Reply To: Ruling Mesopotamia

[Jess]

It was interesting to me how man rulers used statues or built a palace to show their power. Darius I built Persepolis to show the people of Persia not only that he was the King who had nice things, but that he was a King with power. This was shown by some of the design work that is left standing today such as the double-headed griffin and the lions carved into the wall fighting. Alexander the Great then showed the downfall of the Persian King by destroying the palace. The Stele of Hammurabi has the law code, all 282 laws, engraved into. This is a symbol to his power because it has Shamash, the son god and god of justice, sitting atop of the laws. When we look at modern politics and compare them to these examples, we see that there is a difference but also a similarity. When Sadam was dictator over Iraq, he erected a giant statue to show that he was the boss, the big fish so to speak. Once the people were liberated, they destroyed the statue to ruble. Just like Alexander the Great did as mentioned above.