A lion holding a sword!
It's perfect for Pompeius!
"Amicus est alter ego".
Pompeius.
Pompeius was my alter ego.
One in a thousand, tenacious, wise, noble Pompeius.
A great man, a great Roman!
Decapitated and the skeleton scattered.
No!
Dogs!
They will pay for this dishonor!
All those murderers!
All those who murdered Pompeius!
All those who touched his robe shall be taken and executed!
I shall be firm...
reasonable...
yet severe!
Our Republic is about to fall.
It has lost its meaning!
Rome is a beggar!
A Republic of beggars!
We wish and we have to create a strength in one single body...
otherwise, we shall be overcame!
An Empire without an Emperor?
Shall we tolerate our weakness, our shame...
and the abject misery?
In order for us to feed, train and pay the armies...
we must turn them into Romans.
Today we need more than Rome can provide, Caesar.
That's why we want more than granaries of the fertile lands of Nile.
The criminal, even incestuous Ptolemaic dynasty...
the great home of the opulent and rich kingdom of Egypt...
is a storehouse to the bigger, last great treasure...
of the Eastern kings!
It's a fabulous ark!
Fabulous ark?
Apparently so.
A treasure kept for centuries!
An incestuous dynasty it's true.
Polyglot, treacherous and cruel.
Today two brothers are locked in battle, intent on murder...
neither of whom is Prometheus or Epimetheus.
Cleopatra and the young Ptolemy are brother and sister...
whose parents, grandparents...
and great grandparents...
were also brothers and sisters.
All Ancient Egypt...
was manipulated by Greek culture.
The Greek line has remained unaltered.
Cleopatra is 16 years old...
intelligent, even a genius.
She speaks many languages.
She was born on Greek cradle...
and was raised with care in the museum of Alexandria's Library...
which she calls home.
Her composure is most becoming...
Our most recent and smallest conquests...
has done more harm to our soldiers than to our enemies.
What can be gained from poverty-stricken people?
Lmpose taxes...
and ransoms from conquered kings, prisoners, beggars?
It's all bad.
It all smells foul!
We must flee from the trivial.
Provinces in ruins, dying cities...
starving masses, plagues and revolts...
tumble-down temples, laws without enforcement.
The world is crumbling like a shipwreck battered by the waves.
Enough!
You have understood very well...
the last Orient treasure.
Rome will be reborn! The wealth Caesar's Rome!
I do not refuse all the wealth Egypt has to offer.
Remember, Caesar...
that Cleopatra's treasure is guarded in resin-sealed cedar coffers...
so as to be easily burnt in the event of an emergency.
Venus will triumph over Isis, Caesar!
We are committed to the Ptolemaic dynasty...
a dynasty established by Alexander.
Brother and sister in battle?
So, they shall be married.
Then, we shall see the outcome.
Isis is canny, although young.
I think we should be most careful with these eunuchs...
counselors and magicians...
for they are constantly in the company of Isis...
as if they were her crocodiles.
We have the sea.
We have the rock.
And with our great library we have everything!
The great celestial plan...
the great divine algebra...
the so long-awaited Ptolemaic Empire...
where Rome shall become Alexandria.
You, divine Isis...
Majesty...
are the seventh Cleopatra.
All the oracles...
prophecies, divinations...
foretell that beneath your shield...
this dream of centuries will come to be.
Forces of all incarnations...
and reincarnations!
You have the power to overcome them!
Oh divine Isis...
majestic and eternal!
You have, my Queen...
the power over the man...
with whom you will consummate this imperial union!
Power?
You have the power...
and you have the gold...
the riches.
The great treasure that once overcame Alexander.
What is Caesar's purpose?
Does he have no other purpose, only his criminal desires?
Being Roman, two things.
First, the gold...
and the goods of others.
Second, the superiority of our gods...
our ancient and higher...
knowledge of the sciences of the world...
so sought-after...
and unknown by Rome.
The meeting point is...
here.
Here's the secret.
A great secret.
Another secret unknown by Rome.
Lord so demanding...
all-powerful...
courageous...
wisdom...
and light!
His demands are unprecedented though.
Unprecedented?
It decides sovereignty...
how shall death come.
A difficult union...
will relieve the suffering...
and will appease the divine desire.
I'll play now...
the "divine moment"!
Divine dribble...
foam of hatred...
white rage...
icy and immortal flame...
of the immortal gods!
I shall relieve the suffering.
Relief...
to the divine...
suffering!
Has there ever been anyone that the gods has taken cared for like this?
Flowing and resounding lymph...
garrulous stream which murmurs softly...
from the shade...
and invites to slumber.
Caesar, to be an emperor...
is your human nature.
For Caesar to be king is the beginning...
of yours divine nature.
The greatest glory of the almighty gods...
is to make other gods!
No power can destroy you or overcome you...
because one battles uselessly against the other.
Thou art god, oh great Caesar!
On the bronze threshold...
of the bronze stairway...
nails the bolts with bronze.
And let the bronze doors creak upon their hinges.
You dog!
Today, dawn broke upon me in a red-colored shroud.
What survives?
What do we know of this ancient realm?
A world of severity.
The heart of your curiosity lives in the unknown.
What you do not see you do not understand nor suspect.
It goes straight to the heart and deciphers death.
I fell ill at ease.
My vision blurs, I hesitate...
I no longer understand myself.
It's the beverages that look like dreams, Caesar.
Often we see more than we should.
Beverages that look like dream.
And that Rome misses.
Rome...
Rome is lost in the mist...
eluded...
mistaken.
All we have left are wax masks.
There are nights...
when I see divinity in Queen Cleopatra.
Star showered from an unknown sky...
impossible to understand her with what we know.
Danger!
Venus in love with Isis?
Forbidden love!
We leave for Rome in two days.
I shall awaken those senile senators far earlier!
And make them eat less.
I demand that the Senate declare me lmperator right away!
Thou art King, Caesar!
King!
Behold the entire cosmos!
All the aeons!
Desire is thirsty!
Love is water!
Here...
the beautiful flower...
the origin of all.
The fount...
the water of life.
It's yours, Caesar.
King!
God!
I am King!
Goddess...
glory of Ptolemy!
The world is not worthy of the world.
It has no sense.
The Earth is earth-stained.
Turn your eyes to heaven.
Turn those tear-brimmed stars to the stars.
Flower of the night...
hides your fragrance in your fairness.
Here I am, Caesar.
On me, only on me...
do polarities fuse...
and mingle with my body.
Greek order versus Eastern fantasies.
Logic versus magic.
Mathematics versus Mythology.
Athens versus Alexandria.
In my spirit all these forces are only one.
I am Alexandria and I am Athens!
I wish I could abolish time...
and remain forever in this moment!
I am Cleopatra.
I am Alexandria.
I am Athens.
Your eyes speak more than all the libraries!
When the flute sounds...
time will turn in upon itself.
Like a box within another box!
To be proclaimed lmperator is insufficient for Rome's needs.
One thing is to be loved and another is to be the beloved.
Our divine nature is demanding.
I must be proclaimed King by the Senate.
By the Senate?
Will they upheld the end of Republic?
Tittle-tattle! I do not believe, Caesar.
Do something is do more than can be done!
Recognition with further recognition.
One face with another one.
King and nothing more!
The head of the world staring at its own skull.
The head over the skull.
The skull is larger!
The unbeliever who believes, the master who turns servant...
the immortal who dies.
Tell me, how many can the world offer?
You know nothing.
Nothing you know.
Brutal conquerors, pillagers of the poor...
buffoons as leaders!
All is upside down!
Our Greek inheritance was an irremediable error.
We have vulgarly transposed what we saw on the Greek scenario...
on the Greek world.
We are the infinite void...
of what we could not comprehend properly.
The Latin culture is the fall!
You are this fall.
Worms!
A canker gnawing at carrion of conquests.
We now control nothing!
A democratic chicken coop!
I shall be proclaimed lmperator and then I shall be crowned King!
I declare that, with Queen Cleopatra...
I shall beget the Julian-Ptolemaic Dynasty...
which will restore Alexander's once great Empire.
I think that you will be unable to comprehend Cleopatra...
since, amongst us, she has no par.
She is a polyglot and cultured beyond her years.
With her voice, she could crush any Roman Senator.
They would remain more slack-jawed than ever!
Cicero! Much to our distaste, some reach heights which we cannot attain.
Cicero?
Cicero.
Today, he applauds his own words in small discourses...
declaimed to himself alone.
He makes an idiot of himself!
The wax on the tablets of memory has melted.
He has shown himself weak in his useless discord with Queen Cleopatra.
Do you know why so much strife?
You know nothing, so I shall tell you.
Cleopatra allowed him to cast his tired eyes...
over some manuscripts in her great library.
Works that he clearly did not know.
Her favor overlooked, she forgot to give him the so desired manuscripts.
Vain Cicero never forgave.
There ensued a noble battle!
Double shame!
Thus, his friendship...
his old age is apparent...
shame twice over!
In short, for the sake of brevity...
I wish to be declared lmperator, and then King!
The King of Rome, the King of the Roman Empire!
She walks on stars...
each step so soft...
like gold, like amber, like light itself.
So beautiful a night.
You are beautiful...
the most beautiful of stars.
All venerated Caesar!
I tell you humbly...
you will be in great danger in the Ides of March.
Take care...
beware...
keep to your home.
- Do not... - Enough!
Leave me!
It is another world!
I swear! Many times, I trembled with fear and pleasure...
at what I saw and dreamt...
there, life and dreams are the same.
The rising smoke, the libations...
decipher death...
they overshadow the invisible...
they bathe in the slime of horror.
They have relations, naturally, with animals of all kinds and species.
Various kinds and species?
If so many, they must be different.
Which kind of animal seduced you?
What does immorality prefer?
The serpents.
Some small and thin...
others as thick as a gladiator's arm.
In this face...
there is something!
There is something!
What?
Ah yes!
The viper!
How succinct you are, beloved Caius Julius Caesar.
Against your will, you provoke the tingle of envy.
A toast to Caesar!
- Long live Caesar! - To his health!
We all pay richly with the handsomest of tributes. Death!
We all pay!
Parsimonious?
Why is death so parsimonious?
Because it does not spare no one.
I have seen...
all forms of agony.
Even its mask cannot disguise terror.
None of them!
Such strange cold.
I do not know. This humming...
something has just gone by.
The wind?
Everything is closed.
My wine has turned to vinegar.
The gods must be jesting with us!
We shall surely die.
But with what mask?
How do we put it on?
When?
What is the best kind of death?
The unexpected.
A toast to Caesar!
What do the augers say?
A commander, so beloved and admired as Mark Anthony?
The gods, changing the positions...
offer us this gift!
Queen Cleopatra's great treasure...
amassed over the centuries, is Rome's only way...
in such dire straits...
to grow organized and strong.
We and our armies...
are corrupted by another plague...
hunger!
Long wars, some useless, uncertain conquests.
It has weakened our Empire even further!
We can no longer bear such an unbearable burden.
We shall be ruined!
Only Hercules can unload Cleopatra's treasure!
An accursed treasure, buried in the sands of hell!
No treasure is accursed.
Even the sands on certain occasions...
cool off.
I only know this great treasure is poorly protected!
And it could fall into the wrong hands...
at any moment.
We have said very little...
and there is much more...
to say.
It would seem easier to conquer Cleopatra than conquer Egypt.
Cleopatra, that slippery queen...
the so feared madwoman of the Orient!
She has fornicated with her slaves since she was five years old.
They say her love arouses hidden vices...
without distinction...
without limits...
without end.
Strong words...
for a counselor.
Let's us separate the precious from the commonplace.
Dark monsters stalk the roads...
and I walk on the road among them.
There are monsters in nature.
I myself have seen them.
I have fought them myself.
Cleopatra...
is a legend.
A legend preserved by disguise!
A simple...
inoffensive...
illusion.
A feast is all...
it will take!
Cleopatra will protect her treasure at any cost.
So you must take it at any cost!
I say "take" for lack...
of a better word.
Enough talk!
The temples, the new synagogues of Delta...
are welcome.
They shall forever be protected by the Queen and the King.
We shall share our bread.
The Jewish people, under Cleopatra's rule...
may follow their own customs and religion.
I ensure and reaffirm
the tradition of my ancestors with the Jews.
Freedom to live.
Oh, Mighty Queen!
You are absolute, Cleopatra!
Your discernment is sublime!
The discernment of love!
I extend my home and my hand to all Jews...
from Alexandria to Arabia!
Your Roman wife is named Fulvia?
Yes, Fulvia.
A noble Roman.
I know...
very serious, determined...
short of stature, a small forehead...
round-faced...
and she sleeps sober and with a nightgown!
My father Ptolemy Xll...
called himself "Neo-Dionysus", the New Dionysus...
so enamored was he of music...
but that is not all.
Are you, General, unaware of Dionysus's ambiguous sexual nature?
Are you?
I see that you are not a devout follower.
Your inebriated sobriety is not so sober...
very like a man!
Dionysus enjoyed dressing as a woman.
I have never seen you dressed as a woman, General!
After Pompeius...
and Julius Caesar's death...
I am lord...
of the world!
Indeed!
No one could doubt...
your strength and power.
It is clear for all to see.
However...
I must tell the great General Mark Anthony...
that his Roman wife, Fulvia...
is looking high...
and low for him...
with an army!
General, an army is in hot pursuit.
Your wife wants you back...
and will rescue you at any cost!
She is on her way!
She may arrive here tomorrow, very early...
at dawn...
after her beloved sweetheart...
Oh love!
The great divine plan still moves.
Alexandria, our past, our realm...
will soon be the centre of the world.
The victory of Isis over Venus!
The heavenly powers are in motion!
Anthony is not Caesar and he never will be.
Caesar was overwhelmed by our world.
Anthony would like to reap its benefits.
You would never understand him.
He is a tireless warrior...
even defeated...
he must be greeted in Alexandria...
with honor and jubilation.
Coins shall be struck...
to celebrate his victorious deeds...
our victorious deeds...
and thrown into the crowds!
It is indeed brilliant to elude the public!
We will strike coins showing Cleopatra and Anthony.
Coins with Cleopatra and Anthony!
Isis and Bacchus!
See to it immediately!
May everyone know! Isis triumphs!
Terrible news!
Fulvia...
is dead!
Octavius Caesar wishes to see me...
at once.
Fulvia!
A great spirit has passed on...
but it is as I wished.
I have to leave!
Are you going to Rome?
At once.
I should have done with five young slaves...
last night, what I did with you.
You are just a rude and unruly soldier.
I am no Egyptian whore...
who opens her legs at your call!
What will you do now?
Spread it abroad in the alleyways of Rome?
The last great deed of the muddle-headed ruffian...
who tore Cleopatra apart?
You simple-minded fisherman!
Say what you will.
I must leave now!
As I pull on the reed...
a secret is perceived.
Once again the bloodstained omen.
The knife stabs deep.
Who is Octavia?
Octavia, the pious, the serene, cold and motherly sister of Octavius Caesar.
She will marry Anthony to unite the Roman Empire.
- Be quiet! - I am only a seer who sees.
You shall not talk to the Queen!
I long for when her spirits maybe.
Iras...
Octavia?
Have you heard her speak?
Can she speak?
What is her voice like?
Is her voice shrill or low?
Her voice is deep.
Then, Anthony will not like her for long.
Like her, my Queen?
Lmpossible!
Hard on the ears!
And hard on the eyes!
How is her posture?
Is she majestic?
Moving or still, she is the same. Her body she shows...
but no life.
How old is she?
- She is a widow. - A widow?
Then she ate of an unripe fruit, no doubt!
Maybe she knows...
A widow! You hear that?
She is 30.
- Is she long or round-faced? - Round-faced.
There, they overeat! Of everything, like pigs!
What color is her hair?
Brown. Her forehead is short, like all in her class.
She sleeps clothed!
Anthony will soon be back, my dear Isis!
That Roman woman...
has no idea of majesty!
You do not seem yourself.
You're lost, distant...
and so cold.
What is the matter, Anthony?
It's...
some memories.
Memories?
A man with a dark cloud hanging over him.
The prisoner and slave of a witch.
You have shrunk yourself.
Octavia, I do not wish to hurt you.
I do not know.
I do not know...
and the question...
lies in my not knowing.
Melancholy!
You have become a slave.
Slavery!
Seduced by the serpent! Your blood has run dry!
You know nothing...
Octavia, my feelings...
are my own.
Anthony has become a statue.
A Silenus of ice and boredom.
If strong hearts...
should weaken before the giddy...
unyielding love.
Of Mark Anthony, his beloved will fade beneath his fame...
to be so fond of Cleopatra.
In the torque of forms...
the glittering crystal of dreams.
I shall give you...
a library of Pergamus...
over 20 thousand of them!
A library for my library?
Really?
Is it true?
How handsome you are, Anthony...
ever more handsome!
Love.
My love.
Hail Amimetobion!
We...
beings of inimitable lives!
Rome is great for what it gives...
not for what it takes!
Long live inimitable lives!
Amimetobion!
One abyss calls another.
A dark abyss...
a smoky shape.
I want to eat your tongue...
a tongue of stone...
the tongue of tomorrow.
The light of Isis has blinded...
rather than illuminated her!
Let us embrace our end.
The disaster of our great celestial plan...
is certain.
The serpent of Isis has engulfed its own tail!
The abyss...
the end of time...
darkness...
shadows...
unfathomable mineral mourning.
Venerated death...
descend upon us!
Hercules has abandoned him. He has lost the battle.
The war is lost...
all semen has been thrown down the drains of Alexandria.
Mania has surpassed its limits!
One of the pillars of the world has been transformed into a clown.
His health wilts!
The battle lion has lost its claws, teeth...
and mane...
and now, finally...
its roar!
The long winter of Alexandria.
Let us go over to the side of Octavius Caesar. Or is it too late?
Minotaur...
The fire of the universe...
blood-red entrails...
bacchanalian flesh...
bite me...
burn through me...
immortal!
Synapothanamenon...
we who are to die together!
My time...
has come.
I wish to shorten what is left of my life.
I think of the powerful blue venom of dreams...
the blue eternal dream...
the promise of eternal bliss.
Therefore...
dear Master...
Olympus...
respected...
influential...
and beloved...
make your potions...
for I have made with pleasure...
my choice!
No, my Queen.
Do not shorten the magnificence of your life!
Do not! I beg you!
Do not entrust such extreme gesture...
so antagonistic to the harmony of your soul.
Do not, my Queen...
No! Suicide, never!
You are the Divinity itself!
I will die...
without dying.
Noble Octavius Caesar, Augustus Caesar...
I ask your forgiveness.
Forgiveness?
Why?
A Queen.
You are a Queen!
You acted as one.
I wish to protect you.
You have nothing to fear from me.
I am no more than a woman.
Overcame by the passions that overwhelm any common woman.
Oh, Cleopatra!
Do not give way to such dark thoughts.
What is past is past.
We are more inclined to forgive than punish.
Punishment never crossed my mind.
I swear to you.
I have here a list of goods I would pass on to you.
My treasure.
No.
It is all still yours.
Caesar does not traffic what merchants sell.
Keep them all...
and your serenity.
No, dear Queen...
we intend to take your own advice.
Eat...
and sleep.
Let our care and mercy covers you.
My Lord and Master.
Do not call me that.
What do you intend to do with me?
Firstly, let you recover...
then...
I want you to come to Rome with me.
In a triumphal procession?
How generous you are...
great Caesar!
I leave you now.
Be calm...
and regain your strength.
Good-bye.
As insatiable in life...
as in death...
even after death!
He showers me with promises...
so that I cannot be noble to myself.
But listen, Carmina and Iras...
to be carried as a trophy...
in Octavius's procession through the streets of Rome?
Never!
To smell the fetid breathe of sewers...
coming from mouths which devour all.
Dreadful!
No! Piffling Caesar!
Never!
No!
The Earth is called Earth...
because it is earth-stained.
As a King once told me.
A great man.
Done by (c) dCd / October 2008