EPILOGUE

Cassander, Glaucias, Alexander IV, Roxanê

(Cassander enters
SL, followed by Glaucias who carries a
tray with a flask and two glasses.)

CASSANDER

Glaucias, you have done well these many years. What
do you say has brought us to this final gate?

GLAUCIAS

Its close will open to us our prospects. Cassander,
we cannot touch Alexander who lies in a tomb in
Egypt where Ptolemy rules. You are the general of
Europe. Lysimachus rules Thrace. Antigonus rules
Asia. The Greeks are now autonomous, but Antigonus
is coming for all of it here.

CASSANDER

They all lust for the power over all that Alexander
held. Now the word spreads that the son of Roxanê
has grown up.

GLAUCIAS

Some proclaim the boy should be released from
custody and given his father’s kingdom.

CASSANDER

The new Alexander. I have taken all their wealth at
Dodona and Pella. I have read all of Alexander’s
letters to Olympias and burned them. There shall be
no worship of Alexander, ever. I know what secrets
he had to disclose to her. Nothing there.

GLAUCIAS

The greatest was of his visits to the oracles at
Dodona and in the desert at Siwah, they say.

CASSANDER

His fortune was mere chance, like the games he
played. The casting of the dice. And, as chance
would have it, he died very soon. His plans would
have soon ended his rule, if he had lived. Here is
the final door of the great god’s life.

GLAUCIAS

The boy is tall for his age, considering his
inheritance.

CASSANDER

Bring them out here.

(While Glaucias goes to the door,
knocks, waits, and receives Alexander
and Roxanê as they come out after a
while, this aside:)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

We are alone here. No one will know. They believe
the kingdom is rightfully his. Given to him! Simply
placed in his hands? Never! Too much fighting and
death for that to happen! The prize of these battles
goes to me. I will wear the crown.

(The king and his mother come into the
hall through the great door of their
bedchamber.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Are you well today, Alexander?

ALEXANDER IV

Yes, thank you. Today, I would like to visit the
people in the town, Cassander. I am ready to greet
them.

CASSANDER

And so you shall, later, when we will all go
together. I have prepared a refreshment for both of
you. It is a new vintage I have just opened and want
your opinion. Now go in, refresh yourselves, and
dress for our visit to the people.

ROXANÊ

We are grateful to you, Cassander. You have guarded
us well, and protected us from the perils out there
in the wars for many years. We have been alone and
isolated here. Would not giving the king his place
in the lands once ruled by his father solve many
problems? Is he not ready now?

CASSANDER

We shall discuss that as we travel to town. It is
time for great changes to take place.

(The king and his mother go in.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Soon we shall see. Roxanê, the Asian barbarian, a
queen? Courtesan, concubine or wife? Not the
favorite of Alexander. She murdered his next wife,
Barsine-Stateira, with Alexander’s baby in her womb.
She stood behind the murder of Eurydice and Philip
Arrhidaeus.

(Glaucias comes out and closes the door.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Are they refreshing themselves?

(Glaucias nods and stands by the door to
listen. During the following, screams
begin to be heard from behind the door.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Alexander was not the true heir of Philip. Olympias
was a barbarian, not a Macedonian princess at the
time of their marriage. Therefore, Alexander was a
Pretender, with no legal right to the throne.

(The moaning begins, and grows louder.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Glaucias, take the bodies out at night and conceal
them well, where there is no possibility they will
ever be found. And, Glaucias, on pain of death to
you and all your family, disclose to no one what you
have done.

(The cries of pain begin to peak.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

A proclamation shall be issued, Glaucias. Alexander
was a drunkard, a murderer of friends and
companions, and a power-mad tyrant.

(The cries of the boy and the mother are
at their peak now. The mother can be
heard shouting “Alexander”, and the
boy, “Mother”, There is banging on the
door. Then the boy’s voice alone is
heard.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Henceforth, all publications not showing Alexander
as such, are banned. No one shall read anything
about him–

(One last, weak knock on the door. A
loud moan growing instantly weak. Then
silence.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

–but that which shows him to be the evil person he
really was.

END OF THE PLAY