reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha
Thanks for the input. I do think the theory requires that he was, in fact, a real man. That he was paraded around in a sack for public performance,
down public thoroughfares, with a massive security presence abusing the crowd and telling everyone to move along. That he was nobody, just some poor
degenerate, or minor thief.
Effigy is very fitting...but I think there WAS a man behind that mask, and he did serve the imprisonment described, or else there wouldn't be as
consistent information about him. I simply think he existed, but he wasn't anybody but a prop for political maneuvering.
It's not hard to vanish people in our political age (Bin Laden's awkward burial at sea). The idea that people were aware of this guy back then
sorta suggests a heavy handed charade to me.