Once, when all preparations had been made for battle, his generals asked him whether there was anything else in addition to what they had done. ‘ Nothing,’ said he, ‘except to shave the Macedonians' beards.’ And as Parmenio expressed his surprise, Alexander said, ‘Don't you know that in battles there is nothing handier to grasp than a beard?’ 1 [p. 59]
1 Cf. Plutarch's Life of Theseus, chap. iii. (3 A); Athenaeus, 565 A.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 3.
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