It's telling of our delusions that we pick (often loner) apex predators for our iconography, when we really are a mid-food chain social animal.
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If we were honest about our natural pre-cultural inclinations, we'd wear banners of cattle, horses and pheasanidae, not lions, wolves and eagles.
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Temperamentally, I am much closer to a rooster or a stallion than a lion or a tiger.
And the stallion is already pushing it a bit.
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That we've fashioned guns to kill apex predators from a distance doesn't change the pants-shitting experience of facing one of these things unarmed.
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This may sound all sound trivial - totally get it if you feel that way - but I think a lot of our worst behaviour grows out of this self-delusion.
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The Romans carried eagles on their standards. The Soviets had their bear. The Third Reich and the Americans both adopted the eagle. Etc. etc.
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When you envision yourself as a predator, killing prey becomes a natural extension of your very existence.
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The eagle was used as a symbol to claim the legacy of the roman empire and civilization. In short The west. Its more of a cultural claim than territorial.
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Good point, but doesn't alter the issue much when you look at the symbolic usage - Third Reich imperial ambitions, US "America, FUCK YEAH!" sentiment etc.
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The Empire as an idea propably came from the East, Persian, Alexander, Rome but it took hold as originally the west was City States/Feuds. But ever since the son of Zeus built the first western empire,The eagle became the symbol of *by divine right* western emperors.
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Mmh, IIRC the first real Western attempt at empire building was the Delian League - hard to argue that wasn't a direct response to the power of the Persian Empire.