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So effective was his discovery that throughout his rule he continued to refine it. Hundreds of statues were made of his heroic physical presence. Alexander may have had the perfect image, but it was useless unless he could get it circulated to the people who mattered most - his new subjects.
Today we take it for granted just how easy it is to distribute an image. At the press of a button, you can send a picture to vast numbers of people, almost anywhere in the world. But for Alexander, of course, things weren't so simple. He needed to find a way of giving his subjects a daily reminder of who was in charge. His solution was quite literally, to put his face in the palm of their hands. This is what he came up with, a face on a coin. He established 30 mints producing thousands of these throughout his empire, and on each one, it had a head closely resembling his own.
Alexander had found a powerful way to spread his image throughout the empire. For generations, Alexander's successors would produce coins with his face on them. Any association with Alexander would also give them authority. It was a brilliant idea and one which leaders ever since have used as a daily reminder to us all of who's in charge.
And of course, the power of the human face continues to shape our political landscape today. By Alexander's time, leaders in the ancient world understood just how susceptible a human mind was to the persuasive power of art, and they used images to promote themselves and their message.
But there's a more ruthless type of leader in the modern world who aims to wield the power of images in another way. It's something more ambitious than just self-promotion, something far darker, much more sinister.
circulate: (vt.) To cause to move about or be distributed 使分送，使散布
mint: (n.) A place where the coins of a country are manufactured by authority of the government. 铸币厂
wield: (v.) To exercise (authority or influence, for example) effectively. 有效地行使、运用(如权力或影响)
sinister: (a.) Suggesting or threatening evil 恶意的
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