Throughout history, one type of individual has instinctively grasped art’s power to persuade and manipulate—and indeed, images have become at least as deadly as swords or guns in the hands of political and military leaders. This program revolves around a basic question: when did art mutate from a vehicle of the imagination into a tool of the ruler? Beginning in Britain, the program looks at the Amesbury Archer, a skeleton buried near Stonehenge roughly 4,500 years ago—and an ancient example of adornment for political ends. Propaganda campaigns that supported King Darius of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman emperor Augustus further illustrate the mercenary uses of pictures, sculpture, and architecture. A BBC/KCET Co-production. A part of the series How Art Made the World. (50 minutes)