you to your enemy,

you're probably not going to be entirely complimentary about

what your husband or father has done.

Egypt... What do you know of it?

[scoffs]

You want me to draw you a pyramid?

[chuckles]

No, I mean, what are his defenses?

- Troop numbers, cavalry...? - [Stateira scoffs]

And you think I would be party to that kind of detail?

Yes, I do.

It is the only jewel in the Persian crown more prized than you.

Its riches fill the Persian treasury.

The crops of the Nile delta fill the bellies of your subjects.

It's why Artaxerxes built an army of 350,000 just to conquer it

and gentrify all those barbarians.

Hmm.

[smacks lips] Seems you already know a great deal.

[Alexander] Only what anyone can learn from a book.

I want to know what Egypt can teach me itself.

What a place like that can show me.

[scoffs]

So,

all that's stopping you are 50,000 elite troops

who've sworn allegiance to my husband.

Then again...

he did once share a hated enemy.

Us.

So maybe all you barbarians have more in common than you think.

[Barsine] Mother.

What do you think you're doing?

Right now?

Surviving.

[Lloyd] Persian royal women were not silent partners.

They had a long, long history of being determined go-getters.

And if Stateira was representative

of any of the line of Persian women that had gone before her,

then I think she would have played on this situation

and maximized on it as best as she could.

Sir.

Have you decided how to respond to the Persian offer?

I have.

[Parmenion] Good.

To the esteemed Darius Codomannus,

son of Arsames and current king of Persia...

[dramatic music intensifies]

No.

[music fades]

As I, Alexander of Macedon, am now the de facto king of all Asia,

it is up to me, and me alone, to decide upon territorial divisions.

My decision is this.

I'm coming for you and your throne.

Ptol, send that immediately.

The rest of you, prepare the troops and take on water.

Tomorrow, we march south to Egypt.

Egypt, where an entire garrison of Persian infantry awaits us?

Well, it's bold.

I'll give him that.

It's a death wish is what it is.

Heph?

You need to make your friend see his mistake. Now.

Or we will all die and it would be for nothing.

So you might think that immediately following his success at Issus

that Alexander would continue his pursuit of Darius, get it done.

But, in a very Alexander way, he doesn't. Instead, he goes to Egypt.

[whistles]

[Salima] Alexander was probably interested and somewhat obsessed by Egypt

when he was quite young.

He had read about it, Aristotle had taught him about it,

and Egypt featured in sort of the mythos of the world.

[whistles]

Egypt is wealthy in terms of financial resources,

but when you have an army, you have to feed that army,

and Egypt was one of the breadbaskets of the ancient world.

It produced a huge volume of grain.

So for Alexander to control Egypt

would make it easier to have access to the supplies he needed for his army.

[whistles]

Poor Heph. They sent the friend to talk down the madman.

No.

No, not talk down.

Understand.

What is there to understand?

Why you would march us through a burning desert for weeks

just to see us climb into a lion's mouth.

What if I've been told the lion might be friendlier than we think?

And who told you that?

Alex, who told you that? Stateira?

[horse neighs, snorts]

I need to listen to all voices, Heph.

Well, then listen to mine.

I know this goes against all military sense.

But what if it's not a military decision?

What if it's something I have to do before I face Darius?

You remember Homer's writings. "The journey is the thing."

Well, I finally found my destination.

The question is, will you follow?

[horse snorts]

[woman] What is faith but a journey?

A pilgrimage that may lead you through fire or hell itself...

[dramatic music playing]

[woman] ...that may be beset by doubt...

or a dread of what is to come.

That may even be misunderstood.

[Bessus] Alexander has arrived at the gates of Pelusium.

Pelusium? Are you sure?

Straight towards several thousand loyal troops

ready to liberate the royal women on your behalf, sir.

Looks like the boy king may have just made his first tactical error.

And maybe his last.

[woman] But one that if you can hold fast and keep your nerve...

[Ptolemy] So, what now?

[woman] ...a most glorious destination awaits.

[dramatic music intensifies]

[music wanes]

[dramatic music playing]