A word of caution on this:<p>Translators can misrepresent authors&#x27; views (for personal gain, from lack of cultural exposure, due to modern revisionism, etc).  Wherever a term has pivotal meaning, I highly recommend consulting multiple dictionaries yourself and exploring etymological foundations, occasionally with related texts.  Doing so has allowed me to understand many great works completely differently than how many modern students report on them.<p>Epilogue:<p>I highly doubt a right hand man to Ashoka&#x27;s grandfather has many meaningful, direct parallels with Machiavelli.