The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

was—only in a different way” (William Makepeace
Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1847).
potter’s fi eld A burial ground for paupers and
unclaimed bodies. <strong>The</strong> original Potter’s Field was,
according to Matthew 27:7, a patch of ground
outside Jerusalem that was purchased by the
priests of the Temple as a burial place for the
poor. <strong>The</strong> area was bought with the thirty pieces
of silver that a remorseful Judas Iscariot had
received as payment for betraying Christ and had
returned to the Temple shortly before taking his
own life. <strong>The</strong> cemetery’s name referred to the
land’s former use as a source of clay for local potters.
Subsequently the name was borrowed for
pauper burial grounds at many locations throughout
the Christian world. Another version claims
that Judas himself bought the fi eld with the thirty
pieces of silver and died there (see aceldama).
“She is whimsical, and may really like to have the
truth. It’s quite clear her heart is as insensible to
eloquence and poetry, as a Potter’s Field wall, and
it might answer to try her with a little truth”
( James Fenimore Cooper, Autobiography of a Pocket-
Handkerchief, 1843).
pound of fl esh See shylock.
pour encourager les autres (por onkoorahzhay layz
otrb) To make an example of someone as a warning
or incentive to others. <strong>The</strong> reference is to the
British admiral John Byng, who was executed by
fi ring squad in 1757 after his admittedly fairly
modest naval force failed to press home an attack
on the French- held island of Minorca during
the Seven Years’ War (1750–57). <strong>The</strong> incident
prompted the French writer Voltaire to observe of
En gland in Candide (1759): “Dans ce pays- ci il est bon
de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les
praetorian guard
autres.” (“In this country, it is good to kill an admiral
from time to time to encourage the others.”)
“Twelve of their heads were impaled on the
Charles Bridge pour encourager les autres and
remained there for more than a de cade” (Walter
Perrie, Roads that Move, 1991).
pour out the vials of wrath See vials of wrath.
powers that be, the <strong>The</strong> government or those in
authority; the establishment. <strong>The</strong> phrase comes
from Romans 13:1: “Let every soul be subject
unto the higher powers. For there is no power but
of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
<strong>The</strong> powers that be have ordered that there should be no
review of department policy.
praetorian guard (preetoreebn) <strong>The</strong> protectors
or closest confederates of an individual or government
in power. In ancient Rome the Praetorian
Guard, instituted during the reign of Augustus,
around 27 b.c., served as the bodyguards of the
emperor. <strong>The</strong> very fi rst such guards were a small
body of elite soldiers chosen to protect a commanding
offi cer on campaign and took their name
from that of a commanding offi cer’s tent, his praetorium.
Members of the imperial Praetorian Guard,
which numbered some 9,000 men under Augustus,
wielded considerable power in their own right
and on many occasions played a prominent role in
installing or deposing the emperor. It is thought
that at least nine emperors were murdered by the
Praetorian Guard between the years a.d. 41 and
282. <strong>The</strong> Praetorian Guard was fi nally disbanded
in 312, having lost its role to the army generals,
upon whom emperors had come to rely directly
for support. <strong>The</strong> term, sometimes rendered in the
form palace guard, is still used today to refer to
the cohorts of aides and confi dants who attach
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