Lost Project

This article was written by me  some time back ,  it was meant for  a college  assignment , but was never submitted because none of the other students did it  except me , so the professor decided to scrap the project and conduct an exam instead , so much for the carelessness of my classmates that they had to write an exam . something which could have been easily  avoided by just submitting the assignment ,  I had to put in double time and effort because , I had already painstakingly did the project , preparing for the exam was like very exhaustive , because all my energy went away with the project . Somehow I wrote the exam, and surprisingly scored well, this if not anything gave a good impression on the professor, that I am a responsible student.

A few days back , I was going through my old books when I came across this assignment , I re read it and I think  the project was quite well written , if professor had not scrapped the project I would have easily got an A with a full  impact on my final Report card .  Un fortunately it was just not meant to be that way so I felt that a good writing should be shared, and open for all to analyze and absorb the information.

The assignment was on symbols and visualization, how it has started in the ancient times and how it’s functioning now, in short, a kind of branding done of emperors and kingdoms through pictures and labels from an age unknown to resent coming of consumerism and how they lure the public into their products through videos , sounds , labels and banners .

                               

                                              Here we go

 Visualizations were first used  by the Persian emperor Darius , he unscripted his sculptures and statues throughout the Persian empire , so that the subjects would have a better understanding of him , He was shown as savior of the world , the undefeated and Gods shadow on earth . In his palace, now in Iran, he is shown with a bowl in hand, which was considered sacred in ancient Persia, a symbol of humanity and forgiveness. People from every corner of the empire came to offer   respects and gave their kind ruler gifts   , which were   graciously accepted, and emperor in return gave them a royal token which could be used for any Government or official purpose .The token had Darrius encrypted on it which made him the official face of the administration, people who used those tokens saw him time to time   as their ruler. This smart technique of showing himself as the sole person in the kingdom to be called as king was, very new, it was like making people know something or telling them about something even without them realizing it, So in a way we can say that the Persians were the first ones to use visual aspects like sculpting, and encryptions for branding and marking. This continued for a long time till the Greeks came, and saw this amazing idea and quickly adapted it for themselves.

Darius the great 

Darius the great  addressing his people

Alexander the great as we all know a lot about him, because his life and time were recorded by the Greek historians, and obviously they wrote all nice about him. When he conquered Persia, he was amazed by some ideas which the Persians were using which   never ever existed in Greece. Of course he took those ideas and put Greek names on it, and destroyed the whole Persia, this was all recorded by the Greek historians, we never know the Persian story because it was burned to ground, and those who remained were stripped of their positions and sent to far corners of the empire. We say Alexander the great because the Greeks said it, the Persian point of view was very different, they would say Alexander the damned or Alexander the destroyer etc.  , as he invaded their beautiful cities plundered and burnt them down to ashes, cities like Persepolis and bectra were wealthiest and magnificent of the ancient times, all at Alexander the greats disposal. not only this the Greeks felt themselves to racially sophisticated and advanced then any civilization , so they showed their civility by burning down their conquered  kingdoms one by one , the mindset of east and the west started from here .

City of peropolis , which was plundered by Alexander , it was one of greatest cities of ancient times 

city of Bactria  

Persia , the financial capital of the east .

So now mighty Alexander conquered the biggest empire  in the world , but  how can he administer it , he is Greek a foreigner who has occupied a land which he is not familiar with , the people are seeing him with strange and curious eyes  when he walks the streets of Persia , they are still devoted to their old king Darius , who is killed , by unknown force . The blond hair, blue eyed Greeks are quite different from brown skinned dark haired Persians, these two civilizations have everything different from clothing to society to language to customs traditions, religion and even food.

the Persian empire 

Alexander knew this and wanted to fill  the gap ,  he would bring some administrative changes ,  a scheme were Persians who married Greeks would be given good position in the government and children  who are born to them would be sent to proper Greek schools for education and military training , they would be treated equally .He also re installed the expelled Persian ministers of the time of Darius , to their old positions , and ordered them to do what they used to do before the conquest , These ministers were skilled and knew Persia like no other , and had good experience in handling big empires ,thanking the kind ruler they started their work as they use to . The traders and travelers were given safe passages, markets were established were Greek and Persian merchants, all the skilled workers were brought back and from haywire and placed at proper factories. In short life in Persia started to get back on its legs and slowly recovered from the disaster it went through because of its current ruler. By now even Alexander and his few generals  started to look like a Persian , they wore a robe , applied Kohl in their blue , green ,eyes ,  and tried hard to curl  their straight blond hairs in a Persian way .

Alexander in a persian attire

Alexander a mighty conquerer  , but a gay , thats the reason he could control a large army  of men 

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With the help of local ministers and workers and few of his loyal generals Alexander had got a strong foothold in Persia , winning a battle was  hard   , but winning peoples heart  is much harder , Alexander had an impression of furious and brutal king in whole of Persia , people considered him to be a plunderer and destroyer , the simple fire worshiping people were traumatized when they saw Greek hordes destroying everything coming its way , this  never happened on the land of Persia for over many centuries , Persians were comforting and faithful that their beloved emperor would never let a scratch come on his people . Alexander wanted the same kind of faith and trust on him by the Persian people, he did not like that even after so many years of his rule people still preferred Darius.

Alexander played with many different ideas, but was not satisfied with the results. One day he was wondering around the ruins of  the Palace of  Darius 2 , he recalled that he burned it down a few years ago , but still the palace had a few walls , pillars and entrances but turned black because of fire , suddenly his eyes fell on the statue of Cyrus the great , the first Persian king who established achemanid dynasty , Alexander immediately climbed the horse and went to his mansion   to share  with the generals a brilliant idea he  got .

palace of Darius the great  , which Alexander burnt to ground

In next few months thousands of coins were minted  with Alexander’s face upon it , this new currency was introduced in all the trading places across the empire , the coin depicted Alexander as a Persian king , the currency started going in to the common hands , and the daily usage of it in every class of the society  made him a recognizable face , The Persians slowly started believing him as their ruler , the best part of this plan was that , the currency was common throughout the empire which made the whole region into one economy and by this trading grew and prosperity increased , the empire was peacefully progressing for the first time in the hands of Alexander .

Alexander finally a Persian , accepted by Persians

Alexander a foreigner who attacked on Persia, which was very different from the place he belonged, stuck to his thinking and finally made Persians to accept him as a ruler. He might have many reasons for his success but the main thought which changed the whole perception was the currency, which depicted him as a Persian, the branding and visualization  self-helped him establish as a ruler in a foreign land.

Alexanders  empire at its peak 

                                                                  MASS FOOLING

Another emperor who used visualizations to his purpose was, the founder of the Roman Empire, the one and only emperor Augustus. He was an able administer , and good politician who could gather a waste territory into one single unit , he conquered and established an effective empire and fully functioning bureaucracy  , military , administration and trade .In short he with the support of few could  make SOMETHING out of limited resources , and that’s the reason why he is called Augustus the great .

Augustus the great

Augustus the great was considered great because he achieved an impossible feat. but this could not be possible without bloodshed and violence ,  there were many who opposed him  , who did not like his way of  functioning the govt , which was a kind of dictator ship  and complete surrender , he also had many enemies at the beginning of his campaign . He may be the person who united warring territories by conquering them , and established a system , but he wanted complete surrender and  could not stand any oppression from anyone from anywhere  , so how did he gained an absolute power , without compromising on anything .

Augustus  military campaigns 

Augustus genocide on the rebels

Augustus rule , the first roman empire .

He simply killed and massegerd who ever came to oppress him , the prisoner cells were full of such rebels who were tortured to death without any trials , All of this mass murders and genocide were kept secret from the public and Augustus made sure that he had a clean image in front of his people , so what DO YOU THINK HE DID , he built up life size statues all over his empire depicting him as the most kindest and benevolent  rulers , the statue showing an innocent smiling  face with simple clothing and a helping hand raising towards the public , in reality Augustus was quite opposite .but in ancient times very few people could see their ruler in person , so everyone  in the empire came to believe the statue was the exact copy of their ruler ,  and the great emperor was satisfied  that was  working   on his people  .

Augustus glorious statues , which changed   peoples  perspective about him  

His impression as a kind ruler was fully realized when, once he was going through the Tiber river when a group of happy and enthusiastic fisher men surrounded his Royal boat and thanked him for being their ruler and promised that they would do anything for him, much to Augustus surprise he responded in confused but delight full manner and exchanged pleasantries with the fisher men. The same night the emperor commissioned a few more statues to the near and far corner of his empire   , full of excitement that, every single soul should know who their master is.

the innocent smiling face of  the emperor 

In short we can know here that even at the times when there was no press, media, radio or Internet, A simple statue could show a ruthless and a harsh ruler into an angel of mercy .After Augustus this idea was used by all the roman emperors and we still see them around Rome but most common statue is of Augustus. Using of statues, banners, paintings and monograms were fully functioning in ancient and medieval times  for different purposes .

press

media 

internet

radio

Today  have different sources for publicity. We can get information on almost anything at any time, there are tools through which you can design and image in many aspects, you can stay connected with everyone around the world, there are immense possibilities you can think and imagine in today’s times.

And todays leaders are using all this to its full capacity, to make their people believe that they are the one who can be their leader, and with all this tools and application for disposal, the people are still getting fooled and trapped by fake promises, as it’s the reality, no matter how much the world changes, the mindset of the people remain the same.