spoils

The republican ethos was to loot defeated enemies and share your good fortune by allowing your fellow citizens into your home to view the spoils.

But it did feel like a callback to an incandescent era — a young band enjoying its spoils at L.A.’s most infamous party palace.

He threw himself into the spoils of band life, partying and drinking to excess in an attempt to prove that nothing had really changed.

Overriding all of it is what the president has said many times: “To the victors belong the spoils.”

Both persuaded themselves and a sizable portion of their admirers that their greed was the rightful spoils of their genius.