[ Slow music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Man: Upon a bed of ebony, adorned with coral eagles, deeply asleep lies Nero.

♪♪ Oblivious.

Peaceful.

♪♪ And pleased.

♪♪ Robust.

In the ardor...of his flesh.

♪♪ And in the handsome vigor... of his youth.

♪♪ But... ♪♪ In the alabaster hall that shelters the ancient shrine... of the Aenobarbi... ♪♪ ...how restless are its Lares.

♪♪ The little household gods are trembling... ♪♪ ...and trying to hide their paltry bodies.

♪♪ For they've heard... an inauspicious sound.

♪♪ A deathly sound... ascending the staircase.

♪♪ Iron footsteps shaking the stairs.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ And now... in fearful faint, the wretched Lares... hide in the far end of the shrine, shoving each other and stumbling.

One little god falling upon the other.

♪♪ For they've understood... what sort of sound this is!

[ Music intensifies ] They've sensed... by now... the footsteps... ♪♪ ...of the Furies!

♪♪ ♪ Furies ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Furies ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Echoing ] Furies!

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Music stops, echoes ] [ Tape recorder whirring ] Woman: I'd like... to put this memory... into words.

Yet...it is faded so by now... ...as if but nothing remains.

For it lies far away... in the years of my earliest youth.

Skin as if made of jasmine.

In that August... Was it August?

Night.

Barely can I recall by now the eyes.

They were, I think, deep blue.

Ah, yes.

Deep blue.

A sapphire blue.

[ Waves crashing ] [ Slow music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Let me stand here... ♪♪ ...and let me, too, look at nature awhile.

♪♪ The morning seas... and cloudless skies, radiant violet hues and yellow shore.

♪♪ All beautiful... and brightly lit.

♪♪ Let me stand here... and let me deceive myself that I see them.

Indeed, I saw them for a moment when I first paused.

♪♪ And that I don't see, even here, my fantasies... my memories... the ideal visions of sensual bliss.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ When you set out on the journey to Ithaca... pray that the road be long, full of adventures, full of knowledge, the Laistrygonians and the Cyclops, the raging Poseidon.

Do not fear.

[ Slow music plays ] You'll never find the likes of these on your way, if lofty be your thoughts... if rare emotion touches your spirit and your body, the Laistrygonians and the Cyclops, the fierce Poseidon... ♪♪ ...you'll not encounter unless you carry them along within your soul, unless your soul raises them before you.

Pray that the road be long.

♪♪ That there may be many summer morning... when with what delight, what joy... you'll enter into harbors yet unseen, that -- that you may stop at Phoenician emporia and acquire all the fine wares -- mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, and sensuous perfumes of every kind.

As many sensuous perfumes as you can, that you may visit many Egyptian city to learn and learn again... from lettered men.

♪♪ Always keep Ithaca in your mind.

To arrive there... is your final destination.

But do not rush the voyage in the least.

Better it last for many years.

And once you're old, cast anchor on the isle, rich with all you've gained along the way, expecting not that Ithaca will give you wealth.

Ithaca gave you the wondrous voyage.

Without her, you'd have never set out.

But she has nothing to give you anymore.

If then you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.

As wise as you've become with such experience, by now, you will have come to know... what Ithacas really mean.

♪♪ [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ [ Inhales deeply ] [ Sighs ] ♪♪ What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

♪♪ The barbarians are to arrive today.

Why, then, such an activity in the senate?

Why do the senators sit back and do not legislate?

Because the barbarians will arrive today.

What -- What sort of laws now can senators enact?

When the barbarians arrive... they'll do the legislating.

♪♪ [ Laughs ] Why -- Why is our emperor up and about so early and -- and seated at the grandest gate of our city upon the throne in state... wearing the crown?

Because, uh, because the barbarians will arrive today, and the emperor expects to receive their leader.

[ Chuckles ] And indeed, he -- he has prepared to present him with a -- a parchment scroll.

Thereon, he has invested him with many names...and titles.

♪♪ Why have our two consuls and the pretors come out today in their purple embroidered togas?

Why did they put on bracelets studded with amethysts and rings with resplendent, glittering emeralds?

Why are they carrying today precious staves carved exquisitely in gold and silver?

Because the barbarians will arrive today, and such things... dazzle the barbarians.

♪♪ And why don't our worthy orators, as always, come out to deliver their speeches, to have their usual say?

Because the barbarians will arrive today.

♪♪ And they get bored with eloquence and orations.

♪♪ And why has there suddenly begun all this commotion... and this confusion?

♪♪ How solemn people's faces have become.

♪♪ Why are the streets in the squares emptying so swiftly?

And everyone is returning home in deep preoccupation.

Because night has fallen, and... ♪♪ ...the barbarians have not come.

♪♪ And some people have arrived from the frontiers and said that there... are no barbarians anymore.

♪♪ And now...what will become of us without barbarians?

Those people were some kind of... ...solution.

[ Rain falling ] [ Man speaking foreign language ] [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Piano playing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Projector whirring ] [ Projector whirring ] [ Dramatic music playing ] [ Music stops ] [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ [ Razor buzzing ] [ Thud ] ♪♪ [ Dance music plays ] [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ [ Bell tolls ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Chuckles ] [ High-pitched tone plays ] [ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Guitar strumming ] ♪♪ Man: ♪ Without consideration ♪ ♪ Without pity, without shame ♪ ♪ They built walls around me ♪ ♪ They took my life away ♪ ♪ Inside these walls, I sit with my despair ♪ ♪ In my pain ♪ ♪ They built walls around me ♪ ♪ They took my life away ♪ ♪ Oh, I can think of nothing else ♪ ♪ This fate, it eats my mind away ♪ ♪ Once I had a life to live ♪ ♪ But they built walls to close me in ♪ ♪ They built walls around me!

♪ ♪ They built walls around me ♪ ♪ They took my life away ♪ ♪ Oh, how could I not have seen ♪ ♪ The walls they built up around me?

♪ ♪ How could I not have heard ♪ ♪ The builders closed away the world ♪ ♪ They built walls around me!

♪ ♪ They built walls around me ♪ ♪ They took my life away ♪ [ Static ] Woman: Ideal voices... [ Eerie music plays ] ♪♪ ...and beloved of those who have died... ♪♪ ...or of those who are lost to us, like the dead.

♪♪ ♪♪ Sometimes, within our dreams, they speak.

♪♪ ♪♪ Sometimes, the mind can hear them... ♪♪ ...in our thoughts... ♪♪ ...and with their sound, for an instant... ♪♪ ...return sounds from the early poetry of our life... ♪♪ ...like music in a night... ♪♪ ...far away... ♪♪ ...that fades.

[ Music stops ] [ Eerie music plays ] [ Birds chirping ] [ Engine shuts off ] [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Muffled singing ] [ Eerie music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Piano music playing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Man rapping in foreign language ] [ Horns honking ] [ Music fades ] [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Hip-hop music plays ] ♪♪ [ Woman rapping ] ♪♪ [ Music stops ] [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Woman vocalizing ] [ Vocalizing stops ] [ Singing in foreign language ] [ Woman vocalizing ] [ Vocalizing ] [ Vehicles passing ]