this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Rough Roman Memes
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Explanation: The top figure is a depiction of the Roman Emperor Aurelian, who put a great deal of effort into encouraging sun worship in the Roman Empire. There is some controversy over whether Aurelian's sun worship was derived from Syria and had only Roman influences, or was derived from native Roman traditions and had Syrian influences. He is generally highly regarded as a general and a driven man, both contemporarily and by modern historians.
The bottom figure is a bust of Akhenaten, I believe, who tried to implement sun worship in Egypt and failed.
Akhetanen, a.k.a. Echnaton implemented exclusive worship of the sun god Aton, the ancient cults were basically banned. The capital of Egypt was moved to Amarna, which was a newly built city somewhere in the desert. The cult required huge amounts of food (fruits, meat and other) to be delivered to the sun god by putting them on altars and exposing them to the sun and heat. Which didn't positively contribute to the popularity of the cult among the people, as of course the best food was to be sacrificed. After Enchatons death, probably by assassination, the Aton cult ceased, Amarna was abandoned and the old gods where worshipped again. To show this, his son, pharao Tutankhaton changed his name to Tutankhamun (different spellings exist for both names).
Well technically he did succeed.... Briefly
Is it really to be called a success if you permanently need to enforce it?