Parmenion Quotes in Alexander (2004)

Cassander: Alexander, if we must fight, do so with stealth. Use your numbers well; we should attack tonight when they least expect us.

Alexander: I didn't cross Asia to steal this victory, Cassander.

Cassander: No, you are too honorable for that, no doubt influenced from sleeping with tales of Troy under your pillow. But your father was no lover of Homer's.

Parmenion: The lands west of the Euphrates, Alexander, and his daughter's hand in marriage! Since when has a Greek ever been given such honors?

Alexander: These are not honors, Parmenion, they're bribes! Which the Greeks have accepted too long! You forget, Parmenion, that the man who murdered my father lies across the valley floor.

Parmenion: Come, Alexander, we're not really sure if it was Persian gold behind the assassination. It is no matter! Your father taught you never to surrender your reason to your passion! I urge you, with all my experience, regroup! Fall back to the coast, raise a larger force!

Alexander: I would, if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander. And no more than earth has two suns will Asia bear two kings. These are my terms. And if Darius isn't a coward who hides behind his men then he'll come to me tomorrow. And *when* he bows down to Greece, Alexander will be merciful.

Parmenion: I pray to Apollo you soon realize how far you've turned from your father's path.

Alexander: Damn you Parmenion, by the gods and your Apollo! War was in my father's guts! It wasn't over ripe and reason like yours.

Parmenion: He never lusted for war, Alexander, or enjoyed it so. He consulted his peers in council, among equals! The Macedonian way. He didn't make decisions based on his personal desires.

Alexander: I've taken us further than my father ever dreamed! Old man, we're in knew worlds.

Cassander: Alexander, be reasonable! Were they ever meant to be our equal? Share our rewards? You remember what Aristotle said. An Asian? What would a wedding vow ever mean to a race that has never kept their word to a Greek?

Alexander: [throws Cassander against the wall] Aristotle be damned!

Hephaistion: Alexander!

Alexander: By Zeus and all the gods, what makes you so much better than them, Cassander? Better than you really are! In you and those like you is this!

Hephaistion: [pleading] Alexander...

Alexander: What disturbs me most is not your lack of respect for my judgment, but your contempt for a world far older than ours!

[at a meeting with the generals after Alexander's wedding to Roxane]

Parmenion: Your father must be turning in his grave, Alexander. After all this time, a hill chief's daughter? Do you call this tribal wedding legitimate?

Alexander: You forget, Parmenion, that my father took a barbarian as his queen.

Parmenion: Yes, and few would call it a profoundly happy marriage.

Attalus: To Philip and Eurydice and to their legitimate sons! To Philip...

[Alexander throws a wine cup at him]

Hephaistion: Alexander, don't...

Alexander: And what am I? You son of a dog. Come then.

[Attalus throws his cup at Alexander and soon a fight breaks out]

Philip: Shut up! Shut up all of you! This is my wedding, not some public brawl!

[Looks at Alexander]

Philip: Apologize by Zeus, before you dishonor me.

Alexander: You defend the man that called my mother a whore and me a bastard? And I dishonor you?

Philip: Ah!You listen more like your mother. Attalus is my family now, the same as you.

Alexander: Then choose your relatives more carefully. Don't expect me to sit here and watch you shame yourself.

Philip: Shame?

Attalus: You insult me!

Alexander: I insult you? Am I not fit to lick the ground my mother walks on?

Philip: Shame?

Alexander: You dog, questioning your Queen.

Philip: Shame? I have nothing to be ashamed of you arrogant brat. I'll marry the girl if I want, and I'll have as many sons as I want, and there's nothing that you or your harpy mother can do about it!

Alexander: Why, drunken man, must you think everything I do and say comes from my mother?

Philip: Because I know her heart, by Hera. And I see her in your eyes. You covet this throne too much. Now we all know that she-wolf for a mother of yours wants me dead. Well, you can both dream boy.

[Grabs his genitalia in a mocking way]

Parmenion: Come Philip, it is the wine talking. Leave the boy, it can wait till the morning.

Philip: Now! I command you, apologize to your kinsman.

[Alexander stands in silence looking at Attalus]

Philip: Apologize.

Alexander: His no kinsman to me. Good night old man, and when my mother remarries, I'll invite you to her wedding.

[Walks away]

Philip: You bastard! You'll obey me. Come here.

[Alexander looks at Philip and continues to walk away, Philip grabs his sword and prepares to attack Alexander, but falls to the ground]

Alexander: [Alexander sees Philip fall] And this is the man who's going to take you from Greece to Persia? He can't even make it from one couch to the next.

Philip: Get out of my palace. Your exiled you bastard. Vanished from the land.You're not welcomed here. You're no son of mine

Parmenion: Alexander, I've known you since you were born. I supported you at your father's death. At the very least, for Zeus's sake and out of respect for the council that chose you king, give us a Macedonian heir.

Parmenion: That was not your father's mission!

Alexander: And I am not my father.

Parmenion: [his men are being pushed back] Philotas! Philotas!

[grabs his son]

Parmenion: Go! Tell Alexander yourself. And if he won't listen, then survive me, and avenge this betrayal!

Parmenion: [yelling at his overwhelmed phalanxes] Back and to the left! Back and to the left!