Rulers, and their propaganda, Bronze head of a Ruler, Augustus of Prima Porta, The Daric, and Icons in Christianity, all a way to popularize a a ruler, a religion, or an ideal. But these were also a way to shame them, discredit a religion, and terminate an ideal set by the higher official and priests, through something called iconoclasm.
Iconoclasm as defined by the New World Encyclopedia, is “the deliberate destruction of religious icons or monuments, usually for religious or political motives.” For example, the destruction and removal of inlay eyes in the Head of a Ruler who was supposed to be Sargon of Akkad, whose empire was taken by the Babylonians, who destroyed and scraped the face not for the sake of destroying it but to humiliate it and leave it there in the debris and ruins of what used to be the great empire of Sumer and Mesopotamia united under the great ruler Sargon of Akkad.
Examples of Propaganda:
Augustus of Prima Porta, here he is showing his power by the different components on his warrior chest ( created to make him seem as a powerful and strong willed fighting ruler).
Another example of Iconoclasm, shown in holy illuminated manuscripts, the Gospels written by the four evangelists is when there is a depiction of Christ being crucified accompanied by the soldiers who gave him vinegar to quench Christ’s thirst, under it there is an image of John the VII damaging an Icon of Christ by scratching the face off.
