<body>
<blockquote>
<p ALIGN="center"><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="4" color="#FF00FF"><small><small><strong>From
Plutarch's <em>Lives</em>, still inspirational after 19 centuries:</strong></small></small></font></p>
<blockquote>
<p ALIGN="center"><font color="#800080" FACE="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="5"><strong>15
Ancient Greek Heroes<br>
from Plutarch's <em>Lives</em></strong></font><br>
<font color="#FF00FF"><font FACE="Symbol"><font size="4">P&nbsp L&nbsp O&nbsp U&nbsp T
&nbspA&nbsp R&nbsp C&nbsp O&nbsp U</font></font><br>
</font><strong><font color="#FF00FF" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="2"><em>A
modern English edition, abridged and annotated by Wilmot H. McCutchen</em></font><font
color="#FF00FF"><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1" color="#FF00FF">This site and
all contents copyrighted © 1998, 1999 by Wilmot H. McCutchen.&nbsp All Rights Reserved.</font></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="left"><strong><font FACE="Times New Roman,Times New Roman"><a href="preface.htm"
target="_self">PREFACE</a><small>&nbsp by the author.&nbsp It's brief, so start here,
then read the following biographies in order:</small></font></strong></p>
<font FACE="Times New Roman,Times New Roman"><p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a
href="theseus.htm" target="_self"><big>Theseus</big></a></strong> &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp <i><strong>The
Athenian Adventurer</strong></i> (<em>circa</em> 1300 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>Theseus suppressed crime and brought the natives of Attica together into
the first democracy.&nbsp He saved the Athenian children from the Minotaur, but his
kidnap of the queen of the Amazons brought trouble, and he ended his days in disgrace. </small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="lycurgus.htm" target="_self"><big>Lycurgus</big></a></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp<strong><em>T</em><i>he Father of Sparta</i></strong> (<em>circa</em> 800
B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>Lycurgus established harmony, simplicity, and strength in Sparta.
&nbspThis warrior society tamed its youth through systematic education aimed at
developing leadership, courage, public spirit, and wisdom.</small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><big><a href="solon.htm" target="_self">Solon</a></big></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp <i><strong>The Lawmaker of Athens</strong> </i>(<em>circa</em>
600 B.C.) <br>
<strong><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="2">Athens, unlike Sparta, was a
money-mad commercial city.&nbsp The constitution framed by Solon mitigated the class
struggle between the rich and the poor, and allowed for the growth of democratic
institutions.</font> </strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="ARISTIDES.htm" target="_self"><big>Aristides</big></a></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp <em><strong>&quotThe Just&quot</strong></em> (530 - 468 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>Aristides was so respected throughout Greece that Athens assumed the
leadership of the alliance against the Persian invaders.&nbsp His character is a model
for all ages.</small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="pericles.htm" target="_self"><big>Pericles</big></a></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp <em><strong>&quotThe Olympian&quot</strong></em> (495 - 429
B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>By the power of his eloquence, and the money embezzled from Athens'
unwilling allies, Pericles built Athens into a beautiful city and a powerful empire.
&nbsp Athenian imperialism, however, led to war with Sparta, known to history as the
Peloponnesian War.</small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="nicias.htm" target="_self"><big>Nicias</big></a></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp<strong><i>The Slave of Fear</i></strong> (died 413 B.C.) <br>
<font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="2"><strong>The turning point of the war
with Sparta was the disastrous Sicilian Expedition eagerly undertaken by the greedy
Athenians.&nbsp Nicias was the reluctant leader in this debacle.</strong></font></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><big><a href="AGESILAUS.html" target="_self">Agesilaus</a></big></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp<strong><i>The Lame King of Sparta</i></strong> (444 - 360 B.C.) <br>
<small><strong>Agesilaus inherited the Spartan throne after Sparta had defeated Athens in
the Peloponnesian War.&nbsp&nbsp At that time, Sparta was the undisputed master of
Greece and the Aegean.&nbsp Because of his stubborn lust for conquest, Agesilaus violated
the laws of Lycurgus against imperialistic ventures and fighting too much with the same
enemy. &nbsp By the time Agesilaus died, Sparta had lost most of its prestige and power</strong>.</small>
</p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><big><a href="PELOPIDAS.htm" target="_self">Pelopidas</a></big></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp<i><strong>The Freedom Fighter</strong> </i>(410 - 364 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>Pelopidas led the Thebans to recover their liberty, then he led them to
victory over the invincible Spartans.&nbsp From beginning to end, his was the life of a
hero.</small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="dion.htm" target="_self"><big>Dion</big></a></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp<i><strong>The Savior of Syracuse</strong> </i>(409 - 354 B.C.)<br>
<strong><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="2">Sicily was an important part
of the Greek world. Dion led the struggle against tyranny in its largest city,
Syracuse.&nbsp Betrayal and ingratitude were his reward</font><font size="2"> for
indulging the democrats of Syracuse</font><font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman"
size="2">.</font></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="timoleon.htm" target="_self"><big>Timoleon</big></a></strong><i>
&nbsp&nbsp<strong>The Friend of Fortune</strong></i> (411 - 336 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>Against heavy odds, but with the help of the gods, Timoleon took up where
Dion had left off, and liberated Sicily from barbarians and tyrants.&nbsp His courage and
wisdom established peace and prosperity where before there had been desolation and war.</small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><big><a href="ALEXANDER.htm" target="_self">Alexander</a></big></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp<strong><em>&quotThe Great&quot</em> </strong>(356 - 323 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>In an amazing eleven-year journey of conquest, young Alexander of Macedonia
conquered all the way from Egypt to India.&nbsp Behind him came Greek institutions and
the Greek language, which became the standard of the ancient world.&nbsp The intoxication
of power caused Alexander to become strange to his friends, and he died unhappy.</small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="phocion.htm" target="_self"><big>Phocion</big></a></strong>
&nbsp<strong><em>&quotThe Good&quot</em></strong> (402 - 318 B.C.) <br>
<font face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="2"><strong>After her defeat in the
Peloponnesian War, and her surrender to the power of Macedonia, Athens became a decadent
democracy.&nbsp Phocion did his best to save his fellow citizens from their own
foolishness, and at last he earned the reward of Socrates.</strong></font></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><a href="pyrrhus.htm" target="_self"><big>Pyrrhus</big></a></strong>
&nbsp <i><strong>The Fool of Hope</strong> </i>(319 - 272 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>In Pyrrhus' wild career of restless trouble-making, we see a soul incapable
of satisfaction.&nbsp He was a mighty man of war, and nearly conquered Rome, but he could
never finish what he started before getting distracted by a new project.</small></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong><big><a href="agis.htm" target="_self">Agis</a></big></strong>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp<i><strong>The Reformer of Sparta</strong></i> (reigned 245 - 241 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>The love of money had virtually destroyed the laws of Lycurgus in Sparta by
the time Agis became king.&nbsp This idealistic young man tried to restore the old way of
life that had made Sparta great, but he was defeated by the power of greed.</small><i> </i></strong></p>
<p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><big><strong><a href="PHILOPOEMEN.htm" target="_self">Philopoemen</a></strong>
</big>&nbsp<strong><em>&quotThe Last of the Greeks&quot</em></strong> (252 - 182 B.C.) <br>
<strong><small>Philopoemen led the last remnants of resistance to the creeping domination
of Rome in Greece.&nbsp In this austere general, we see an indomitable character,
superior to his circumstances.</small></strong></p>
<i><p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><strong>Postscript</i>:</strong>&nbsp&nbsp <strong><big><a
href="plutarch.htm" target="_self">Plutarch</a></big></strong> (<em>circa</em> 40 - 120
A.D.) <br>
<strong><small>Who was Plutarch, and why was his work such a hit in the Renaissance?
&nbsp More important, why has it nearly disappeared after being long at the top of the
Western classical canon?</small></strong></p>
<i><p ALIGN="LEFT"></i><strong><em><small><a href="chronology.htm">CHRONOLOGY&nbsp
OF&nbsp ANCIENT &nbsp GREECE </a></small><br>
</em><small>A timeline so you can see the flow of events during the rise and fall of
Ancient Greece.</small></strong></p>
</font><p ALIGN="center"><strong><em><font FACE="Times New Roman,Times New Roman">Shortcuts
to Major Topics:</font></em></strong><br>
<a href="ALEXANDER.htm#Troy">Trojan War</a> | <a href="theseus.htm#Amazons">Amazons</a> | <a
href="solon.htm#Solon">Atlantis</a> | <a href="phocion.htm#Socrates">Socrates</a> | <a
href="nicias.htm#Plato">Plato</a> | <a href="agis.htm#Leaders">Fable of the Snake</a> | <br>
<a href="ARISTIDES.htm#Persians">Battle of Marathon</a> | <a
href="ARISTIDES.htm#Battle of Salamis">Battle of Salamis</a> | <a
href="ARISTIDES.htm#When">Battle of Plataea</a> | <a href="PELOPIDAS.htm#5">Battle of
Leuctra</a> | <br>
<a href="ARISTIDES.htm#When the gods">The Four Ages of Humanity</a></p>
<div align="center"><center><table border="0" cellspacing="1" width="233"
bgcolor="#FF00FF" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<td width="227"><p align="center"><strong><a href="links.htm"><big>Ancient Greece Links</big></a></strong></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p align="center"><strong><small>This site first posted on September 15, 1998.</small></strong>&nbsp
</p>
<p align="center"><em><strong>Latest revision:</strong></em>&nbsp January 12, 1999</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Comments?&nbsp Or would you like a floppy of this site, in hypertext with the
vocabulary frame, that you can read on your browser?&nbsp This has the full look and feel
of the net version, but without the download delays ($15, including shipping in US).&nbsp
It's a great tool for SAT verbal preparation, or for polishing the business English of
advanced foreign students.&nbsp Write to <br>
<br>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Wilmot McCutchen<br>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp P.O. Box 689<br>
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Orinda, CA 94563<br>
<br>
Donations to this cause will be gratefully accepted.&nbsp You can e-mail me at <a
href="mailto:[email-masked]">[email-masked]</a>.&nbsp </p>
</blockquote>
<p>&nbsp</p>
</blockquote>
</body>

A L E X A N D E R
"The Great"
(356 -323 B.C.)
A L E X A N D R O S
by
Plutarch
In an amazing eleven-year journey of conquest, young
Alexander of Macedonia conquered all the way from Egypt to India.
Behind him came Greek institutions and the Greek language, which became the
standard of the ancient world.   The intoxication of power caused
Alexander to become strange to his friends, and he died
unhappy.

Go to Home Page
for 15 Greek Heroes from Plutarch's
Lives

My intention is not
to write histories, but lives.   Sometimes small incidents, rather
than glorious exploits, give us
the best evidence of character.  So, as portrait painters are more exact
in doing the face (where the character is revealed) than the rest of the body,
I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the
souls of men.  By these, rather than the historical events they
participated in, I try to portray their lives.  I leave the task of a
more complete historical chronicle to
others.

On the day that Alexander was born, the
temple of Diana at Ephesus 1
burned down, an omen which the fortune-tellers of the East interpreted as a
sign that on that day, the force that would destroy Asia had entered the
world.

Alexander had light skin, blond hair, and
melting blue eyes.  A sweet natural fragrance came
from his body, so strong that it perfumed his clothes.

Action and glory, rather than pleasure and
wealth, were what Alexander wanted from life.  Fame was his
passion.  When he heard of the conquests of his father, King Philip of
Macedonia, Alexander was not happy about the additional wealth and power that
he would inherit, but instead was sad that there would be less left for him to
conquer.  Alexander often lamented to his friends that the way things
were going, nothing would be left for him to do once he became king.

Alexander wanted a kingdom involved in
trouble and war, where he would have an ample field to exercise his courage
and make his mark on history.  He disdained a life
of comfortable sloth.  This
young warrior was always a great patron of the arts
and of learning.  He enjoyed and encouraged hunting and the martial arts,
except for boxing.

* * *

Bucephalus was Alexander's horse throughout
most of his career.  Some horse traders had brought this magnificent
animal to King Philip and offered him for sale, but no man could ride
him.  The traders were taking Bucephalus away when Alexander remarked
that it was a shame to lose such a fine horse just because no one knew the
right way to manage him.  Philip at first ignored the boy, but Alexander
persisted.
Finally Philip said: "Do you presume to
criticize those who are older than you, as if you knew more, and could do
better?"  Alexander boldly declared that he would ride the horse, and
everyone laughed.  He bet the price of the horse, and got the chance to
try.

Alexander had noticed that Bucephalus was
afraid of his own shadow, so he turned the horse to face the sun and settled
him down, then walked him in that direction for a while, stroking him whenever
he became eager and fiery.   Suddenly, Alexander jumped on his back and
drew in the bridle gently, but firmly, until all rebelliousness was
gone.  Then he let Bucephalus go at full speed, urging him on with a
commanding voice.

Alexander's father and the others looked on
nervously until they saw Alexander turn at the end of his run and come back in
triumph.   "Oh my son," said King Philip with tears in his eyes, "find
yourself a kingdom equal to and worthy of yourself, for Macedonia is too
little for you."

After this, Philip sent for Aristotle 2
to be Alexander's tutor.  Ordinary teachers would not be enough for
Alexander, who could easily be led by reason but refused to submit to compulsion.
All kinds of learning and reading interested him, but Homer’s
Iliad  3
was by far his favorite book.  He always took a copy, annotated by
Aristotle, along on his campaigns.  Aristotle had a profound influence on
Alexander, who said that he loved Aristotle as much as Philip -- his father
had given him life, and his teacher had taught him to use it.

* * *

When Alexander was sixteen, Philip left him
in charge of Macedonia while he went away on a campaign against the people of
Byzantium.  The Maedi rebelled while Philip was gone, and Alexander led
an army against their largest city.  He moved out the Maedi and renamed
the city "Alexandropolis," after himself.

Philip put Alexander in command of the
cavalry at the Battle of Chaeronea, 4
and Alexander led the charge that broke the Theban Sacred Band. 5
This early bravery made his father so fond of him that
Philip liked nothing better than to hear his soldiers say that Philip was
their general, but Alexander was their king.

Philip had a stormy home life with
Alexander's mother, Olympias.  Philip had spied on her once and seen a
snake in her bed, and ever since then they had been estranged.
Philip's new marriages enraged Olympias,
who was a violent, jealous, and unforgiving woman.  The trouble in the
women's chambers spread to the whole kingdom.  Olympias even managed to
turn Alexander against his father.

The breaking point came when Philip married
Cleopatra, the very young niece of Attalus.  At the wedding feast,
Attalus (who was drunk), in his toast, asked the
Macedonians to pray to the gods for a lawful successor to
the kingdom through his niece.  This so irritated
Alexander that he threw a cup at Attalus and shouted: "What am I then -- a
bastard?"  Philip (who was also drunk) took Attalus' side and came at
Alexander with a sword, but he slipped and fell down on the floor.
Alexander derided his drunk
and clumsy father and then left Macedonia, along with Olympias.

An old friend of the family came to visit
Philip, and Philip asked him if the Greeks were at peace with each
other.  The visitor replied: "It is strange that you are so worried about
Greece when your own house is torn apart by so many wars."  Philip got the
point, and called Alexander home.   But soon another matter came
between Alexander and his father.

By yet another wife, Philip had a son named
Arrhidaeus, who had been a healthy boy until Olympias gave him some drugs that
damaged his brains.  The satrap of Caria
asked for a marriage between his daughter and Arrhidaeus, hoping to ally
himself with Philip's family.  Olympias, aided by a few of Alexander's
companions, filled Alexander's head with suspicions that Philip was preparing
to hand over the kingdom to Arrhidaeus.  So Alexander sent Thessalus, an
actor, to the satrap with instructions to disparage
Arrhidaeus and to offer a marriage with Alexander instead.

Of course the satrap was much happier with
the prospect of Alexander rather than Arrhidaeus as his son-in-law.  But
when Philip heard about Alexander's proposal, he emphatically told
his son that it was unworthy of the power he was due to inherit to beg for an
alliance with a man who was no more than the slave of a barbarian king.
Philip had Thessalus sent to him in chains, and he banished some of
Alexander's companions who had talked Alexander into this.

Shortly afterwards, Philip was was murdered.
The assassin was Pausanias, who was angry because Philip had refused to
give him justice for some injury done to him by Attalus.  But it was
Philip's wife who was the instigator.
Olympias took this enraged young man and made him the instrument of her
revenge against her husband.  Once Philip was out of the way, Olympias
tortured her hated young rival, Cleopatra, to
death.

So, at the age of only twenty, Alexander
became king of Macedonia.

The neighboring states and the cities of
Greece rebelled against
Macedonian rule now that they saw a boy on the throne.  Alexander's
council advised him to give up trying to subjugate the
Greeks and to concentrate his resources on keeping the barbarian nations of
the north under control.  Treat the Greeks kindly, they said, and that
will dissipate the
first impulses of rebellion.

But Alexander rejected this advice.  If
any sign of weakness were perceived at the beginning of his government,
everyone would be encouraged to attack, so only in bravery was there
safety.  First Alexander marched to the Danube and beat down all
opposition from the tribes in that area.  When everything there was
peaceful again, he turned south and marched to Greece.

There had been a revolution in Thebes.
The demagogues there
were urging all of the other Greeks to join Thebes and free themselves from
Macedonian domination.  Athens also was being agitated by talk
of war and rebellion, particularly from the demagogue Demosthenes. 6

After a march of two weeks, Alexander
appeared at the walls of Thebes and demanded that the city send him the two
leaders of the rebellion.   To show how willing he was to forgive what
was in the past, Alexander offered a full pardon for all those that would take
it.  The Thebans gave him an insulting reply, so Alexander killed six
thousand of them, demolished their
city, and sold all of the surviving inhabitants as
slaves.

This severe example would make the other
Greeks think twice about the consequences of disobedience.  And soon the
Athenians repented and reaffirmed their
allegiance
to Macedonia.  Whether Alexander's new gentleness toward the Athenians
was the result of remorse over the
horrible cruelty done to Thebes, or merely that his passion for blood was
satisfied, is not certain.  However, from then on Alexander always showed
kindness to any Theban survivor he could find.

Soon afterwards, representatives of the
Greeks assembled at Corinth and named Alexander to lead them in a war against
Persia. 7
While Alexander was at Corinth, politicians and philosophers came to
congratulate him, but he noticed that the famous philosopher Diogenes, who
lived there in Corinth, did not come.

So Alexander went to visit Diogenes at his
home and found him lying down, sun-bathing.  Diogenes raised himself up a
little when he heard the crowd approaching, and Alexander asked the
philosopher very courteously if there was any favor a king could do for
him.  Diogenes only said: "Yes, please take your shadow off me."
Alexander's companions, on the way back, were making fun of the simple-minded
old man, but Alexander told them: "Laugh if you must, but if I were not
Alexander I would choose to be Diogenes."

* * *

Between 30,000 and 43,000 infantry and
between 3,000 and 4,000 horsemen followed Alexander into Asia Minor [334
B.C.].  He had only 70 talents for their
pay, and no more than thirty days' provisions.  Alexander was 200 talents
in debt, having spent everything he had in making sure that his best men were
able to provide for their families.  When one of his generals asked what
he had kept for himself, Alexander answered: "My hope."  This general
then refused the pension that Alexander offered him, saying: "Your soldiers
will be your partners in that."

With such desire and determination, Alexander
and his army crossed the Hellespont into Asia and came to Troy. 8
At the tomb of Achilles, who was his ancestor on his mother’s
side, Alexander anointed the gravestone with oil and then ran around it naked
with his companions, according to the ancient custom.  Achilles, he said,
was a lucky man to have had a good friend while he was alive and a good poet
to preserve his memory after he was dead. 9

Meanwhile, the Persians had camped on the
other side of the Granicus River to prevent Alexander from crossing.  The
Persian force numbered 20,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry, and their position
was strong.  The river was deep, and its banks were high.  The task of assault seemed to
be impossible, but Alexander immediately led thirteen squadrons of horsemen
across under a shower of arrows.   With frenzied persistence
they managed to get up the muddy banks and close with the enemy.

Alexander's white plume and brilliant armor
made him easy to pick out, so the bravest Persians clustered where he
was, and that is where the fight was most furious.  One Persian chieftain
knocked Alexander dizzy with a battle-ax, but Clitus saved Alexander's life by
spearing the assailant before
he could finish the kill.

The Macedonian phalanx,
meanwhile, had managed to get across the river and form up on the other
side.  The Persians could not stand up against their push, and soon the
whole Persian army was running for their lives.  The losses on the
Persian side were 20,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry, but Alexander lost only
34 men.

This first victory changed everything.
All of the cities on the coast surrendered to Alexander, except for
Halicarnassus and Miletus, which he had to take by force.

Now Alexander faced a difficult decision:
whether to consolidate
his conquests, in order that their resources could provide a secure base for
later operations, or to move immediately against the Persian king Darius in
the heart of his empire.  Consolidation was Alexander's choice, so he
moved down the coast to take control of Lycia, then turned north to
Phrygia.

There, in the city of Gordium, he accepted
the challenge of the Gordian Knot.  A very intricate knot
tied together the yoke of an ancient chariot, and there was a legend that
whoever could undo the knot would become the master of the world. Alexander
pulled out his sword and chopped through the Gordian Knot, instead of
involving himself in its mysterious entanglements.

King Darius of Persia was on the way from
Susa with an army of 600,000 men.  For some time, Alexander stayed in
Cilicia, which Darius and his advisors attributed to
Alexander’s fear of encountering the overwhelmingly
large Persian force.  The real reason for Alexander's delay was that he
was getting
over a serious illness.

All of Alexander's attendants were
afraid to try any remedies, because if their remedy failed, and Alexander
died, the Macedonians might blame the physician.  But there was one,
Philip the Acarnanian, who dared to try, and he risked his own life to save
Alexander's.  Alexander received a letter from Parmenio, warning of treachery by
this physician, who, said the letter, had been bribed by Darius to give poison
instead of medicine.  Alexander read the letter, then put it under his
pillow, showing it to no one. When Philip came in with the potion, Alexander
took out the letter and handed it to him, and while Philip read the letter,
Alexander drank the potion with a smile.  In a short time, Alexander was
well.

The Persians had camped in flat and open
country, where they could take advantage of their superiority in
cavalry.  But as weeks passed with no sign of Alexander (who was
recovering from his sickness), Darius' flatterers convinced him that the
Greeks were afraid to fight, and therefore Darius should move his army to
Issus to cut off their escape.  Darius marched to Issus at the same time
that Alexander marched into Syria to meet him, and the two armies passed each
other.  When Alexander heard that the Persians were behind him at Issus,
he immediately turned back and hurried to fight there.

Darius was in an equal hurry to get out of
Issus, because when he saw the rough terrain, which
made his cavalry useless, and split up his army, he realized that the Greeks
could have the advantage.  Before Darius could escape from his own trap,
Alexander had arrived.  Alexander personally commanded the right wing,
which crushed the Persian left.  Darius panicked and rode away, leaving
behind his chariot, his bow, his shield, his mantle, his army, and 110,000
Persian casualties. 10

* * *

Among the captives taken in the Persian camp
were the mother, wife, and daughters of Darius.  Alexander assured these
women that they had nothing to fear from him or his men, since he fought with
Darius only for his empire, and not for personal spite.  He
guaranteed that they would continue to be treated according to their rank and
would have everything they used to have from Darius.   Alexander was
always very chaste and courteous in his
relations with the opposite sex, and he had a great respect for the
institution of marriage.  He used to say that two things reminded him
that he was human, and not a god: sleeping and the act of generation, as if to
say that both weariness and lust are produced by the same weakness and imbecility of
human nature.

In eating, also, Alexander was totally in
command of his appetite, and neither a glutton nor a gourmet.
When offered the services of some cooks who were said to have great skill, he
declined, saying that the best stimulus to a good appetite was a long march
before breakfast and a moderate breakfast to create an appetite for
dinner.  It was generally believed that Alexander was addicted to wine,
but that impression arose from the fact that he liked to stay up late over
wine talking.

When he had free time, Alexander would read,
write, or hunt.  He would not have dinner until after dark, and this
would be a very long meal because he loved good conversation.  Usually,
his own talk was amusing and intelligent, but Alexander sometimes would lapse into braggadocio.
This gave his flatterers a chance to ride him, and put his friends in the
unpleasant position of choosing between shame and danger -- they disdained to
compete in flattery but were afraid not to join in.

* * *

After the Battle of Issus [333 B.C.],
Alexander sent some men to Damascus to take possession of the money and
baggage that the Persian army had left there.  Every soldier in the Greek
army became a rich man, with beautiful women for slaves.  Alexander
allowed this because he wanted them to get a taste of barbaric luxury that
would make them more eager to conquer more territory.  He considered it
to be like giving bloodhounds the scent.

Then Alexander proceeded down the coast to
the city of Tyre, which refused to surrender to him.  While his army sat
down for a siege at Tyre [332 B.C.], Alexander went into Arabia.

One day, he fell behind the rest of his army
because his old teacher, Lysimachus (whom he used to compare to Phoenix, the
guardian of Achilles) could not keep up.  Night found Alexander in a very
dangerous position: far behind his army and without any fire to combat the
cold.  He noticed some enemy campfires, so he ran over to one, killed two
soldiers with his knife, then carried back a burning stick to his men.
This was typical of Alexander -- he was always encouraging his men by a
personal example of readiness to work and face danger.

During the seven months that it took before
Tyre finally was sacked, Darius wrote to Alexander and offered to pay ransom
for the prisoners held by Alexander.  Darius also offered to give
Alexander one of his daughters in marriage if Alexander would be satisfied
with dominion
over all of the countries west of the Euphrates.  Alexander told his
friends about the offer, and asked their advice. Parmenio said, "If I were
you, I would take it gladly."

Alexander responded, "So would I, if I were
Parmenio, but I am Alexander, so I will send Darius a different answer."
This was Alexander's answer to Darius: "All of Asia is mine, including all of
its treasure.  This money you offer is already mine.  As for your
daughter, if I want to marry her, I will do so, whether or not you
approve.  If there is something you want from me, you may come in person
and ask for it.  Otherwise, I will have to go to where you are."

* * *

After Tyre and Gaza had been taken, Alexander
went into Egypt.  He founded the city of Alexandria [331 B.C.] at the
mouth of the Nile, pursuant to a dream he had.  His fortune-tellers
predicted that Alexandria would become a great city that would feed many
strangers, and so it came to pass.

Then Alexander decided to take a long journey
to an oasis in
the middle of a vast desert, to visit the temple of the god Ammon. 11
Not only would water be scarce along the way, but sandstorms had
buried whole armies there before.  All of these dangers and difficulties
did not matter to Alexander, who could not be diverted from his
plan once he had decided to do something.  Alexander's good luck made him
firm in his opinions, and his natural courage made him delight in overcoming
difficulties, as if conquering armies was not enough, and only Nature herself
was a fit opponent for him.

Alexander's good luck continued.  Heavy
rain solved the water problem, and also prevented sand from blowing.
When the Macedonians lost their way, some ravens came to guide them.
These birds flew ahead to indicate the right direction, and at night the
ravens' calls kept them on the right path.

At the temple of Ammon, Alexander asked the
oracle whether
he would be allowed to conquer the world, and the oracle said yes.
Returning out of Egypt, Alexander accepted the surrender of all countries west
of the Euphrates.   Then he went after Darius, who by this time had
gathered another army, this time of a million men.

The two armies came in sight of each other
one night at Gaugamela [also known as Arbela, on October 1, 331 B.C.].
The noise and campfires of the vast barbarian camp were so frightening that
some of Alexander's generals advised a night attack because it would be too
dangerous to take on such a huge force in daylight.  But Alexander
replied: "I will not steal victory."  To some, this sounded immature and
conceited,
but it was a wise strategy: if Darius lost this battle, in broad daylight on a
field he had chosen, he would have no excuse for defeat, as he had before at
Issus.  With his heart broken, Darius would not try again.  The war
would be over, even though in his empire Darius had plenty of men and
resources to keep up the fight for a long time.  So Alexander and his men
rested until late the next morning. 12
He awoke alert and cheerful after a long sleep.

As long as Alexander was riding around before
battle, he used another horse besides Bucephalus, who by now was growing
old.  But when the time came for fighting, he mounted Bucephalus, and
commenced the attack.  On this day Alexander gave a long speech to the
Thessalians and other Greeks, who answered him with loud shouts, whereupon he
put his javelin into his left hand and lifted up his right to the gods in a
prayer for victory.  Just at that moment, an eagle soared over him and
then flew toward the enemy, and this omen put fire in each
man's heart.  The horsemen charged at full speed, followed by the
Macedonian phalanx.  The
Persians did not wait for them, but fell back, and Alexander kept herding them
into the center, where Darius stood, along with his best men.  These fugitives
crowded in and impaired the ones
who stood their
ground, so that none of them could do any fighting.  Dead Persian
bodies piled so high around Darius that they almost covered the horses of his
chariot.  Darius mounted a mare, and once again he left his army behind
him. 13

Parmenio, who had command of the left wing,
sent an urgent
message to Alexander, saying that if reinforcements
were not sent from the front to the rear, the Greek camp and all of the
baggage would be lost to the Persians.  Alexander replied to Parmenio
that he should remember that if they won, they would not only recover their
own baggage but also take the enemy's; and if they lost, then they would not
have to worry about possessions because their only business would be to die
like brave men.

* * *

Without opposition, Alexander marched to
Babylon, which immediately surrendered.  Then he went to Susa, where he
took possession of an immense amount of
gold and other treasures.  He continued on into Persia itself and took
Persepolis, the capital, where he spent the winter with his army [January -
May, 330 B.C.].  Darius, meanwhile, escaped to the north with a small remnant of his
once-splendid
force.

Before going to find Darius, Alexander held a
party for his officers.  He even let them bring women with them, one of
whom was a certain courtesan named
Thais from Athens.  After the drinking had gone on for some time, Thais
announced that she would like to burn down the palace built by King Xerxes,
who had burned down Athens.  Thus, she said, it might be said that even
the women who followed Alexander took greater revenge on the Persians than all
of the Greek generals who had tried before.  This flattering and amusing
proposal naturally got a good reaction from the drunken crowd, and Alexander
went along.  He led the way with a lighted torch in his hand, and the
others followed, yelling and dancing.  When the rest of the Macedonians
heard the noise and found out what was going on, they joined in.   They
hoped that by burning the palace of the monarch of Persia, Alexander would
clearly indicate his
intention to return to Macedonia instead of settling among the
barbarians.  However, after the fire had burned for a while, Alexander
gave orders to put it out.

Of all the things that Alexander won from
Darius, the most precious was an exquisite
box.  He asked his friends what treasure he should keep in it.
There were various suggestions, and good arguments why each was the most
precious thing that he owned, but Alexander finally declared that the honor
would not go to any of these but to his annotated copy
of the Iliad.

Among the presents that he sent back to
Greece, a huge quantity of frankincense
and myrrh went to
his tutor, Leonidas.  The reason for this gift was that one day, when
Alexander was still a boy, Leonidas had told him not to use so much of these
spices in the sacrifice he was performing, saying: "When you have conquered
the countries where these things grow, then you may be more liberal, but for
now do not waste the little that we have."  Alexander sent the following
note with the gift: "We send you plenty of frankincense and myrrh so that in
the future you will not be a niggard to the
gods."

Alexander's natural generosity increased
along with his wealth, and he gave with the grace that makes a gift really
appreciated.  For example, Ariston had killed an enemy, and as he showed
Alexander the head to prove it, he mentioned that the customary reward
for such a service in his country was a gold cup.   Alexander smiled and
said: "Yes, an empty one.  But here is one full of good wine, and a toast to your good
service and friendship."

Another time, one of the common soldiers was
driving a mule that carried some of Alexander's treasure.  The mule was
too exhausted to go on, so the soldier put the load on his own
shoulders.  Alexander saw the man staggering
along, and he asked what was the matter.  The soldier told him that the
mule was too tired to carry the load, and that he was about at the end of his
endurance too.  "Don't give up now," said Alexander, "but carry what you
have there to the end of the journey, then take it to your own tent, to keep
for yourself."

Alexander was always more displeased with
those who refused his generosity than with those who abused it.

His mother, Olympias, wrote to Alexander
often, and she repeatedly advised him not to make his friends so rich that
they would become kings themselves, with the power to buy their own retinue,
while Alexander became poor and weak through his generosity.
Alexander sent his mother many presents, and stayed in close touch with her,
but he declined to follow her advice.  This made Olympias angry, and
Alexander patiently endured her
wrath.  Olympias also tried to meddle in the government of Macedonia, and
he bore with
this as well.  Antipater, his governor in Macedonia, wrote Alexander a
long letter full of grievances
against Olympias, and Alexander said to his friends: "Antipater does not
realize that one tear of a mother erases ten thousand letters like this."

* * *

Now that they were rich, and addicted to
pleasure, Alexander's soldiers began to be lax about their
military training.  He gently scolded them,
saying that he wondered how they could not have learned, after all of their
battles and hardships, that those who labor sleep better than those who are
labored for, and that luxury leads to slavery, while royalty goes with pain
and work.  "Haven't you learned yet," he said, "that the honor and
perfection of our victory consists in avoiding the vices that have made
our enemies so easy to beat?"

Alexander was particularly concerned about
their lack of exercise.  He made his point by saying that no one could
claim to be a soldier if he did not take care of the equipment that was
nearest to himself, i.e. his body -- even though he might have splendid armor
and a fine horse.  Alexander led by his own example in this: instead of
enjoying lazy days of pleasure, he hunted lions.  But his followers had
become arrogant now that
they were rich.  They were tired of marching and fighting.  Finally,
their bad attitude led them to say bad things about their leader.

At first Alexander was patient with them,
saying that a king should do good to others, even if he is paid back with evil
words.  He continued to show kind attention to his friends.  But
there was one thing Alexander would never tolerate: any
disrespect to his reputation as a soldier, which was more precious to him than
his life and possessions.

* * *

Finally, the time came to track down
Darius.  After covering four hundred miles in eleven days, Alexander and
his soldiers were nearly dead from thirst.  Some Macedonian scouts had
brought back a few bags of water from a distant river, and they offered
Alexander a helmet-full.  Although his mouth was so dry that he nearly
was choking, he gave back the helmet with his thanks and explained: "There is
not enough for everyone, and if I drink, the others will faint."  When
his men saw this, they spurred their horses forward and shouted for him to
lead them.  With such a king, they said, they would defy any
hardships.

News came that one Bessus had betrayed Darius
and made him a prisoner in his own camp.  Alexander moved on at a furious
pace, and no more than 160 of his horsemen could keep up with him.  When
they got to the camp, they found that Bessus had left Darius to die.
Darius was barely alive, and as he died he told one of Alexander's men that it
was the culmination of all of his bad luck not to be able to live long enough
to pay back Alexander for the courtesy he had shown to his mother, wife, and
children.  Darius died before Alexander could get to see him [July 330
B.C.]. Alexander put his own cloak over Darius and sincerely lamented his
death.   The body was sent to Darius' mother for an honorable funeral,
suitable to his rank.   The reward of the traitor Bessus was to be torn
apart by bent trees.

* * *

In Parthia, Alexander rested his army.
It was there that he first put on barbarian
clothes, which at first he wore only when he talked to the barbarians, as if
to win them over by conforming to
their customs.  But afterwards he dressed that way in front of his
soldiers.  This filled them with grief, but they were willing to indulge a few eccentricities
in such a brave commander.

Alexander continued into Bactria and
conquered it [328 B.C.].  There, among the captives, he saw Roxane, the
daughter of the king.   It was true love at first sight, and Alexander
married her.  Instead of taking Roxane by force, Alexander went through
all of the Bactrian ceremonies for an official marriage.  This
demonstration of his self-control and respect for their culture endeared him to the
barbarians.

Hephaestion was the friend who most approved
of Alexander's adoption of foreign customs, and he imitated Alexander in these
changes. But Craterus continued to adhere to
Macedonian ways.  Alexander used Hephaestion in dealing with the
barbarians, and Craterus in dealing with the Greeks.   He showed more
affection for Hephaestion, whom he called Alexander's friend, and more respect
for Craterus, whom he called the king's friend.  These two friends always
had a secret grudge against each
other, sometimes even quarrelling openly in front of the soldiers.

In the army there was widespread resentment over
Alexander's change to foreign clothes and customs.  To the barbarians, he
would demand the groveling due to
an oriental despot, and would
claim the title of Son of God. 14
But to the Greeks, Alexander was more modest.  He used to say that
God was the common father of all of us, but especially of the best.
Among his friends he made no effort to keep up the persona he
projected to the barbarians.

* * *

Philotas, the son of Parmenio, had a
reputation among the Macedonians second only to Alexander himself.
Philotas was brave and able to endure any fatigue of war,
and he was almost as generous to friends as Alexander.

But Philotas carried his arrogance and his
pride of wealth too far.  In him there was none of the grace and
gentleness of true greatness, so his spurious majesty
drew a lot of envy
and hatred.  For a long time Alexander had heard complaints about
Philotas.  Philotas' father, Parmenio, knowing this, advised Philotas to
behave more modestly.

One of the slaves that Philotas had won was
Antigone of Pydna.  One day, Philotas was drunk, and he boasted to Antigone
that he and his father had won all of the victories, even though the boy
Alexander had taken the credit.  Antigone passed this on to
another woman.  Eventually,
Craterus heard about this remark, and he brought Antigone secretly to
Alexander.   Alexander listened to her account and then
told her to continue to pump Philotas and bring him reports of what he
said.  But Alexander did not take any action because he was afraid to
disturb his army still further.

The breaking point came with the matter of
Limnus.  This Limnus, a Macedonian, conspired to assassinate
Alexander, and he tried to bring in Nicomachus, who refused to go along.
Nicomachus confided the
secret to his brother, and the two brothers went to Philotas and asked to see
Alexander on a matter of the greatest importance.  Both of them tried
again and again, but Philotas kept putting them off
by telling them that Alexander was too busy.

So the two brothers went to someone else, who
arranged an
interview with Alexander.  The brothers told Alexander about Limnus' conspiracy, then
went on and told how Philotas had prevented them from warning him
earlier.  This enraged
Alexander.  He sent a soldier to bring Limnus in for questioning.
When this soldier reported back that Limnus had died avoiding arrest, Alexander
became even more angry because he had lost all means of finding out who else
was involved.

But Philotas' enemies told Alexander that
certainly such an insignificant
person as Limnus could not be the ringleader of
the conspiracy.  They suggested that interrogation
should start with those who apparently had such an interest in preventing detection.
Once they had Alexander's attention for this sort of insinuation,
they went on to show a thousand reasons why Philotas should be suspected.
They succeeded so well that Alexander ordered Philotas arrested and
questioned under torture.  Although Philotas denied that he had any part
in the conspiracy,
Alexander had him executed.  Alexander also sent assassins to
kill Philotas' father, Parmenio, who was second in command of the army and had
been a loyal
friend of Alexander’s father, King Philip.

These proceedings made Alexander a terror to his
friends.  And soon afterwards, Alexander personally killed his close
friend Clitus. 15
Alexander had received a present of fresh fruit from Greece, and, as was his
custom, he invited some of his friends to come and share the fruit with
him.  Among these was Clitus.

After everyone had had plenty to drink,
including Clitus and Alexander, some of them started to sing a song making fun
of some Macedonians who recently had been defeated in a battle with the barbarians.
The older men were displeased, but Alexander and the younger men
enjoyed it, and called on the singers to continue.
Clitus remarked that it was not good to entertain the barbarians with jokes
about Macedonians, especially when the subjects of the satire were better men
than those who made fun of them, even if their luck had been worse.

Alexander joked that Clitus was pleading for
himself, giving cowardice the
name of bad luck.  Clitus then got to his feet and said: "This cowardice,
as you are pleased to call it, saved the life of the Son of God at the battle
of Granicus.  Those poor Macedonians you laugh at have, by their wounds
fighting for you, made you so great now that you disown your father
Philip and call yourself the son of Ammon."

Stung by these words, Alexander threatened
Clitus: "Do you think you are not going to be punished for those words, which
you say to make the Macedonians rebel against
me?"  Still Clitus would not shut up.  "We
are punished enough already," he said, "if this is our reward for our work,
and those men are lucky who did not live to see Macedonians have to beg
Persians for access to their
king, and to see Greeks beaten by barbarian rods." 16
Alexander grabbed a spear and threw it, killing Clitus.

All that night and the next day, Alexander
cried bitterly,
until finally he ran out of tears and could only lie on the floor of his
chamber and sigh.  His friends thought that this silence meant he was in
danger, so they broke in. 17
But Alexander paid no
attention until they brought Callisthenes, a close friend of Aristotle, to
see him, along with another philosopher named Anaxarchus.

Callisthenes tried soothing moral arguments,
but Alexander was not comforted.  Anaxarchus awoke Alexander from his depression by
saying: "So there is Alexander the Great, who is feared by the whole world.
Look at him lying on the ground, sobbing because he fears what men
might say about him -- as if he himself should not give them law, and
establish the boundaries of justice and injustice.  He who conquers is
the lord and master, not the slave, of the idle opinions of little
men."   With speeches like this, Anaxarchus comforted Alexander but
corrupted his
character, making him bolder to do wrong than he had been before. 18

These two philosophers, Anaxarchus and
Callisthenes, warred over the soul of Alexander.  The flatterers and
parasites around Alexander already hated Callistenes because of his popularity
with both the young soldiers and the old.  The old men admired
Callisthenes for his simple life and contentment,
and the young men for his eloquence.
His detractors said
that Callisthenes seemed to have an attitude of superiority.
When he was invited to a party, most of the time he would not come.  If
he did, he would usually sit silently as if he disapproved of what was going
on.

One night Callisthenes was present where a
large crowd had been invited to dine with Alexander.  When the cup was
passed to Callisthenes, he was called upon to make an extemporaneous
oration in
praise of the Macedonians.  Callisthenes spoke with such eloquence that
everyone present gave him a standing ovation
and threw flowers.  Alexander remarked that it was easy to be eloquent on
such a good subject, and he gave Callisthenes a greater challenge: to speak
about the faults of the Macedonians, so they might all learn to be better in
the future.

It was truly said by Aristotle that
Callisthenes was a powerful speaker, but he had bad judgment.
Callisthenes did so well at describing the faults of the Macedonians that they
all hated him from then on.  Some say that Callisthenes died in prison
after seven months in chains; others say that he was hanged.

* * *

Alexander wanted to invade India, but his
soldiers were so burdened with booty that they
moved very slowly on the march.  One day, at dawn, after all of the
wagons were loaded, Alexander set fire to his own and to those of his
friends.  Then he commanded the rest of the army to burn their wagons
too.   By now, Alexander had become very severe and pitiless in punishing
any disobedience.  Although a few were unhappy, most of the army was glad
to see this barbaric baggage burn away so that they could be warriors
again.

King Taxiles ruled a large area in
India.  When he heard that Alexander was coming, Taxiles did not wait,
but went in person to meet him in peace.  "Why should we make war on each
other," Taxiles said, "if the reason for your coming is not to rob us of our
water and our food?  Those are the only things that a wise man has no
choice but to fight for.  As for any other riches or possessions, if I
have more than you I am ready to share.  But if fortune has been better
to you than to me, then I have no objection to being in your debt."

These courteous words
pleased Alexander, and he replied: "Do you think your kind words and courteous
conduct will avoid a contest between us?  No, I will not let you off so
easily.  I will do battle with you on these terms: no matter how much you
give me, I will give more in return."   Thereupon Taxiles made many fine
presents to Alexander, but Alexander responded with presents of even greater
value and topped them off with a thousand talents in gold
coins.  This generosity displeased Alexander's old friends but won the
hearts of many of the Indians.

King Porus, however, refused to submit, and
he took up a position to prevent Alexander from crossing the Hydaspes
River.  Porus was a huge man, and when mounted on his war elephant he
looked in the same proportion as an ordinary man on a horse.  After a
long fight, Alexander won the victory, and Porus came to him as a
prisoner.  Alexander asked him how he expected to be treated, and Porus
replied: "As a king."  When Alexander asked a second time, Porus
explained that in those words was included everything that a man could
possibly want.   Alexander not only allowed Porus to keep his kingdom as
a satrap, but he
also gave him more territory.

This was a costly victory, however.
Many Macedonians died, and so did Alexander's old war horse, Bucephalus.
This grieved Alexander so much that it seemed as though he had lost an old
friend.  On that spot he ordered a city to be built, named Bucephalia.

Such a difficult victory over only 22,000
Indians [May 326 B.C.] took the edge off the courage of the Macedonians.
They had no enthusiasm for
Alexander's proposed crossing
of the Ganges, a river said to be four miles wide and six hundred feet deep,
to encounter
an army on the other side consisting
of 200,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots, and 6,000 war
elephants.  Alexander was so angry at their reluctance that
he shut himself up in his tent, saying that if they would not cross the
Ganges, he owed them no thanks for anything they had done so far.  But
finally the persuasions of his friends, and the pleas of his
soldiers, got Alexander to agree to turn back.

To exaggerate his
reputation, Alexander left bridles and armor that were much bigger than
normal, and huge altars to the
gods.  On a flotilla of rafts
and barges, Alexander's army floated down the Indus River.

Along the way, they stopped to take some
fortified cities, and at one of them Alexander came very close to losing his
life.  Alexander was the first one up the ladders onto the wall of the
city of the Mallians, and then he jumped down into the town with only two of
his guards behind him. Before the rest of the Macedonians could catch up and save
him, Alexander had taken an arrow in the ribs and had been knocked dizzy by a
club.  He was unconscious when they carried him away, and he fainted when
the doctors cut out the arrow.  Rumors spread that Alexander was dead.

* * *

While in India, Alexander took ten of the
Brahmins 19
prisoner.  These men had a great reputation for
intelligence, so Alexander decided to give them a test.  He announced
that the one who gave the worst answer would be the first to die, and he made
the oldest Brahmin the judge of the competition.

Which are more numerous, Alexander asked the
first one, the living or the dead?  "The living," said the Brahmin,
"because the dead no longer count."

Which produces more creatures, the sea or the
land? Alexander asked the second.  "The land," was his answer, "because
the sea is only a part of it."

The third was asked which animal was the
smartest of all, and the Brahmin replied: "The one we have not found yet."

Alexander asked the fourth what argument he
had used to stir up the Indians to fight, and he answered:  "Only that
one should either live nobly or die nobly."

Which is older: day or night? was Alexander's
question to the fifth, and the answer he got was:  "Day is older, by one
day at least."  When he saw that Alexander was not satisfied with this
answer, the Brahmin added: "Strange questions get strange answers."

What should a man do to make himself loved?
asked Alexander, and the sixth Brahmin replied: "Be powerful without being
frightening."

What does a man have to do to become a god?
he asked the seventh, who responded: "Do what is impossible for a man."

The question to the eighth was whether death
or life was stronger, and his answer: "Life is stronger than death, because it
bears so many miseries."

The ninth Brahmin was asked how long it was
proper for a man to live, and he said: "Until it seems better to die."

Then Alexander turned to the judge, who
decided that each one had answered worse than another.  "You will die
first, then, for giving such a decision," said Alexander.  "Not so,
mighty king," said the Brahmin, "if you want to remain a man of your
word.  You said that you would kill first the one who made the worst
answer."  Alexander gave all of the Brahmins presents and set them free,
even though they had persuaded the
Indians to fight him.

* * *

Alexander's voyage down the Indus took seven
months.   When he finally arrived at the Indian Ocean, he decided not to
take the army home by ship but to march them through the Gedrosian Desert. 20
After sixty miserable days, they arrived at Gedrosia, where they
finally found enough to eat and drink.  Many died in that desert: out of
the 120,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry that Alexander took with him into
India, only one in four came back.

The news about the difficulties he had in
India, his brush with death, and the huge attrition of his
army in the desert, all made the conquered nations think of revolution.
The satraps and commanders he had left in the provinces thought that now they
could do anything they wanted.  Even in Macedonia, Alexander's mother had
deposed the man
Alexander had left in charge.  But still Alexander wanted to go on to new
adventures.  This time, he proposed to sail around Africa to the Pillars
of Hercules [Gibraltar].

The tomb of Cyrus had been looted by one of
the Macedonians, and for this Alexander ordered the grave-robber
executed.  The inscription on
the tomb was: "Whoever you are, and wherever you come from (for I know that
you will come), I am Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire.  Please
let me keep this dirt that covers my corpse."  It greatly disturbed
Alexander to see by this example how fragile human fame
could be.

At the same time, Calanus (one of the
Brahmins who had accompanied Alexander back from India) asked that a funeral
pyre be built for
him.   Once everything was ready, Calanus did the customary ceremonies
for a funeral, then said goodbye to his Macedonian friends.  He told them
to tell Alexander that Calanus would be seeing him in Babylon soon.  Then
he climbed on the pyre, lit it, and stayed perfectly still until he was ashes.

That night, Alexander held a banquet for a
large number of his friends and officers, and he offered a prize for the man
who could drink the most wine.  Promachus drank twelve quarts and got the
prize, but three days later he died.  Forty-one others also died from
this debauch.

* * *

At Susa [324 B.C.], Alexander took Statira,
the daughter of King Darius, as another wife. 21
At the same time, he married the best-bred ladies of Persia to his
friends.   These marriages were jointly celebrated by a magnificent
festival for nine thousand guests, each of whom got a gold wine-cup.
Alexander also paid off all of the debts of his soldiers, which took 10,000 talents.

When he had left for India, Alexander had put
30,000 Persian boys into Greek military training, and by now they had
developed into strong and expert fighters.  They put on a demonstration
of their military exercises, which pleased him, but depressed the Macedonians,
who now believed that Alexander had no more use for them.

When Alexander allowed some of the sick and
wounded to return to Macedonia, the other Greeks asked to leave too.
They added that Alexander no longer needed their services, now that he had
such a fine bunch of Persian dancing boys, with which he could go on to
conquer the world.  This infuriated
Alexander, and after a long and abusive tirade he fired all
of his guards and replaced them with Persians.  Not long afterwards, the
Greeks repented.
They stood outside Alexander's tent for two days and nights until he finally
relented and
sent them back with rewards for their services.

Alexander continued on to Ecbatana, where he
took care of some business of his empire and then relaxed and enjoyed himself
with public spectacles.  Three thousand actors and artists had just
arrived from Greece to amuse him.  But Alexander's happiness did not last
long, because his best friend, Hephaestion, died of a fever.

Alexander's grief over Hephaestion went
beyond all reasonable bounds.  He crucified the doctor who had treated
Hephaestion. 22
He ordered all of the manes and tails of the animals in his army to be cut off
as a sign of mourning, and he tore down the walls of the cities nearby.
He banned all music.  Then he went into the country of the Cossaeans and
for no reason massacred the
entire nation.

The tomb of Hephaestion was to be a memorial
of unprecedented
magnificence, and Alexander spent most of his time going over the plans with
his architects.  On his way to Babylon, the local fortune-tellers
prophesied that he would die if he entered the city.  But Alexander paid
no attention.  As he came to the walls, he saw some crows fighting with
each other, and some fell near him.   Even this omen could not deter
Alexander from entering Babylon.

Other strange omens, however, did get
Alexander's attention.  A donkey kicked his biggest lion to death.
And one day there was a man sitting on Alexander's throne in a trance.
After this, Alexander lost his confidence in the gods and in his
friends.  Once he allowed fears of supernatural influence to take root in
his mind, he became so easily frightened that the smallest event took on
enormous significance.  Crowds of fortune-tellers and priests infested
his court.

Contempt of divine power makes a man
miserable, but, on the other hand, so does superstition.  Like water, it
seeps in to fill the depressed mind with fear and foolish notions.
Alexander drank heavily, and he caught a fever. After suffering for twelve
days, he died in Babylon [June 10, 323 B.C.]. 23

Go to Home Page
for 15 Greek Heroes from Plutarch's
Lives

Go to Life of
Phocion

NOTES:

1.
The temple of Diana at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world.

2.     Aristotle was the pupil
of Plato and the most famous philosopher of his time.  He left behind a
huge body of work on logic, political theory, and natural science.

3.     The Iliad
has always been a favorite of warriors.  The subject is a few weeks in
the ninth year of the siege of Troy, when Achilles, a warrior as strong and
grand as Alexander, lost his best friend in battle and took ferocious revenge
on the enemy.  Recent archeological discoveries have revealed that Troy
really did exist and that it was as large as Homer described it.

4.     At the Battle of
Chaeronea (338 B.C.), King Philip of Macedonia defeated Athens and its allies
and became the boss of Greece.  Two years later, however, Philip was
assassinated.

5.     The Sacred Band in the
army of Thebes was an elite unit of 300 picked warriors.  See the life of
Pelopidas.

6.     Plutarch's life of
Demosthenes has not been included in this collection.

7.     A panhellenic war
against the Persians had been a dream for some time.  Xenophon and the
Ten Thousand (mercenaries) showed how easy it would be, and what incredible
wealth was there.  Agesilaus (see the life of Agesilaus) had easy success
until he was called home to fight wars in Greece.   However, it took a
Macedonian to pull the Greeks together and get them to stop fighting
themselves.

8.     Troy
was the site of the Trojan War (circa 1250 B.C.), where Alexander's ancestor,
the great Achilles, grandson of Aeacus, did the deeds immortalized in
the Iliad by Homer.

The story of the Trojan War may be found in the
Iliad of Homer, the
Metamorphoses of Ovid, and the
Aeneid of Virgil.   Briefly:

Eris, the goddess of discord, was angry because she alone
among all of the gods had not been invited to the wedding of Peleus (the
father of Achilles) and Thetis (a sea goddess).  She showed up anyway
and threw in a golden apple, inscribed with the words: "To the most
attractive."  Three goddesses squabbled over the golden apple: Hera
(Juno), the queen of the gods, Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love, and
Athena (Minerva), the goddess of wisdom.  To settle the argument, the
three goddesses agreed to allow some mortal man to make the judgment and
award the apple.  The arbitrator selected was Paris, a young prince of
Troy, a city that was a major power because it dominated the channel linking
trade between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea.

The three goddesses appeared to Paris and applied their
persuasions.  Hera offered wealth and power beyond any man in the
world.  Athena offered wisdom.  But Aphrodite offered what this
young man could not resist: the most beautiful woman in the world.
This is essentially the same choice any young man must make: love, money, or
wisdom.  The judgment of Paris was for Aphrodite, and Helen was his
prize.  She happened to be married at the time,
however.

Paris sailed off to Sparta and was received as a guest of
Menelaus, its king, who was Helen's husband.  Paris repaid the kindness
of his host by stealing his wife and much loot, which he took back to
Troy.  Menelaus' brother was Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, who
collected a large army to punish Paris and Troy.

After a ten-year siege, Troy was taken by the stratagem of the
Trojan Horse.  The Greeks built a huge horse of wood, too big to fit
through the gates of Troy, then left this strange monument behind and
pretended to sail home.   Inside the horse were some of the best Greek
warriors.  Despite the warnings of Cassandra, the Trojans were
completely fooled, and they made a passage through their walls, dragged the
horse inside, and then everyone had a victory party.  Late that night,
as the Trojans were sleeping off their debauch, the Greeks inside the horse
came out and opened the gates.  The rest of the Greeks, who had turned
back and landed again, entered and sacked the city.

That was the end of the Trojans, but Aeneas, one of the
princes of their allies, escaped from the slaughter with some companions and
founded Rome.   Aeneas was the son of Aphrodite (Venus) and a
descendant of the original king of Troy.

9.     Achilles' best friend
was Patroclus, who borrowed Achilles' armor to turn back the Trojans and was
killed by Hector when he carried his victory too far.  Achilles'
extravagant grief over the loss of his friend was imitated later by Alexander
when he lost Hephaestion.  Homer, of course, was the poet referred to by
Alexander.

10.     Arrian tells us that
the Persians were putting up a good fight until Darius ran.  Then they
all panicked, and trampled each other trying to escape in the narrow mountain
passes.  Alexander's losses were very light, only 450 killed and 4,500
wounded, including Alexander, who got a sword cut on his thigh.  Arrian
is the leading ancient biographer of Alexander, and he wrote shortly after
Plutarch.  His account is a real history, and therefore is much more
complete than Plutarch's.

11.     Ammon was a ram with
curved horns, supposed to be an Egyptian form of Jupiter.  After spying
on Olympias and noticing a snake in her bed, King Philip had consulted the
oracle of Apollo at Delphi for the meaning of this strange sight.  The
oracle replied that the snake was a form of Ammon -- Greek gods were capable
of assuming different shapes.  Olympias told Alexander the secret that
Ammon was his real father, not Philip.

12.     Arrian tells us that
Darius, who was expecting an attack that night, kept his men standing in
formation all night, so that by the next day his army was exhausted.

13.     Darius lost even
though he outnumbered Alexander by 20 to 1.

14.     Arrian tells us that
Alexander introduced the Persian custom of prostration in his court, and even
Macedonians were expected to grovel on the floor when they saw him.
Although it was optional for Macedonians, Alexander clearly was more pleased
with those that did than those that did not.  It was hard for him to have
a consistent policy since he had to be a god to the barbarians and a friend to
the Macedonians.

15.     Clitus was the
brother of Alexander's nursemaid, a senior commander under Philip, and the
commander of the Royal Squadron of Alexander's cavalry.  He had saved
Alexander's life at the Battle of the Granicus River.  Clitus was one of
the Macedonian commanders that most disliked the change in Alexander from
warrior king to barbarian megalomaniac.  This incident took place in
Marakanda, 328 B.C.

16.     Alexander had police
recruited from the local population.

17.     Alexander tried to
kill himself with the same spear he used on Clitus, once he saw what he had
done.  He called himself the murderer of his friends, which was a
fact.

18.     Alexander cried when
he heard Anaxarchus talk about the infinite number of worlds in the
universe.  One of Alexander's friends asked him what was the matter, and
he replied: "There are so many worlds, and I have not yet conquered even
one."  This anecdote comes from Plutarch's essay in the
Moralia entitled " On Contentment of the Mind."

19.     Brahmins were the
priests and scholars of India, the highest of the four castes in the Vedic
social order.  The other castes were the soldiers, the merchants, and the
laborers.  By the time Alexander came to India, there was already a very
ancient and well-developed civilization.   Buddha lived approximately two
hundred years before Alexander, and before Buddha there was a long tradition
of Vedic culture and institutions in India.

20.     Arrian tells us that
the reason Alexander wanted to try this desert crossing was that no one had
ever brought an army through there before.  He knew of the difficulties
they would encounter.  The loot from their expedition had to be left
behind for lack of animals to carry it, since most of the animals died of
thirst.  Anyone who could not keep up was left behind to die.  Then
when they finally found a stream of water and camped beside it, monsoon rains
caused a sudden flood that drowned all of the women and children and all of
the surviving animals, and only a few of the soldiers managed to escape
drowning in the desert.  This took place in 325 B.C.

21.     Great men in the
ancient world usually were polygamous.  Once Alexander was dead, however,
Roxane had her rival killed.  She and Alexander's baby were murdered
later by Cassander in Macedonia.

22.     This doctor was not
at fault, except that he had left his patient and gone to see a play.
Hephaestion took that opportunity to break the diet that the doctor had
prescribed, and he ate a whole chicken and drank a lot of wine.  This
aggravated his fever, and soon he died.

23.    "If the rule of due measure
is neglected, and great power is put into things too small -- such as sails on
ships, food in bodies, or authority to souls -- then there is disaster.
No mortal, when young and irresponsible, will ever be able to stand in the
highest ruling position on Earth without his mind being filled with
foolishness, earning him the detestation of even his closest friends.
When this happens, it quickly ruins the soul itself and obliterates all of its
power."  Plato, Laws, III,
691.

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Here are 1065 useful words and phrases in modern American
business English.  Clicking on the highlighted words in the text will
display their definition in this window.  These words have been chosen
with two classes of students in mind: (1) those wishing to improve their SAT
verbal score, and (2) adult students of English as a second language, who
would prefer a serious and classic text and convenient definitions.
Studying the words in context, and examining the brief definitions and
examples provided in this list, will add significantly to the student's real
understanding of proper usage.

If you are still reading, you need to click on the down
arrow above this frame (i.e. the one that controls
the main frame above) to scroll through the table of contents.

abate (a bate')
Make less; die
down.
Example: The city passed a law to
abate the noise coming from factories.

abducted
Kidnapped; carried away
a person by force.

abet (a
bet')
Assist; help out, especially in doing something
bad.
Example:  Nixon had a staff to
abet his crimes.

abide (a byd')
Tolerate;
stand.  In archaic usage, abide means to live
there, and the home where one abides is called an
abode.

abolish
Wipe out by decree;
annul.

abroad (a brod')
Outside of your
own country.

abrogate (ab' ro gate)
Cancel by
an official act.

abscond (ab skond')
Run off with
the money.

absent
Not there; missing.

absolute
Pure; total.

absurd (ab serd')
Makes no sense;
stupid; goofy.

abundant
Plentiful; there's
lots of it.

abuse (ab yous') Noun.
Bad
treatment.  As a verb, abuse is pronounced (ab
youz').

access
Permission to visit;
admittance.

account
Story.

accounting
What happened to
the money.  People who can understand such statements are called
accountants.

accuse (ak yuze')
Blame; say
someone did something bad.

acknowledge
Recognize; admit
to be true.

acquaintance
Someone you
know slightly, less than a friend.

acquire (a qwire')
Get.

acquitted
Found to be not
guilty of the crime charged.

adept (a dept')
Good at something;
skilled.

adhere (ad here')
Stick to.

adjacent (a jay' sent)
Next to
each other; contiguous.

adjust (a just')
Improve; change;
fix.

admit
Allow; confess to be
true.

adorn (a dorn')
Decorate; dress
up.

adversary (ad' ver sary)
Enemy;
opponent.

adversity
When the going gets
tough.

advocated
Spoke in favor
of.

affability (af a bil' i
ty)
Genteel good humor; jolly but not overbearing behavior.  The
fine line between affability (which is pleasant) and
jocularity (which is irritating) is most important to
discover.

affection
Kind feelings.

affinity (a fin' i
ty)
Attraction.

afford
Give.

Example:  The judge afforded him an
opportunity to tell his side of the story.

Afford also means to be able to
spend.  Example:  Most college students can't
afford to spend more than $500 a month on rent.

affront (a frunt')
Defiant
insult.

aggravate (ag' ra vate)
Make
worse, or more serious.
Example:  Bill Clinton
aggravated his crimes by his efforts to silence his
accusers.

aggressor
The one who starts
the fight.

aghast (a gast')
Extremely
astonished and horrified; a state of bewilderment usually expressed with
open mouth and bugged eyes.

agitated
Disturbed; stirred
up.

agonize over
Be in fearful
suspense.

agreeable
Friendly; in
harmony.

alacrity (a lak' ri
ty)
Willingness and enthusiasm; energetic joy.

all-out
A major effort, using all
available resources.

allays (a layz')
Tones down;
softens.

allegiance
Being a friend or
ally; loyalty.

alliance (a ly'
ans)
Partnership; coalition; team.  A relationship based on mutual
commitments to defend each other's interests.  An ally
(al' eye) is your partner in this relationship.

aloof (a loof')
Like you aren't
interested in being there; superior and detached in attitude, like a cat
more than like a dog.

altar
Raised place for performing
ritual killings.

ambiguous (am big' yoo
us)
Vague; unclear because it could mean two things.

An ambiguity (am big yoo' i ty) is vague spot in a
text.

ambitious (am bish' us)
Greedy;
hungry for more power.

ambivalence (am biv' a
lence)
The state of not being able to decide if you like it more than you
hate it.

ambush (am' bush)
Surprise attack
out of hiding.

anarchy (an' er ky)
Nobody's in
charge; freedom for the criminals.

ancestors
Forefathers; prior
generations of your family.

animus (an' i mus)
Strong dislike;
hostile attitude.

annotated (an' o ta ted)
With
additional notes to the text, such as this edition of Plutarch's
Lives.  Example:  Annotated statutes are
printed laws supplemented with references to related judicial decisions.

annulled (a nuld')
Cancelled;
made as if it never happened.

anomalous (a nom' a lus)
Out of
place; shouldn't be there.  An anomaly is something
anomalous, i.e. something you don't expect to find
there.

antagonist (an tag' o
nist)
Opponent; enemy.

anti- (an' ty)
Against; opposed
to.

anxious (ank' shus)
Worried;
filled with anxiety.

ape  Verb.
Imitate
without understanding, the way monkeys do.

apologize (a pol' o gize)
Say
that you are sorry for what you have done; offer excuses for errors.

appease (a peez')
Give them what
they want so they will stop making trouble.

aptitude (ap' ti tude)
Promise;
probability of success at learning.

arbitrarily (ar bi trer' i
ly)
For no good reason; from a whim of power.

arbitrate (ar' bi trate)
Verb.
Decide a dispute by a third party, whose decision the
disputants agree to follow.   This third party is called the
arbitrator, and the dispute resolution process is called
arbitration.

arch-enemy
Worst enemy;
nemesis.

archer
Soldier who shoots
arrows.

arete (ah' re tay)
Arete,
in English, means something like "virtue" and "excellence" and all of the
qualities that together make up good character.  The knightly code of
chivalry is similar to the Greek idea of arete, but
to the Greeks the concept had more metaphysical significance.

arguably (ar' gyu a bly)
It would not be
unreasonable to think so; a good advocate could think up some plausible
argument to support this position; unbiased and reasonable people would not
laugh if you said this.

aristocracy (ar is tok' ra
see)
The ruling class, or, as a political system, "rule of the best" (its
literal meaning in Greek).  Who these "best" are is usually determined
by which family they happen to be born in.

arrange
Set up; organize.

arrest (a rest')
Stop.

arrogant (ar' o gant)
Pushy;
bossy.  The opposite of humble.

art
A body of technical knowledge or
skill.  Note that the term is not limited to painting or sculpture,
which is properly called "fine art."

artificial
Not natural; done
by means of technology.

artisan (ar' ti zan)
One who
makes beautiful things, for example, a jeweler or a craftsman in wood.

ashamed (a shaymd')
Embarrassed;
wish you were dead.
Example:  The fact that he was
not ashamed proved that he had no sense of honor, and
therefore could not be trusted with the office of President.

assailant (a say'
lant)
Attacker; one who is trying to harm somebody.

assassinate (a sas' in
ate)
Murder a public official.

assault
Attack.

Example: The crime of assault is complete even
if no blow is struck (that's battery), so long as the victim was scared by
the attack.

assemble
Gather together.

assume
Suppose that it's true.

assurance (a shur'
ance)
Guarantee; confidence.

astonishing (as ton' ish
ing)
Incredible; amazing.

at stake
Up for grabs; the
prize for the winner; at risk.

atrocity (a tross' si ty)
Cruel
and violent act; an outrage.  Atrocious (a tro' shus)
means outrageously bad.  Example:  His table manners are
atrocious.

attain
Achieve.

attendant
Servant.

attribute (at' tri bute)
Noun.
A quality or characteristic.  Note the difference
in how this word is pronounced from when it is used as a verb.

attribute  (a trib' ute)
Verb.
Say it came from that source.
Example:
The painting was attributed to Rembrandt.

attrition
Loss in
numbers.
Example:  The attrition rate for
first year law students is 35%.

auctioned
Sold to the highest
bidder at an auction, or public bidding procedure.

austere (os teer')
Spartan;
serious and disciplined; not ornamented; not luxurious.  The quality of
being austere is called austerity (os ter'
i ty).

authority
The power and right
to command.

avenge (a venge')
Get even for;
take revenge.

avoid
Steer clear of; dodge;
evade.

awed  (awd)
Impressed
extremely, to the point of amazement.  You are awed by
something awesome.

awkward (ok' werd)
Not graceful;
embarrassing; clumsy.

100

back out
Withdraw from a
commitment; retreat.
Example:  When prices rose, they tried
to back out of the deal.

backed up by
Supported
by.

backing
Supporting; on the side
of.

ballast (bal' est)
Additional
weight in the bottom of a ship, put there for the purpose of lowering its
center of gravity, thereby preventing the ship from tipping over.

ban
Prohibit.

banish
Order someone to leave and
not ever come back.

bankrupt
When your debts exceed
your assets; broke.

banquet (bank' wet)
Dinner party
for a large group.

barbarian (bar bay' ri en)
To
the Greeks, only Greece had civilization worthy of the name and people
worthy of the system, therefore all foreigners who had made it past being
savages were considered barbarians, even if they were technologically
advanced.  Barbarians, such as the Persians, were considered laughably
crude and gaudy.

bargain (bar' gen)
Deal;
contract.  Your part of the bargain is what you are
committed to doing under the terms of the contract.

barren
Not fertile; nothing grows
there.

barricade
Defensive barrier;
wall against the enemy.

bear fruit
Produce
results.

bear the brunt
Take most
of the load.

bear with
Endure;
tolerate.

beat to the
punch
Strike first; launch a pre-emptive attack.

beat up
Hit repeatedly.

begrudge (be gruj')
Give
unwillingly.

behold (be hold')
Look at.

belittle (be lit' tel)
Denigrate
another person's abilities; criticize; run down.

benefit Verb.
Get
something good.

betray (be tray')
Turn
against.  Betrayal is when a person you think is a
friend acts as your enemy behind your back.

bewitch
Cast a spell on;
influence by magic.

bitter
Resentful; harsh.

bizarre (be zar')
Weird; very
odd.

blockade
When you prevent
transportation in or out.

blundered
Made a bad
mistake.

boast
Brag.

body politic (pol' i
tic)
The politically active population, in general.

bold
Audacious; daring.

bombastic
Grand and loud but
empty.  Bombast is called "bullshit" in colloquial
American English.

booty
Loot; plunder; ill-gotten
gains.

boss around
Give orders
because you are intoxicated with authority.

bothering
Annoying; pestering;
being a nuisance.

braggadocio (brag a do' si
o)
Bragging.

breeds
Produces, as a
parent.
Breeding is the education of a person in
the social graces by the example of his family.
Ill-bred means that you have bad manners, and therefore
your parents are presumably bumpkins
too.

brevity
Briefness; using few
words to express your thought.
Example:
Brevity is the soul of wit.

brittle
Easily cracked; not
tough.

broke
off
Stopped.
Example:  After she
broke off their engagement, she returned his ring.

brother-in-law
The brother
of your wife or husband.

brusque
Abrupt and blunt, not
wasting time with courtesies and formalities.

buffoon (buff oon')
Jolly
clown.

bumpkin
Person who is ignorant of
manners and style; redneck.

bungled
Badly done; inept.

burdened
Loaded down.

by means of
Through; using.

46

cadre (cad' re)
A group of future
leaders; hard core of an organization.

call off
Cancel a planned
event.

calm down
Pacify; mellow out;
chill.

came to pass
Turned out;
happened as an expected result.

candid (can' did)
Honest;
unbiased.
Example:  After his comically insincere address
on national TV, the American people suspected that Bill Clinton was not
candid with the grand jury either.

capable
Gets things done.

capacity
What you are capable
of; how much you can do.
Also capacity means
one's legal power, as opposed to personal power.
Example:  Mr. Smith signed the promissory note in his
capacity as President of ABC Corporation, and he signed
individually as well at the request of the bank.

capital crime
Punishable
by death.

caprice (ca preece')
Fickleness;
unsteady affection; foolish whimsy.

capture
Catch.  As a
noun, capture means being caught.

casual (cas' yu el)
Not nervous,
tense, or strict.  Nonchalant (non shal ont').

casualties
Those who are hurt
or killed.

catastrophic (cat as tro'
fic)
Very, very bad news.  A catastrophe (cat as'
tro fee) is bigger than a disaster or a calamity.

catch up
Overtake; close the
lead; come from behind.

cavalry (cav' al ry)
Soldiers who
ride on horses.

Centaur (sen' tar)
Mythical
creature that is half horse and half man.

champion
One who fights on
behalf of another.  This term comes from the days when lawsuits were
decided by combat, and weak litigants were permitted to substitute a
champion for themselves.  Note that in contemporary
American English, champion also means the winner of a
tournament.

chaos (kay' os)
Disorganization; a
state of total disorder; absolute randomness.

characteristics (kar' ak ter
iss" tix)
Features; what you notice as distinctive
about someone or something.

charge
Running at the enemy;
assault.

charge with
Accuse of; put
a burden on.

chasm (kaz' um)
Deep crack in the
ground.

chaste (rhymes with past)
Clean;
refraining from sexual contact.

chauvinism (sho' vin is
m)
Pride in your group identity.

cheered them up
Made
them happier.

chronicle (kron' i cul)
Report
of events.

circumstances (sir' cum stan
ses)
The world around you.

civil rights
Freedoms and
powers; what you can lawfully do in the society.
Note that
civil rights does not mean preferential treatment based on
your race or gender -- that is called "affirmative action."

client
One who engages the
services of a professional.

cloy
Bore the
taste.
Example:  Her relentless chatter soon began to
cloy, and he looked for some excuse to leave.

cluster
Bunch or group.

cold war
Hostilities, but no
all-out war.

colleagues (col'
eegs)
Co-workers; associates.

commend
Praise.

commissioned
Formally gave
the job.

common sense
What you
would expect anyone to know.

commonwealth (com' mon
welth)
A social organization where each participant has a share in the
governing power, like a corporation.

compassion
Sympathy; pity;
kind spirit.

compel (com pel')
To force; make
someone do something.

competent (com' pe tant)
Can do
the job; capable.

compile
Assemble data or
documents into a record or book.

complying with
Going
along with; doing what they want.

composure
Calmness; emotional
balance.

compound
Verb.
Add to, make worse.
As an adjective,
compound means added on.  Compound
interest is added to the principal of a debt, either daily or annually, as
it accrues.  A compound fracture is a broken bone that
pierces the skin.

compulsion
Pressure; the
opposite of persuasion; being compelled.  When you are
compelled to do something, you're not happy about it but
you go ahead and get it done.

comrades (com' radz)
Fellow
soldiers; buddies.

conceal (con seel')
Hide.

conceited
Deluded by a high
opinion of yourself; pretending to be cool.

conceivable
What you can
think of if you really try.  "Every conceivable comfort " means that
all possible efforts were made to provide the very best accommodations.

consensus
Agreement; common
will.
Example:  The strength of the Japanese
management style is the emphasis on consensus building,
rather than autocratic edicts from the big boss.
Note that the
common mistake "consensus of opinion" is redundant.

concerted
effort
Everybody is working as a team to accomplish a
task.

concession
Something given
reluctantly.

concluded
Finished.

Example:  The school year concluded in
June.
Concluded, in a different context, also
means decided after thinking about it a while.  Example:
The company concluded that the exposure from
harassment and discrimination lawsuits outweighed any benefit from making
its product in the USA.

condemn
Express abhorrence;
damn.

condemned (con demd')
Past Participle, used as an Adjective.
Doomed; facing a bad
future.

confederation
Loose
alliance.

confer (con fer')
Consult;
talk.

confide
Trust; give secret
information.

confine
Limit.

confirm
Establish the truth of;
make more firm the opinion.

confiscation (con fis ka'
shun)
Seizure of property by the government.

conflict (con' flict)
Noun.
Fight.  Used as a verb, the accent is on the second
syllable.

conform (con form')
Do like
everybody else does.

confrontation
Showdown;
potential fight.

congregate (con' gre gate)
Get
together as friends.

conscience (con' shens)
Moral
sense; what you know from inside.

consent (con sent')
Permit or
permission.

consequences (con' sa quen
ses)
Results that follow from an action.

consisting of
Made up
of.

consolidate
Bring together
and organize; make sure of.

conspire
Plan together to do
something evil.

constitution
Agreed plan of
government.

construe (con stroo')
Figure out
the meaning of writings or actions; interpret.

consul
Rome elected two
co-presidents each year, called consuls.

consult with
Plan together
with; seek counsel from.

contemporaries
Those who
are alive when you are.

contempt (con tempt')
Disdain;
scorn; an attitude of disrespect.  Contemptible means
worthy of contempt.

contention
Argument,
disagreement, competition.

contentment
Satisfaction;
peaceful spirit.

continually
From time to
time, but not every moment.
Note the
important difference between continually and
continuously, which means without a break.

continue
Go on; keep going.

continuous (con tin' yu
us)
Without a break.

contrary to (con' tra
ry)
Against; opposite to.

contrast (con' trast)
Noun.
Difference; oppositeness.
Used as a verb, the
accent is on the second syllable.

contrive
Accomplish with some
ingenuity.

convene
Call together for a
meeting.

conviction
Being convinced;
what you believe.

corpse
Dead body.

corroborate (co rob' or
ate)
Support the testimony of a witness with other evidence, such as the
testimony of other witnesses or physical evidence.

corrupt
Immoral; changed for the
worse.
Example:  Rust is corrupt
iron, just as possessiveness is corrupt love.

Corruption is particularly concerned with the taking
of bribes, or payoffs of various kinds to circumvent the civil or moral
law.  For the definitive treatment of this most interesting and
relevant subject, see Bribes by John T. Noonan,
Jr. [Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]
(University of California Press 1987).

counsel (kown' sel)
Advice;
guidance.

count on
Rely on; depend on;
have faith in.

counterfeit (cown' ter
fit)
Fake; not what it is purported to
be.

coup (coo)
Takeover of government by
force.

courteous (ker' te
us)
Well-mannered; polite; considerate and graceful in conversation and
behavior.  Courtesy (ker' te see) is the quality of
being courteous.

courtesan
Female entertainer;
high-class prostitute.

cover
Hide; conceal; distract
attention from.

cowardice
Being too afraid to
act properly.
Example:  "Cowards
die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but
once." -- Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene
2.

credibility
Believability;
reputation for telling the truth.

creditor
One who money is owed
to.

credulity (cre du' li
tee)
Willingness to believe in what you're told.

crisis (kry' sis)
Important
moment; time to worry a lot.  The plural is crises
(kry' seez).

crusade
Holy war; campaign for a
good cause.

cuckold (cuk' old)
Husband of an
unfaithful wife.

cue (kyew)
Signal for an actor to say
or do something.

cunning
Slyness; craftiness;
guile.

curry favor
Ingratiate;
suck up; brown nose.

custodians
Those who take care
of something given to them by another.

customary
According to custom;
what's usually done.

109

daunt
Discourage.

debacle (de bok' ul)
Big defeat;
screw-up.

debate (de bate')
Contest of
arguments.

debauch (de bawch')
Orgy;
excessive party.

debris (dey bree')
The broken
pieces.

deceit
Intentionally giving the
wrong idea.  Deception is what is done by
deceit.

decline to
Say no to some
proposed action; turn down an offer.

decree (da cree')
Official public
statement of new rules.

decrepit (de crep' it)
Worn out
and falling apart.

deduced (de duced')
Figured out;
drew the logical conclusion.

defaulted (de fal' ted)
Failed
to meet a promise.
This term is typically used
to describe the failure of a borrower to pay back a loan.  The loan
goes into default when the payments are past due.
The promise to pay is made with a promissory note, which must state the
amount and a certain date for payment.  Without the certain date, it is
only an IOU.

defective (de fek'
tive)
Something's wrong with it; badly made.  If it's
defective, it has a defect (dee'
fect).

defer (de fer')
To defer
to someone means to acknowledge the superior right or ability of
another person to take action.  To defer some action
means to put it off until later.

defy (de fy')
Challenge the power
of.

dejected
Bummed out; extremely
discouraged.

deliberate (de lib' er
et)
Carefully considered; cautious.
Used as a verb, to
deliberate (de lib' er ate) means to think about
something.

delusion
False perception;
hallucination; mirage.

demagogue
Public speaker that
can arouse a crowd.

demeanor (de mean' er)
How you
carry yourself; attitude.

democracy
Rule of the people
(its literal meaning in Greek).  Not Plutarch's recommended form of
government: see the Fable of the Snake in
the life of Agis.

demolish
Destroy completely and
systematically.

demoralized
Discouraged; have
lost their morale (mo rall'), or fighting spirit.

dense
Thick; lots of them in a
small space.

deplore
Be extremely unhappy
about.
Example:  Her family
deplored his atrocious table manners.

deposed
Removed from high office;
impeached.

depression
Sadness to the
point of paralysis.

deprive (de pryv')
Prevent from
having.

deride
Taunt; speak scornfully to
someone.

descend (de send')
Come
down.
To be a descendant means
that you are related by blood to someone who has died, i.e. you are
descended from him.

desert (de zert')
Walk out;
abandon.

desolate (dess' o let)
Ruined
and deserted; empty place.

desperation
The state of
being desperate, or having the recklessness of despair.

Example:  "The majority of men live lives of quiet
desperation," said Thoreau in
Walden.

despise
View with extreme disgust
and contempt.

despot (dez' pot)
Cruel and
capricious ruler.

detection
Being caught;
discovery.

detest (de test')
Really hate a
lot.

detour (dee' toor)
Change in
path.

detractors
Critics;
jeerleaders; those who say bad things about you.

devout (de vowt')
Pious; very
religious.

dictator
Ruler with unlimited
power.  A boss who is extremely arbitrary in
his management style.

dignity
Quiet confidence and
pride; the demeanor that
goes with high rank.

dilemma
You have two choices, and
neither one is good.

diligent (dil' e
jent)
Hard-working.

diminish (dim in' ish)
Lessen;
reduce.

diplomacy
Politeness and
guile.

disarray (dis a
ray')
Disorganization; a messed up state.
Example:  The
Americans were in disarray over the wisdom of supporting
Clinton's new war.

discipline (dis' i plin)
Inner
control.

disclaim (dis claim')
Deny that
it's yours.
A disclaimer of
warranties is frequently found on used cars, so that the salesman can claim
you agreed to buy the car whether it runs or not.

discontent (dis con
tent')
Unhappiness; the state of not being contented.

discourse (dis' course)
Speech;
skill at talking.

disdained (dis
daynd')
Rejected; declined with contempt.

disguise (dis kies')
False
appearance; camouflage.

disgust (dis gust')
Distaste;
abhorrence.

dishearten
Discourage; bum
out.

dismayed
Afraid and shocked.

disown (dis own')
Say he's not one
of us.

disparage
Talk about how bad
someone is.

dispute Noun.
Quarrel;
argument over something.

dissent
Disagreement; contrary
opinion.

dissipate (dis' i pate)
Weaken
by scattering.

dissuade (dis wayd')
Talk out
of; opposite of persuade, which is to talk into.

distinct (dis tinct')
Not mixed
up but different and separate; easy to see.

distinction
Standing out from
the crowd; fame.

distinctive
Characteristic
and tending to identify.
Example:  She could tell
who sent her the note by the distinctive handwriting.

distract (dis tract')
Divert
attention.

divert
Cause to move in a
different direction; turn aside.

divine (de vine')
Heavenly.

do away with
Get rid of;
remove.

doctrine (doc' trin)
System of
teachings.

dominate
Control by superior
strength.

dominion
Being the boss.

dose (rhymes with close)
Quantity of
medicine taken.

double-agent
Spy who has
been turned.  You think he's your spy, by the enemy has made him work
for them.

dowry
Price paid to a husband by
the father of the bride to marry her.

drafted
Compelled to be
soldiers.

dread (dred)
Fear.

drone
Useless
male.
This term is from entomology.
In the world of bees, where the queen and all of the workers are female, a
few drones are permitted to exist as consorts for the
queen.

drought (drowt)
When the land
dries up for lack of rain.

due process
Notice of the
intended action of the government and the opportunity to be heard concerning
this intended action.  "Due process" is a term of art
in constitutional law, and it comprises the two elements of notice and
opportunity to be heard.

79

eager (ee' ger, with a hard g, as
in good)
Fired up; really wanting to.

easy-going
Pleasant and
calm.
Example:  Television viewers still enjoy
easy-going Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry.

eccentric
Off-center; odd;
weird in an amusing way.

effective
Capable; competent;
it works.

effeminate
Weak and
foolish.

elan (ey lan')
Vigor and
style.  A French concept, with no English equivalent.

elated
Extremely happy.

eligible (el' i ji
bul)
Qualified; fit to be chosen.

elite (e leet')
Belonging to a
chosen group of individuals much better than average.

eloquence (el' o
quence)
Beautiful speaking.

embark
Get on a ship for a
trip.

embezzle
Steal while you are in
a position of trust.

emphatic (em fat' ik)
Vehement;
strongly worded; emotional.

encounter
Meet; run into.

encumbered
You can't move
easily because of all the stuff you are carrying.

endear
Make loved.

endorsement
Support,
recommendation, backing.

endure
Suffer patiently until the
end.

enfranchise (en fran'
chize)
Give the right to vote.
Example:  He
argued that the decline and fall of the United States began with the
enfranchisement of women by the 19th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution in 1920.

enhance
Make better.

enlisting
Signing up;
recruiting.

en masse  (on
moss')
All together in a compact group.

enrage (en rage')
Make very
angry.

enthusiasm
Working hard and
happy.

entourage (on' tu raj)
The
crowd that accompanies a big shot.

envoy (on' voy)
Messenger; person
sent on official business.

envy
Want to change places with
someone.

essential (es sen' chul)
Very
important.

estranged
Not speaking to each
other.

eternal
Lasts forever.

ethic
Moral system; code of
behavior.

eunuch  (yoo' nuk)
Castrated
male slave.  Eunuchs were extensively used in the
ancient world as bureaucrats.  Wealth was their compensation for the
loss of their balls.

euphemism (yoo' fem is m)
Nice
way to say it.
Example:  The "political correctness"
movement has made sensitivity into a joke by
ridiculous euphemisms.

evade
Sneak past.

eventually (e ven' chwa
ly)
Happens later, as expected.

evidence (e' vi dence)
Facts
tending to prove the truth of an assertion.

evident
Can be seen.

exaggerate
Hype; make to
appear bigger than what is real.
Example:  It was
plain to the jury that the plaintiff was exaggerating her
injury in the hope of getting rich.

exasperated (eg zas' per a
ted)
Fed up; angry and impatient.

excessive (ek ses' ive)
Too
much.

exempted
Don't have to do what
everyone else has to.
An
exemption is a waiver of a requirement.

exert (eg zert')
Project one's
power; exercise.

exhaustion (eg zaws'
chun)
Tiredness; weariness; emptiness.

exhort (eg zort')
Loudly encourage
someone.

exile Noun.
Absence from
your native country, against your will.
A person in
this condition is called an exile.

expel (ex pel')
Kick out; send
away.
Expulsion is the act of
expelling.

expenditure (ex pen' di
chur)
When you spend money on something, you make an
expenditure.

expertise (ex per
tees')
Knowledge of an expert.

expired
Time has run out.

exploit (ex' ployt)
Noun.
Heroic deed.
This word has very different
meanings when used as a noun and as a verb.  The verb
exploit (ex ployt') means to make use of in a greedy
way.

expressly
Clearly stated, in
writing or otherwise.

exquisite
Very, very nice.

extemporaneous
Composed on
the spot; not made up beforehand.

extirpate (ex' tir pate)
Root
out; completely remove all vestiges of something bad.

extort (ex tort')
Compel to pay by
threats.  Extortion is a crime.

extraordinary (ex tror' di na
ry)
Highly unusual.

extravagance (ex tra' va
gance)
Excessiveness; immodesty; bad taste.

exult (eg zult')
Feel proud openly.

58

fable
Instructive tale, with
animals as the characters.

faction
Group within a larger
group.

faked out
Deceived by a
feint.

familiarity (fa mil' i a" ri
ty)
Knowledge from seeing something a lot.

famine (fam' in)
When there is not
enough food, and people starve.

fatigue (fa teeg')
Tiredness from
hard work.

favor
Preference; benefit.

Example:  Most of the directors are in favor
of the proposal.
Example:  The judge
decided in her favor.
Example:  He
did her a favor.

fawning
Giving excessive
affection.

feasting
Eating abundantly.

feeble
Weak.

feigning (fay'
ning)
Pretending.

feud (fyood)
Long quarrel between
families.

fickle
Not constant; disloyal.

figure out
Find the answer
to a puzzle or a question.

finance (fi' nance)
verb
Pay the costs of something.

Financial (fi nan' shul) means having to do with money,
such as the financial statements of a business.
Financing is the process of putting money into an
enterprise.

find fault
with
Disapprove of; criticize; nit-pick.

finish off
Put the final
touches on a victory.

first-hand
By personal
experience, rather than the experience of others.

first pick
First choice;
priority in choosing.

flank
The end of a line of
troops.
To outflank the enemy line means
getting around them.

flatly
Absolutely and bluntly;
with no attempt to sugar-coat the message.

flee
Fly; run away; escape.

flight
Fleeing; running away.

flotilla
Group of warships, less
than a fleet.

flourish (fler'
ish)
Be healthy and grow.

flunky
A person who is obedient to
the point of absurdity and shame.

following
About to be
stated.

foment
Stir up; incite; make
trouble.

for the sake of
For the
intended benefit of.
A succinct
definition of this common phrase in English is beyond my power.  Study
the example of its use in the text, and elsewhere.

ford
Cross a stream of water on
foot, by wading through it.

foreclose
Stop; wipe out;
prevent.
In real estate law,
foreclosure occurs when a creditor who has not been paid
legally stops the ownership interest of the debtor in some property.

foregoing (for go' ing)
What
has already been stated in the document.

forewarned (for warned')
Knew
what was about to happen.

forsake
Give up; abandon.

fortify
Construct to make
stronger against attack.  Fortifications are what is
built.

fortitude
Toughness.

foundation
Base; what provides
stability for a building.

fragile
Easy to break.

fragments
Broken pieces.

fragrance
Pleasant smell;
odor.

frame  Verb.
Shape;
construct a plan.
Example:  The
writers of the Constitution are referred to collectively as "the
Framers."

frame of mind
Attitude;
general feeling about things.

frank
Truthful and to the point;
honest.

frankincense
Nuggets of sap
from a certain Arabian bush, burned to produce a dense and fragrant smoke.

frantic
In a big hurry, with
anxiety; freaking out.

fraud
A material misrepresentation
made with the intent to induce reliance on it.  A deliberate lie to
cheat someone.

frenzy
Strong passion.

frivolous (friv' o lus)
Silly;
a waste of time.

frolic
Party of the
light-hearted.

front man
One who has only
apparent authority; puppet; figurehead.

Example:  Many became convinced that Bill Clinton was merely a
front man for some sinister forces.

frowning
The opposite of
smiling.

frugal
Extremely reluctant about
spending money.  This is the nice way to say it.
Frugality is the quality of being
frugal.

frustrated
Things are not
going according to plan; disappointed and angry.

fugitives
People that are
running away from something.

full-scale
Not miniature, but
the real size of the thing.

full-time
Not part-time.

If you do something full-time, it's
your usual business.  A part-time job is something you do for only a
few hours.

fundamental
Basic.

furnish
Provide; give something
necessary.

fury (fyu' ry)
Anger.

futile (few' til)
Bound to fail;
hopeless; useless.

60

garrison (ga' ri son)
The
soldiers who are controlling a place.

gesticulate (jes tik' u
late)
Make excited gestures, or expressive body movements, along with or
in lieu of speech.

get away
Leave; extricate
one's self from a bad situation.
To get
away with something is to escape punishment for it.

get back
Return.

get the chance
Have the
opportunity.

get the
point
Understand.

get out of
Not have to do
it.

get over
Pass through to the
end of something bad.
Example:  I
can't play tennis until I get over my sprained ankle.

get rid of
Eliminate.

get tired of
Lose your
interest in.

give up
Quit.

glutton
A person who eats too
much.

go along with
Indulge;
consent; follow.

go back
Return.

go crazy
Freak out; become
like an insane person.

going on
Proceeding; taking
place; happening.

golden age
A time long ago
when things were much better.  This refers to the first age after the
creation of man, in Greek mythology.  After the golden age came the
silver age, then the bronze age, and finally the iron age.  Maybe now
it's the plastic age.  See note 8 to the Life
of Aristides.

good faith
Sincerity and
honesty in a deal.

good sense
Wisdom.

good will
Affection and
respect.

gourmet (gor mey')
A person who
is an expert in food.

graft
When an official takes
bribes.

gratify
Please; satisfy.

gravity
Seriousness; calm
dignity.
This word comes from the Latin word
gravitas (grah' vi tahs), which is today a term of
art in politics, meaning the quality that command attention without
effort.  In the Hippie Era, such a dude was said to be heavy.

grief (greef)
Sadness.

grievance
Complaint about bad
conduct.

groundless
Having no support
in reality.

groveling
Crawling on the
ground in an exaggerated display of fear and subjection.

grudge
Animosity; resentment;
score to settle.

grudgingly
Unwillingly and
with feelings of resentment.

guarantee (gar an tee')
Make
sure.

guile (gyle, with a hard g, as in
good)
Sneaky tricks; craftiness.

gymnopaediae
Dance of
the naked girls.

33

had in store
Held for the
future.

hag
Ugly woman.

halt
Stop.

harass (ha rass')
Bother; annoy;
bug.

hardship
Unpleasant
situation.
Example:  Camping involves
hardships such as bugs, cold, bad food, etc., yet some
people like it.

harmony (har' mo ni)
Smooth and
friendly cooperation.

haughty (haw' ty)
Disagreeably
proud; stuck-up.

have a hard time
When
it's difficult to do something.

hearing (hee' ring)
Chance to
talk to the judge.

hegemony (he gem' o
ny)
Dominating influence.

heir (ayr)
Someone who
inherits.

help it
Prevent it.

Example:  Because he's blind, he can't help
it if he runs into things.

herald
One who announces some
news.

hereditary (her ed' it
ary)
Passed on in the genes, so you're born with it.

hermit
Lives alone and has no
interest in meeting people.

hoard (rhymes with board)
Stash;
some cache of goods or cash that has been stored.

hold a grudge
Stay angry
with someone.

hoplite
An armored Greek
soldier.  The panoply of a hoplite comprised a helmet with face guards,
armor for the chest and back, greaves to protect the shins, a spear, and a
sword.   Hoplites were used for close fighting in formation.

hostage
Prisoner kept to make
sure a bargain is kept.

hostile (hos'
tyle)
Unfriendly.
The process of unfriendly relations is called
hostilities.

humble (hum' bul)
Modest; not
trying to impress anybody.

humiliation
Disgrace; shame
because of your circumstances.

hypocrite (hip' o krit)
Someone
who pretends to be good, but acts otherwise; one who fakes good faith.

For examples, read what Jesus said about the Jews and
lawyers of his day (cf.  Matthew 23:13-33).

23

ignore (ig nore')
Pay no
attention; disregard.

Ignorant (ig' nor ant) means that no attention has been
paid to something, so you don't know anything about it.

illiterate
Can't read or
write.

illusion
Wrong belief from
mistaken perception.

imbecile (im' be sil)
Fool with
a weak mind, but not as stupid as an idiot.

imitate (im' i tate)
Copy;
mimic.

immense (im ens')
Too big to
measure; huge.

immune (im yune')
Can't be harmed;
safe from some danger.

impaired
Weakened;
obstructed.

impart
Give; transfer to.

impartial
Fair; not favoring
either side in a dispute; the ideal of a judge.

impassive
Can't tell what he's
feeling; stone-faced.

impeachment
Being fired from
high office because of misconduct.

impending
About to happen.

imperative (im per' a
tiv)
Necessary and in the nature of a command; no argument for or against
is needed or invited.

imperialism
Building an
empire; asserting control outside your own country.  This word
connotes a reckless ambition to expand control. Example:  Bill
Gates, Hitler, and Napoleon made the same mistake:
imperialism.

imperious
Bossy; seems to enjoy
giving commands and acting like someone important.

implicate (im' pli cate)
Put
blame on because of their involvement.
Example:
Several lawyers at the White House were implicated in the
cover-up scandal.

implied
Following as a reasonable
conclusion from words or conduct, although not clearly expressed.
Implicit rather than explicit.

implore
Ask passionately;
beg.

impudent (im' pyu dent)
Sassy;
disrespectful; bratty.

impulse (im' pulse)
Sudden change
in momentum; push; whim.

impunity (im pyu' ni ty)
No
punishment.

in charge of
Responsible
for.

in favor of
Likes the
idea.
Example:  Both the Republican and Democratic
parties seem to be in favor of bigger, meaner, and more
intrusive government.

in spite of
Despite;
notwithstanding.
Example:  In spite
of his inferiority in size, David defeated Goliath.

in the interest of both
parties
Both sides in the negotiation will benefit by
this.

in the way
Adjective.
An impediment; a nuisance; an obstruction.

inauspicious (in aw spish'
us)
Unlucky looking; off to a bad start.

incapable
Can't do it.

incident
Event; something that
happens.

incite (in site')
Talk into taking
bad action.

incompetence
Being unable to
do a job right.

inconsistent
Contradictory;
no steady truth.
Example:  Clinton's
inconsistent explanations led the Americans to doubt his
character and fitness to command them.

incredible
Hard to
believe.

indefatigable (in de fa' ti ga
bul)
Doesn't get tired.

indemnity (in dem' ni
tee)
Paying for the harm done; insulating against loss.  Frequently
contracts will provide for one party to indemnify the other
in the event of disputes raised by third parties by paying the legal fees
and any judgment.

indicate
Give a sign;
signal.

indictment (in dite'
ment)
Formal accusation of a felony, or serious crime, by a grand
jury.  To be indicted (in di' ted) in the United
States is big-time trouble.

indignant
Angry, highly
offended.

indignity
Insulting
situation.

indirect
Not direct; roundabout;
circuitous.

indiscreet (in dis
creet')
Prone to scandal; careless about keeping secrets.

indispensable
Can't get
along without it; necessary; critical.

induce
Cause to act.

indulge
Pamper; permit another to
do what pleases them.

inept (in ept')
No skill; awkward
and clumsy.

inevitable (in ev' i ta
bul)
Can't avoid it; has to happen.

infantry (in' fan try)
Soldiers
who walk; foot-soldiers.

infect
Spread disease into.

inferiority (in fe ri o' ri
ty)
Being less than; the opposite of superiority.

infested
Were present as pests,
like roaches in a house.

infiltrate (in' fil
trate)
Sneak your forces in.

influence (in' flu
ence)
Ability to shape behavior by suggestion.

Example:  The Hollywood elite has deliberately misused the
power of television to influence the public.

infuriated
Made very
angry.

ingenious (in gee' ni
us)
Clever; showing ingenuity; smart.

ingratiate (in gray' she
ate)
Make yourself popular; suck up.

ingratitude
Not being
properly grateful for benefits received.

inhabitant
Someone who lives
there.

inherit
Get after someone dies
because you are an heir.

initial (i nish' al)
First; at
the beginning.

injustice
The opposite of
justice; unfairness; partiality.

innate (in ate')
Born with it.

in on it
Privy; to be a
participant in a project or the sharer of a secret.

inquire
Ask; investigate.

insatiable (in say' sha
bul)
Can't get enough.

inscription
Writing carved
in.

insignia (in sig' ni a)
Symbols
and marks of rank, such as the stars on the shoulders of a general, or the
eagle with arrows on the podium of the President.

insignificant
Not
important; small.

insinuated (in sin' yu a
ted)
Hinted in a sly way; snuck in the suggestion.

insolent (in' so
lent)
Contemptuous and insulting; arrogantly rude.

inspire
The meaning of this word
is best approached by examining its etymology: in (in) spire (breath) -- so
inspire means to put in a breath, or catch a spirit.

instigator (in' sti ga
tor)
Trouble-maker; one who incites another to take bad action.

instituted
Established; put in
place some system.

intact (in tact')
Not broken;
whole.

integrity (in teg' ri tee)
True
spirit; honesty; honor.

intention
Aim; purpose.
Something that is intended to happen is
intentional, or on purpose, and it is therefore not an
accident.

intercede (in ter seed')
Plead
on behalf of someone in trouble.

internal
On the inside.
Internal is the opposite of external,
which means on the outside.

interrogation
Question and
answer session.

intervene
To step in between
disputants, like a referee in a boxing match.

intimidation
Making afraid;
terrorism.

intoxication
Poisoning of
the mind; giddiness.

intricate
Complex and full of
small detail.

intrinsic value
What
it's worth as raw materials.
The
intrinsic value of a coin is what the metal is worth,
regardless of what is stamped on it.

introduce
Put in; bring up for
consideration.

inveterate (in vet' er
et)
Stubborn in bad behavior.

invincible
Can't be
defeated.

involved
Mixed up with; part
of.

ironic
Showing
irony, or a joke of fate.  For an example of
irony, study the text in the Life of Philopoemen: what
happened to him was what he had just finished criticizing in another --
becoming a prisoner of war.  It would not be a case of
irony if Philopoemen had said nothing.

irrelevant (ir rel' e
vant)
Doesn't matter; beside the point.

irresistible
Can't resist
it; there's no stopping it.

irritate
Bother; annoy; bug.

92

jeopardy (jep' ar dy)
Risk of
loss; danger.

jolly
Appears to be having a good
time.

judicious (joo dish' us)
Wise;
smart and not excessive.

juncture
Critical point in
time.

just
In tune with the truth; honest
and fair.

just in time
Almost too
late.

6

keep a lookout
Be on
guard against intruders; watch out for trouble.

kidded
Made the subject of a joke;
teased.  Kidding is a flexible term in English,
meaning teasing or misleading for the purpose of humor, such as unkind
people do to children (kids).

kinship
Relation by blood.
Your kin are your relatives.

kiss of death
Refers to
when the false friend Judas kissed Jesus to identify him to the Jews who
were trying to arrest him.

4

labyrinth (lab' er inth)
Maze;
place with complicated pathways so you easily get lost there.  This
term derives from the palace built by Daedelus for King Minos of Crete.

lame
Limping; crippled in the
leg.

lamentation
Expressions of
grief and sorrow.

lampoon (lam poon')
Ridicule;
make fun of, especially by ridiculous imitation.

landslide
Large majority in a
vote.

lapse
Slip up; break in good
conduct.

larceny
Stealing or cheating.

lavish
Extravagant; profuse; way
too much.

lax
Careless; loose.

leaven the lump (le' ven,
rhymes with heaven)
Yeast makes bubbles in bread, in a process
called leavening.  A little yeast mixed in a lump of dough rapidly
multiplies and leavens the lump.

legacy (leg' a si)
Inheritance;
what is passed down from generation to generation.

lenience (lee' ni
ence)
Toleration; easy-goingness.
Example:
Children grow up to be violent underachievers because irritable parents show
too little lenience for childish exploration.

liberal
Foolishly generous; not
strict; not frugal; not prudent.

liberated
Freed.

license
Permission or
permissiveness.  License is used pejoratively to
describe a disordered state of society where anything goes.

lieutenant (loo ten'
ant)
Assistant.

litigation (li ti ga'
shun)
Court battles; lawsuits.

live up to
Act according to
a certain standard.

loath (rhymes with both)
Reluctant;
disinclined.
A related word is the verb
loathe (rhymes with clothe), which means to hate and have
disgust for.

long odds
Small probabilities
of winning.  Odds are the probability that a
particular event will occur.

looks
Appearance.

looting
Theft on a large scale;
stealing by a mob.

loyal
A true friend.

23

made up
Compensated;
supplied to fill a deficiency.

magnify
Make to appear bigger.

magnitude
Size.

majesty (ma' jes ty)
Kingly
conduct; strength and beauty and dignity; grandeur.

major (may' jer)
Relatively large;
the opposite of minor.

malcontent (accent on first
syllable)
Not happy about anything; always complaining.

malice (mal' iss)
Evil intentions;
hate; desire to harm.  Malicious (ma lish' us) means
done with an attitude of malice.

man of his
word
Trustworthy man, whose promises can be relied on.

maneuver (ma noo' ver)
Move your
forces around.

martyr (mar' ter)
One who suffers
punishment for his beliefs.

massacre (mass' a ker)
Mass
killing.

masterpiece (mas' ter
peese)
In the guild system of feudal Europe, skill in crafts was
recognized at three levels: apprentice (learning the basics); journeyman
(knows the basics); and master (really good at it).  To qualify for
recognition as a master, a journeyman had to produce a work so good that it
could be admired by masters.  This work was his
masterpiece.

meager
There's not much there;
inadequate.
Example:  A medal was a
meager reward for his heroism.

means
Procedure or device used to
accomplish something.
Example:  The battlecry of
evil is: "The ends justify the means."

mediate
Help to resolve a
dispute.

melee (may' lay)
Confused
battle.

menial (mee' ni al)
Servile;
suitable for those who do boring work.

merit
Verb.
Deserve.

merits
Strengths and
weaknesses.

mercenary
Motivated by money;
hired soldier.
The difference between a soldier and a
mercenary is that the soldier fights for a cause, while a
mercenary fights for money.   No equivalent
distinction has been drawn for lawyers, however.

meticulously (me tik' u lus
ly)
With great precision and attention to detail.

minor
The opposite of major;
small.

misery (miz' er ee)
Unhappiness
and discomfort.

misfortune
Bad luck; a time of
trouble.

misgivings
Doubts and second
thoughts.

mission
A project of importance
given to you by high authority.

mobile (mo' bul)
Easily
movable.

mocking
Making fun of.

moderate (mod' er et)
Not
extreme; temperate.

modest
Not bragging; shy.

momentum
Mass times
velocity.  A moving object has momentum, which is its
tendency to keep going in the same direction at the same speed.

monarchy (mon' ar ky)
Government
by one person.

mood
Emotional state.

morality
Behavior in harmony
with laws of spiritual cause and effect.

mortal
One who is subject to
death; as an adjective, mortal means fatal, or causing
death.

mortgage (mor' gaj)
A security
interest in property, for a debt.  For example, to build a house, the
landowner borrows money from a bank, and the bank gets a
mortgage on the house and the land, so if the debt is not
paid, the bank gets both.

motion
Proposal for a formal
decision.

motivate
Build enthusiasm; make
someone willing to do something.

motive
A reason for doing
something.

move out
March on an
objective.

multitude
Large crowd.

mutiny
When the crew refuses to
follow the captain; disobedience of a group to lawful authority.

mutual (mew' chu al)
In agreement;
reciprocal.

myrrh (mur)
Fragrant resin from a
desert shrub, burned as incense.
44

naive (ny eve')
Ignorant and
trusting, like a child.

natives
Born there.

nausea (naw' ze a)
Feeling you get
before you vomit; disgust.

neglected (ne glek' ted)
Forgot
about; paid no attention to.

negligent (neg' li gent)
Not
paying attention; careless.
The concept of
negligence is the foundation of tort law, and accusations
of lack of due care consume billions of man-hours in the United States.

negotiate (ne go' she ate)
Try
to make a deal; bargain.

niggard
Cheapskate; stingy
person.

nimble
Fast and agile.

noble
Not corruptible;
aristocratic; high-minded.

Nobility is a difficult concept to explain to Americans in the late
20th century, when the party line is that everyone is at least as sordid and
corrupt as our President.  Look it up in the dictionary and meditate on
it.

nominated
Offered as a
candidate for office; proposed a person for election.

notorious (no tor' i us)
Well
known to be bad.
Note the difference between
notorious and famous.
11

oasis
Spring in the middle of the
desert.

oath
Promise before God
as witness and guarantor.
When witnesses are
called in court to testify, they do so under oath, so if
they lie, it is a felony called perjury.  This is punishable by severe
penalties in the criminal law, and presumably by God as well.

obedience
Following orders.

obedience
Following orders.

objected (ob jek'
ted)
Protested; said no to what was happening.

objective (ob jek' tiv)
Noun
Goal; what you intend to accomplish.
Used as
an adjective, objective means unbiased, fair, based on the
facts.

obliged  (o blyjd')
Under an
obligation, or duty to do something.

obliterated (o blit' er a
ted)
Completely destroyed; wiped out.

obscure
Difficult to
interpret.

observe
Pay attention to, and try
to obey.

occupations
Jobs; usual
work.

occupied
Put a military force
there to control the place.

odds
Probability of success.

offends
Insults; grosses out;
makes angry.

offset
Balance out; counter.

oligarchy (o' li gar
ky)
Government by a few.
The alternatives
are anarchy (no government at all) and monarchy (government by one).

omen
Cause for superstitious
speculation; signal of good or bad things about to happen.

on board
Present on a
ship.

on the lookout
for
Looking for.
Example:  Our
company is on the lookout for acquisitions in the area of
consumer electronics.

on the run
Fleeing;
retreating as fast as possible.
Having the
enemy on the run means that the battle is going in your
favor.

on the verge of
Close
to.

onerous (own' er us)
Heavy;
burdensome.
Example:  The congressman objected to
the onerous demands of the federal government for paperwork
on small business.

onslaught (on'
slawt)
Attack.

opponent
Competitor; enemy;
antagonist.

oppress (o press')
Treat your
people badly.  Oppression is
oppressive government.

oracle
Spirit that reliably
forecasts the future.
Plutarch was for many
years one of the two priests serving the Delphic oracle in the temple of
Apollo.

oration
Formal public speech,
usually long.
Perhaps the most famous example
is Antony's funeral oration in Shakespeare's play,
Julius Caesar.  An orator
(o' ra ter) is one who gives an oration.

oratory
Public speaking.

ordeal (or deal')
Long and
unpleasant experience.

order of battle
How you
arrange your forces; formation; setup.

oscillated (os' il a ted)
Went
from one extreme to another, like a vibrating string.

ostentatious
Showing off in
a vulgar way.

ostensibly (os ten' si
bly)
Not really, but pretending to be the reason.

ostracize (os' tra
size)
Banish; exclude.

Ostracism was a procedure in Athens whereby anyone deemed
too dangerous to keep in the city was banished by popular vote in a secret
ballot.   Its purpose was to prevent one man from becoming too powerful
and beginning a tyranny.

outrage
Indignation; being
extremely offended and angry.

outcome
Result.

outdo (owt do')
Perform better than
another.

outnumbered (owt num'
berd)
At a disadvantage, numerically.

ovation
Loud applause.

A standing ovation is where the
audience stands up while it applauds.

overbearing
Too bossy;
domineering.

overcome
Conquer; defeat;
beat.

overpower
Too much to
handle.

overrule
Cancel because the boss
says no.

overwhelm
Overpower; blow away.

44

pacified
Calmed down;
tranquilized.

pageant (pa' jent)
Spectacular
production, such as a parade or a beauty contest.

paid him back in
kind
Did to him what he was guilty of.

paralyzed (pa' ra lyzed)
Unable
to move.

paramount (pa' ra
mount)
Greatest; most important.

parasite
Organism that feeds on
another without killing it, like leeches, ticks, and fleas.

Figuratively, it means people who occupy the position
of ticks on society.

pardon
Let off the hook;
exonerate; excuse; absolve.

parsimonious (par si mo' ni
us)
Cheap; hates to spend money.

partisan (par' ti zan)
Fighter
for a political party.
Used as an adjective,
partisan means not candid because
blinded by politics.

partition
Division of
space.

pass on
Tell; transfer.

patron
One who gives money;
sponsor.

pay attention
Notice; be
alert; concentrate.

payroll
List of employees; people
who get a regular payment for services.

peltast
A lightly armed Greek
soldier, who usually carried a small shield, a sword, and a javelin, bow, or
sling.  The peltast was not covered with body armor
like a hoplite, and
therefore was useful only in fighting from a distance.

penalty (pen' al
ty)
Punishment.

persistence (per sis'
tence)
Refusing to quit; keeping at a task until it's done.

persona
Mask; public image.

personify
Be the living
embodiment of.

persuade
Talk into;
convince.

pertaining to
Concerning;
relating to.

pertinent (per' ti nent)
To the
point; very relevant.

pervade (per vade')
Spread all
through, like water in a sponge.

perverse (per verse')
Stubbornly
contrary; determined to do the opposite of what's expected.

pervert (per vert')
Verb.
To distort or twist into something wrong.

Example:  Spin doctors pervert the
truth.

petty
Small; trivial; worthy of a
small-minded person.

phalanx (fay' lanx)
Dense
formation of tightly linked and heavily armored soldiers, several rows deep,
with their spears projecting forward between them.  Figuratively, any
formidable array.

phantom (fan' tom)
Ghost.

pick out
Select.

picked men
Elite; those
selected by merit to form a special group.

pilfering
Stealing little
bits.

pillaging
Robbing by a
conquering army, usually with killing.

pilot (pi' lot)
One who makes sure
the ship doesn't crash.  This word now is mostly used for the commander
of an airplane.

piracy (py' ra see)
Robbery at
sea; what pirates do.

placate (play' cate)
Give a
little something to keep them quiet for a while.

plague (playg)
Mass outbreak of
serious desease.

playwright
One who writes
plays.

plea
Prayer.

pleading
Giving reasons for
getting favorable treatment.
The papers
submitted by the parties to a lawsuit and stating the merits of the case,
pro or con, are called pleadings.  Papers that pertain
to requested action by the judge are called motions.

plot
Evil plan.

plundering
Looting.

pointed out
Directed
attention to; what you do when you point your finger at something so that
someone else will notice it.

policy (pol' i cy)
Rules.

pomp
Spectacle in ceremonies.

Example:  The pomp of an English
coronation ceremony is very impressive.

populace (pop' u less)
People in
a place.

portents (por' tents)
Signs of
the future.

postpone (post pone')
Put off
until later.

potion
A medicinal brew.

poverty (pov' er ty)
Being poor;
lack of money.

precede (pre seed')
Go
before.

precedent (press' i dent)
Model
for future decisions.
Example: Roe v.
Wade is a precedent for deciding cases where
the right of privacy in abortion is involved.

predicament (pre dik' a
ment)
Trouble; tight spot.

predictable (pre dik' ta
bul)
You can tell what they will probably do.

prefer (pre fer')
Like better.

preferential
treatment
Being treated better than others.

prejudice
To have a strong bias
for or against something; mind is made up already, before hearing the
evidence.
Example:  Most people are
prejudiced against spiders, although some keep them as
pets.

preoccupied (pre oc' u
pied)
Distracted; all attention focussed on some worry.

prestige (pres teej')
Good
reputation; authority
earned from good conduct.

presume (pre zyume')
Suppose,
assume.
Also, in another context,
presume means to behave with unjustifiable forwardness.

pretense (pree'
tense)
Pretending; fake reasons.

pretension
Putting on airs;
pretending to be superior.

pretext (pree' text)
A fake
reason for doing something.

prevail (pre vail')
Win; come out
on top.

prey
Victim; what a predator
hunts.

prince
Son of a king.

principal
Main; biggest.

Note the difference between principal and
principle.   Although both are pronounced the same
(homonyms) they have completely different meanings.

privately
Not publicly; done by
people on their own, and not as part of a group effort.

privilege (priv' lej)
Something
you are allowed to do as a favor.

pro and con
For and
against.

proceeds (pro' seeds)
Money from
the sale.

procrastinate (pro kras' ti
nate)
Put things off; neglect to take care of business promptly.

profligate (prof' li
gat)
Wastefully extravagant.

prohibit
Forbid; order not to do
something.

prolix (pro lix')
Talks too
much.
Prolixity (pro lix' i ty) is the quality of
being a blabbermouth.  Example:  If brevity is the soul
of wit, prolixity must be the soul of stupidity.

prominent (prom' i
nent)
Famous; distinguished; great.

promulgated (prom' ul ga
ted)
Issued as a law.

propensity (pro pen' si
ty)
Tendency; habit.

proposal
Suggested course of
action.

proposition
A proposed rule
or deal.

prospect (pross' pect)
What's in
view for the future.

prosper (pross' per)
Be
successful.

provisions
Supplies.

provoke (pro voke')
Cause to
react.
Provocative (pro vok' a tive) means
tending to cause to react.  Example:  A red flag is said
to be provocative to a bull.

prosecute (pross' e cute)
Go
after; continue a project.

prosperity (pross per' i
ty)
Wealth; being well-off; good fortune.

prowess  (prow' ess)
Skill
and strength; effectiveness of a fighter.

prudent
Cautiously wise; using
good judgment; checking things out a lot beforehand.

Prudence is the quality of being
prudent.  Antonym: rash.

purported (per por'
ted)
Pretended by an express claim to be; passed off as.

Example:  American carmakers offer cars
purported to be made in the USA, but which are made mostly
of imported components.

pursuit (per sute')
Chasing
after.

put off
Postpone;
delay.
Example:  He was sorry that he put
off doing his homework until the weekend.

Also, to put someone off means to
give them some excuse for delay.

put up with
Endure; stand;
tolerate; suffer.

pyre
Stack of wood for cremation, or
burning a body to ashes.    92

quarrel
Fight; dispute;
argument.

quota (kwo' ta)
Required number to
have or produce.
Example:  The associate at the law firm
had a quota of 165 billable hours each month, so he became
accustomed to cheating and lying and became a partner.

2

rabble
Crowd.

rally
Psych up; stop defeated
troops from fleeing.

rampage (ram' page)
Angrily
romp.

rancor (rank' or)
Bad will; hate;
spite.

rash
Reckless; too bold; not
prudent.

ratify
Affirm; specifically
approve; okay; make what another has done into your own act.

reaffirm
Affirm again.

To affirm a position means to
declare publicly that you agree.  If a judicial decision is appealed to
a higher court, and the higher court agrees with the lower court, the
decision is affirmed.

rebelled (re beld')
Refused to
follow orders.
A rebellion is
when a large group refuses to accept the authority of the purported
leaders.

reciprocate (re sip' ro
cate)
Do the same in return.

reckless (rek' less)
Careless;
thoughtless; extremely negligent; like a child or a fool.

reconcile (rek' on sile)
Make
friends again; restore good relations.

recruited (re cru'
ted)
Gathered people into a group.

refinement
Absence of
pollution; spirituality.

reforms
Changes for the better;
improvements in government.
Martin Luther was
disgusted by the Catholic practice of selling tickets to Heaven, so he
started the Reformation, which was the beginning of the
Protestant churches.

refrain from
Keep from
doing.

refuge (ref' uge)
Safe place;
sanctuary.

regime (re zheem')
Period of rule;
administration.

regret (re gret')
Be sorry.
As a noun, regret means being sorry.

reinforcements
More people
to help.

rejoice
Be happy; celebrate with
joy.

relatively (rel' a tiv ly)
In
comparison.

relent (re lent')
Ease up; cease
giving trouble.

relic (rell' ik)
What remains; holy
object.

relish
Enjoy a lot.

reluctant
Don't want to do
it.

remnant (rem' nant)
A small part
that's left over; scrap.

remorse (re morse')
Being sorry;
regret and shame.

rendered (ren' derd)
Done;
caused to be.

rendezvous (ron' de voo)
Place
to meet, or the meeting itself.

reparations
Payment to cover
the damages from your action.

repealed
Abrogated; cancelled
out by another law.

repent (re pent')
Be sorry for the
past; take a new attitude for the future.

reprimand (rep' ri mand)
Unkind
words from a boss; a scolding, or rebuke.

reputation
Opinion generally
held about someone.

resemblance (re zem'
blance)
Looking like.

resented (re zen' ted)
Took
offense at; considered an insult.

reservations
Doubts and
fears about a proposal.

reserved (re zervd')
Aloof; distant;
quiet.

resist (re zist')
Oppose; act
against.

resolute (res' o lute)
Firmly
determined.
Resolution is
the quality of being resolute.
Example:
"And thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied over
with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment,
with this regard, their currents turn awry, and lose the name of
action."  -- Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3,
Scene 1.

resolve (re zolv')
Settle;
finally decide.

resort to
Finally have to use
this.
Example:  When the police got no answer to
their knock on the door, they resorted to a battering ram
to enter the house and execute the search warrant.

restrained
Held back; kept
under control.

restraint
Being cool.

The concept of self-restraint (sophrosyne in
Greek) is key to understanding the ethos and aesthetic of ancient
Greece.

resume (re zoom')
Start again.

retaliate (re tal' e ate)
Hit
back; take revenge.

retinue (ret' in oo)
Group of
followers.

reverence (rev' er
ence)
Affectionate respect.

revile (re vyle')
Scold; criticize
harshly; indulge in name-calling.

revive (re vyve')
Bring to life
again; wake up.

revoked (re vokd')
Took back;
repealed; cancelled.

revolt
Turn against the leader;
mutiny.

rhetoric (ret' er ik)
The art of
verbal persuasion.

rhetorical question
(re tor' i cal)
A question that has an obvious answer, asked merely to
get the listener to respond.
An irritating
habit in ordinary conversation, and a cause for suspicion when used by
salesmen and politicians.

ridicule (rid' i cule)
Making
fun of somebody.

rift
Split; antagonism.

A rift is to society as a fault line
is to geology.

right away
Immediately;
without wasting any more time.

ringleader
Boss of criminals;
chief crook.

riot (ry' ot)
Destructive
crowd.

risking
Taking a
risk, or chance.

ritual
Ceremonial procedure.

rival
Competitor in love or
ambition.

rout (rowt)
Complete defeat.

routine (roo teen')
Usual;
nothing special.

rudder
The movable blade at the
back that steers a boat.

rumor
Alleged news.

run out
Have no more.  If
you run out of money, you are broke.

rustic (russ' tik)
Simple and
country-style.

68

sabotage (sa' bo taj)
Sneaky
damage intentionally done.  A French concept.

sack
Loot, burn, and kill.

sacred (say' cred)
Holy; property
of God.

sacrifice
Ritual killing of an
animal to please the gods.

sacrilege (sak' re
lij)
Impiety; disrespect of religion; misuse of a religious space or
object.  If you commit a sacrilege, you are
sacrilegious (sak re lij' us).

safe-house
Place to hide.

sage
Wise.

sally
Attack out of a fortified
position.

sanctuary
A safe place.

satrap
A hereditary ruler of a
large region in the Persian empire, similar in rank to a duke in the
European feudal system.

savage
Brutal and mean; scarcely
human.

scandal
Something for a decent
person to be ashamed of.

scolded
Rebuked; told off in a
long-winded way.

scorned
Looked at with
contempt.

scout
Look over.

scrutiny (screw' ti ny)
Careful
examination; checking out.

seceded (see see' ded)
Left the
group.

second guess
Have doubts
about what you have decided.

sector
Zone; area of
responsibility.
Example:  The distinction is often
made between the private sector (business) and the public
sector (government).

secure
Safe; to make safe.

seething
Just about to boil.

semblance
Appearance.

serene (se reen')
No worries; easy
in manner.

series (see' rees)
A number of
similar things arranged in order; sequence.

setback
Defeat, reversal, or
check.

settle down
Relax.

severe (se veer')
Serious;
grave; harsh.  Severity (se ver' i ty) is how
severe it is.

sham
Fake.

shipwrecked
Survivors whose
ship has sunk.

show off
Display proudly.

showdown
Decisive
confrontation.
This term comes from poker,
when the last players left show their cards to determine who takes the
pot.

shrewd
Not apparently a fool.

shun
Avoid with care; refuse to have
anything to do with.

shut up
Stop talking.

side-by-side
Next to each
other in a line.

sincere (sin sere')
Meaning what
you say; honest.

singled out
Chosen from
among many others.

skirmish
Small fight.

slacken
Loosen; diminish.

slander
False statement made to
injure someone's reputation.

slight
Noun.
Insulting lack of respect.

sloth
Laziness; torpor;
inactivity.

smoldering
No flames, but
almost burning.

smug
Thinking that you're not a
fool.

snickering
Secret
laughter.

sniping (sny' ping)
Shooting from
a safe distance; being a critic.

so long as
Provided that; on
the condition that.

sober
Serious; not dizzy with any
excitement.

sole (rhymes with bowl)
One and
only.

solemn (sol' um)
Not light and
cheerful, but important and serious.  Solemnity (so
lem' ni ty) is the quality of being solemn.

solicit (so lis' it)
Ask
for.
Solicitation is the act
of asking for something.

solitude (sol' i tude)
Being
alone; loneliness.

soothe
Calm; quiet down; ease the
pain.

sophist (so' fist)
Person who
uses specious
arguments.
Sophistry is the
black art of confusing the truth.

sorcerer (sor' ser er)
Evil
magician; caster of spells.
The black art
practiced by the sorcerer is called
sorcery.

sordid (sor' did)
Showing a
disgustingly bad character; abnormally materialistic.

sovereign power (sov'
ren)
Being a king; supreme power in government, which is not subject to
any other authority.

Sovereignty (sov' ren tee) is the status of absolute power.
In the words of Lord Acton:  "Power corrupts, and absolute power
corrupts absolutely."  See the life of Alexander.

sowing
Planting seeds.

spawned
Produced in a large number, as
fish spawn eggs.

spearheaded
Led into action,
like the head of a spear leads the shaft.  The head provides the
hardness and sharpness to create an opening, and the shaft provides the mass
to assure penetration.  This is commonly used macho management
lingo.

specious (spee' shus)
Attempting
to confuse the truth; made in bad faith.
Example:
She made the specious argument that all sex is harassment
because of the historical dominance of the male.

spectator
One who watches an
event.

spite
Mean spirit; hatefulness.

splendid
Beautiful in a strong
way.

spoil  Noun.
What the
winner collects on the battlefield after a battle.

spurious (spyu' ri us)
Not
genuine; fake.

spurned
Rejected in anger.

squalid
Gross, messy and
disgusting.

squeamish
Reluctant to do it
because it's disgusting or wrong.

staggering
Moving with erratic
steps, as if heavily loaded.

stagnation
A state of dullness
and lack of progress.  Stagnant water isn't flowing,
and a stagnant economy is not growing.

stall
Cause delay on
purpose.

stamina (stam' i na)
Endurance;
the ability to work without getting tired.

stamped out
Eliminated
completely.

stampede (stam pede')
Panic of a
herd.

start out
Begin a
journey.

stay put
Don't move.

steadfast (sted' fast)
Firm and
unyielding.

steady (ste' dy)
Not changing;
firm; reliable.
"Going
steady" means having a usual companion of the opposite
sex.

stealthily (stel' thi
ly)
Without attracting attention; sneakily.

stern
Serious; grumpy.

stewardship
Taking care of
the property of others.

stimulate
Excite; arouse.

stir up
Arouse; incite.

stoned
To be killed by rocks
thrown by a crowd.

stood their
ground
Didn't back down but defended their position.

stragglers
Those who fall
behind or otherwise lose contact with the main body of a group.

straight
Consecutive; without a
break.

stratagem (stra' ta gem)
Trick;
ploy; ruse.

strategic (stra tee'
jik)
Pertaining to strategy, or the larger plans of a
war.
Tactics are the techniques of battle.

strenuous (stren' yu us)
With a
lot of effort and hard work.

strife
Angry words and
fighting.

stupefied
Made stupid; spaced
out; numbed by shock or amazement.

subjugate (sub' ju gate)
Bring
under control; tame.

submit (sub mit')
Give in;
surrender.

subordinated (sub or' di na
ted)
Made secondary in rank.
Example:  A
subordinated debenture is a debt that will be paid after
the senior debt is paid in full.

subservient
Like a servant;
serving from a position of inferiority.

subtle (sut' l)
Hard to detect;
not obvious; cunning; wily.

subvert (sub vert')
Undermine, or
weaken in a sneaky way.
Example:
Subversive people subvert an organization by
creating bad feelings like resentment and suspicion.

succession (suk sess'
shun)
The order in which power passes.  For example, in the United
States government, the presidential succession goes:
President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of
the Senate, Secretary of State, and then other cabinet officers.  A
person succeeds to an office automatically when the
previous occupant dies or retires.  The one who steps into the vacated
position is the successor.

suffer
Endure; have a bad
time.

sufficient
Enough.

summon
Command to come.

sumptuous (sum' chu
us)
Luxurious; very comfortable.

superflous (su per' flu
us)
Not needed; extra and useless.

superiority (su pee ri o' ri
ty)
Being better by comparison.  The opposite of
inferiority.

superstition (su per stish'
un)
False beliefs, arising from misunderstanding of cause and
effect.
Example:  Perhaps the most peculiar
superstition in modern times is the Cargo Cult of the
Trobriand Islands, who believed that they could bring cargo planes back to a
deserted airstrip by imitating the actions they had observed done by the
ground crew.

suppress (sup ress')
Check; keep
under control.

supreme (su preem')
Highest;
ultimate.

surety (shu' re tee)
Person who
must pay a debt if the debtor defaults, or fails to pay the creditor
according to the promissory note; guarantor.

surplus (ser' plus)
Excess; the
amount that is more than what is needed.

suspected
Doubted; thought to
be guilty.

suspended
Interrupted; put off
until later.

sycophant (sy' co fant)
Yes
man; toady; suck up; snitch and flatterer.

115

tacit (tass' it)
Unspoken, but
understood.

tact
Diplomacy, politeness,
intelligent conduct.

tactics
Techniques of battle.

tainted
Infected; rotten.

take advantage
of
Use.

take care of
Do what is
necessary in that regard.

take charge
Be the
boss.

take him along
Allow him
to accompany you; bring him along; not leave him behind.

take it easy
Go at a slow
pace; relax; goof off.

take over
Assume control;
take charge.
A takeover is a
change in control.   A hostile takeover in the
business world is when management is replaced by the voting power of
unwelcome new shareholders.

talent
6000 drachmas,
approximately a day's pay for 6000 laborers, or 20 years of wages for one.
A brick of gold, slightly bigger than a common construction brick,
and weighing approximately 51 pounds.  The amount of gold that a bearer
can carry on a long journey.

talk out of
Convince not to
do.  This is the opposite of talk into, which
means persuade to do something.

tame
Docile; not wild; safe to be
around.

task
A project or job to be
done.

tastes
Preferences.

Someone who puts ketchup on ice cream is said to have
bad taste in food.  Someone who likes Bach is said to
have good taste in music.

taunt (tawnt)
Insulting and defiant
remark or behavior, typically made with the intention of provoking a
fight.

temperament (tem' pra
ment)
General disposition of a person.

temperance
Moderation; the
quality of not getting carried away by pleasure or emotion.

tendency (ten' den see)
What you
usually do.
Example:  He has a
tendency to blame others for his troubles.

tenure (ten' yer)
Time that you
can hold an office.
Example:  Federal judges in the
United States have life tenure to insulate them from
political pressures.

terminate
End.

terms
The details of a deal.

terrain (ter ayn')
The lay of the
land.

terror
Extreme fear.

thrive
Prosper; flourish; grow and
be happy.

thwart
Put obstacles in the way
of; frustrate.

timid (tim' id)  [first syllable
rhymes with him]
Very cautious; too scared to act; fearful.

tinker
Fix, construct, or repair
in a small way.

tirade (ty' rade)
Angry
speech.

to the effect
that
Meaning to give the impression that; suggesting
that.

to the point
Getting at
the important features of a problem, instead of blabbering about things that
don't matter.

toady (toe' di)
A flattering leech;
suck-up; sycophant.

toast
Short statement before a
drink.  A custom of unknown origin.

toil (toyl)
Hard and boring
work.

tolerate
Endure patiently.
Tolerable means that you can stand it.

tombs (toomz)
Places for the
dead.

took note
Noticed.

took on
Confronted; challenged;
selected as an opponent or a task.

tormentor
Torturer; one who is
causing you pain and/or trouble.

track down
Find by patient
effort.

trappings
Clothes and other
marks of rank.

treachery (trech' er
y)
Back-stabbing; disloyalty; deceit; false friendship.

treason
Selling out your country;
disloyalty.

treaty
Contract between
sovereigns; deal between states.

tribute
Taxes; payment of
respect.

tried
Put through the judicial
process.

trivial
Not important.

troops
Soldiers.

truce
When the fighting stops for a
while, by agreement.

trustee (trus tee')
Someone who
administers something for the benefit of another, called the beneficiary.
The trustee has legal title, but beneficial
ownership is in the beneficiary, so the trustee has a
fiduciary duty to take good care and not to treat it as his own.  The
legal arrangement is called a trust.

try to
Attempt to.

In modern American English, try
to is the preferred form for expressing an attempt to do something.

Example:  He tried to make an
appointment for next Tuesday, but the dentist was not available.

tumult
Boiling with trouble.

turbulence
Turmoil; a term
used in fluid mechanics to denote when a fluid flows in highly disorganized
motion, like a river rapids.

turf
Zone of control; domain.

turmoil (tur' moyl)
Trouble and
confusion.

turn down
Refuse;
decline.

turn out to be
It's
impossible to give a brief definition of this phrase, which is commonly used
in American English.  It is best learned by studying some
examples:  That investment turned out to be a
winner.  That President turned out to be a
crook.  We thought it was a pool of water, but it turned out to
be a mirage.

turn over
Surrender control
or possession; give up.
Example:  Vince Foster's
lawyer refused to turn over some notes of an interview
before Foster's death.

tyrant (ty' rant)
Boss who rules
by fear.
Government of this style is called
tyranny (tir' a nee).   Typically, the
tyrant is fearful himself, and uses a squad of assassins to
silence or kill anyone who opposes him.  See the life of Dion, note 6.   Dionysius of Syracuse was
perhaps the most famous tyrant of the ancient world.

59

ulterior motive
Secret
reason for doing something; hidden agenda.

ultimatum (ul ti may'
tum)
Final warning before war.

unanimous (yu nan' i
mus)
Everyone feels the same way about it; all votes are for it.

unbiased (un by'
est)
Unprejudiced; open minded..
Example:  If the jury
is unbiased, the scales of justice are equally balanced at
the beginning of the trial.

undermine
Subvert; work against
in a sneaky way.
This term is from the ancient
technique of siegecraft where tunnels were dug under walls and then the
tunnel supports were burned to cause the walls to collapse.

undue (un doo')
Not justified by
the circumstances.

unfamiliar
Don't know about
it.

unison (yu' ni zon)
Cooperation of
all together.

unprecedented (un press' i den
ted)
Never happened before.

unruly (un roo' ly)
Disobedient
and troublesome.

unscrupulous
Mean; without
conscience or humanity; doesn't care how other people are hurt by his career
of greed and power.

up to
In the process of
doing.

uproar (up' roar)
Noise;
commotion.

urgent
Very important to act
immediately.

usury (yoo' ser y)
Using interest
on debts to take over property.  Usury connotes an
unusually high rate of interest, e.g. loan sharking.
15

vagabond (vag' a bond)
Wandering
bum.

vague (vayg)
Not clear.

vain (vayn)
Foolish;
unrealistic.  In vain means futile.

valor
Value in battle; courage and
skill.

vanity
Foolish notions of selfish
pride.

vehement (vee' a ment)
Angry and
emphatic.

vendetta (ven det' a)
Persistent
persecution; a feud, or stubborn grudge fight.

venture
Speculative
project.
A joint venture is a
contractual arrangement between two companies whereby they agree to share
the costs and profits of a particular project, without binding themselves to
a complete merger or partnership.

vested
interest
Investment; there's something in it for you, so you
are not objective because what happens affects you personally.

vetted
When a person or a
proposition is checked out and debated before being submitted for
consideration to a decision-maker.

vicariously
liable
You get blamed for what someone else does.

For example, the company has to pay for what its
employee did.   This doctrine of vicarious liability
is the reason that there are so many lawsuits in America, because lawyers
would not pay to create the trouble unless they had rich defendants to
extort money from.

vice
Harmful habit.

vicious (vish' us)
Intending to
hurt; mean.

vicissitudes (va sis' a
tudes)
Ups and downs; changes of Fortune.

victor
The one who wins the fight
or athletic contest.

vigor
Energy and strength.

villain (vil' un)
The bad guy;
evil person.

vituperation (vy tu' per a"
shun)
Spiteful, intemperate language; name-calling.

volume
Amount; loudness.

voluntary (vol' un ta ry)
Not
forced; done of your own free will.  When you do something
voluntarily (vol un tar' i ly) nobody is forcing you to do
it.

21

war-monger
One who is trying
to promote a war.

watchword
To identify soldiers
on your side as they approach your lines in the dark, a watchword is issued by the commander and
learned by the sentries.

well-to-do
Rich.

whim
Sudden impulse.

whimsical
Unpredictable;
changing for no apparent reason.

wicker
Woven of flexible
sticks.

widespread
Found all over.

willing
Voluntary; done according
to one's own will, and not under compulsion.

wise
Smart in a fundamental way;
having deep judgment.

wit
Intelligent humor.

withstand
Be OK after it
happens.

witness
Verb.
See, and say you saw.
Example:  We
need two people to witness this will in order to make it
valid.  Used as a noun, a witness is one who says
that he saw something.

worked up
Aroused to an
emotional fever.

wound up (wownd up')
Resulted;
turned out to be the consequence.
Example:
Alexander the Great wound up losing all of his friends when
he made himself a god.

wreath (reeth)
Circular braid of
leaves, used to crown the winners of events at the ancient Olympic games and
other games in Greece.  The intention was to show that human glory is
as temporary as these leaves.

15

zeal
Enthusiasm; willingness.

1065