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#6274
Dean Riley
Participant

In order to hold on to your rule in Mesopotamia, you had to legitimize your rule and how one went about that is by elevating themselves to something about just being “mortal”. If a ruler could make his subjects believe that he was almost god-like, then the ruler would be much less likely to be confronted. The rulers would have art depicting them as great fighters such as the victory party in “Assurbanipal and His Queen in the Garden” or “Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions”. Even if the ruler wasn’t a great fighter, the perception of those he ruled over was more important. Modern political forces such as Saddam Hussein have used recreations of Mesopotamian culture in their own rule. Hussein partially part a smaller version of the Ishtar Gate at a museum’s entrance in Iraq.