37. Home to Babylon

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India - 9 Years Later
The crowd: 
He lives! Alexander!

Alexander:
Men of Macedon...we're going home.

The crowd:
What? What? Home? We're going.

Alexander:
We're going home.

PTOLEMY (v.o):
His life should have ended in India...but that's myth.
In life, Herakles died of a poisoned shirt, given him in error by his jealous wife.

Aristander:
Great Zeus...we have worshipped you in blood.
Look kindly on our homeward steps...and smile upon our backs.

Alexander:
May all those who come here after us know, when they see this altar...that Titans were once here.

PTOLEMY (v.o):
Making his devotions to the gods at the end of the great journey...Alexander bade the East farewell and marched his army directly west...across the great Gedrosian desert...seeking the shortest route home to Babylon.
Here, he watched helplessly the cruel breaking of his army. Not by any human foe...but by nature.    
To this day, there is no accounting of how many died. It was the worst blunder of his life.
And when he finally reentered Babylon, after six years in the Far East...Alexander again seized the imagination of the world by taking two more wives.
Now Alexander had three wives, two lovers...a contentious mother and a turbulent Greece...satraps of dubious loyalty in several provinces...generals questioning his every decision.
And beneath it all, a restive new army made up of 10 Asians for every Greek...all held together by one slender thread. 

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