Monumental Legacies (Humanities 2013)

Monumental Legacies
History has consciously inclined today’s leaders to respectfully reckon with their decisions knowing their actions will become the foundation to build their legacies such as Lincoln Memorial and Mount Rushmore. Furthermore, scrolls of history have provided paths wherein one can travel back in time to examine, discuss, and analyze events and decisions that have shaped legacies. Leaders were compelled by a need to not only prove they existed, but also of their desire and demand to be remembered. Monuments, testaments, and the persisted interest of historians and scholars have forever shaped the legacies of the Pharaohs, Greek and Roman Emperors.
The plans of elaborate tomb monuments were legacies created to be admired as the sun and planets that remain in our solar system throughout generations. The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Temple of Ramses II for example, structures of such wonder continue to astound vast descendants worldwide. It is not strange for people to travel around the globe to experience the magnitude of such legacy as these colossal monuments continue to remind the world of past events. The Pharaohs’ hope of a god-like afterlife was an ingrained hereditary belief that bears witness to the records of the tangible monumental artifacts.
But, contrary to the Pharaohs, leaders like Julius Caesar, Alexander, Cicero, and Augusta were fully persuaded by the need to be ascribed as: leaders, world conquerors, warriors, orators, and philosophers with the adjective great to precede each term. These leaders were driven by a passionate need to take ownership in architectural designs, myths, legends, stories, songs, and poems such as Homer’s epic, Aenied, and Ennius. Julius and Augusta created the twelve month calendar; later, the months Quintilis and Sextilis were changed to July and August in their honor. These actions branded and preserved a tribute in the forefront of citizens’ minds and those who would learn of their leadership. Yet, unlike any of his predecessors, Constantine’s leadership was different. For example, wherein Herod and Nero’s legacies had been stained and tainted with the blood of innocent children and Christians, it was under Constantine’s command to cease the religious persecution and embrace Christianity, for he made it the official religion for the Roman Empire.
Moreover, these leaders were determined legacy builders. Historians, scholars, and archaeologists have obliged their eternal hope to be remembered through careful painstaking search. They have sought, excavated, and analyzed tangible artifacts: scrolls, tablets of clay, detail art, depiction on cave walls, epics, records, sculptures, paintings, and have pieced them together like a lifelike puzzle that continues to resurrect their legacies in the minds of readers.
History has detailed that each leader was different and each period in history was built upon the leaders’ personal belief in culture, religion, and government. Wherein the Pharaohs were obsessed with the preparation for the afterlife, these Emperors were obsessed with conquering the world in their current lives. The acts in how they lived seemed not only to determine their death, but also the legacies they built. To conclude, the grandeur monuments and epics have created many perceptions that will never be erased from history, and will forever be viewed as monumental legacies of their leadership.  Written by aka Reveal Says...

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