Roman Empire Symbolism Essay

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In history empires have created and relied upon symbols as a tool to represent and maintain their imperial power. “Far more powerful than religion, far more powerful than money, or even land or violence, are symbols. Symbols are stories. Symbols are pictures, or items, or ideas that represent something else” (Habel 158). Knowing how important symbolism can be in this paper I want to answer these questions; In what ways did empires used symbolism as a tool to manipulate, enhance and show their own power and control throughout history? What purpose did the creation of these symbols serve for empire? Where they effective? Each symbol ever used by empire was created with a specific purpose and was used as a tool to ultimately benefit the empire. …show more content…
Ancient Rome was one of the most powerful empires in history, excelling above others in warfare, business, structural design, and many other subjects. Here you will find statues of the Emperor, Roman gods, and several other high ranking officials on almost every street, in every temple, and place you visit. Coined by Cassiodorus in the sixth century the vast numbers of these statues became known as Rome’s “second population” (Edwards 44). These honorific statues commissioned by commanding figures were a form of artwork but also pieces of ancient propaganda. These statues served as dissemination of the roman values and respect for Roman …show more content…
One of the four celestial animals in the Chinese culture, the dragon (figure 3) is a symbol that has been around for hundreds of years in Chinese mythology. According to legends a yellow dragon once appeared from the River Luo and presented himself to Emperor Fu Xi. According to myths it is also said that the emperor had the ability to transform into a dragon and ascend to heaven and was eventually carried to heaven on the back of the dragon when he died. This legend and others like it is just one way the dragon was and still is a symbol of imperial

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