Commodus never killed his gladiatorial adversaries, instead accepting their surrenders. Commodus (Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus) 161–192. Commodian Fortunate Senate. He also reduced the silver purity from 79 percent to 76 percent – the silver weight dropping from 2.57 grams to 2.34 grams. In 195, the emperor Septimius Severus, trying to gain favour with the family of Marcus Aurelius, rehabilitated Commodus' memory and had the Senate deify him. He renamed Rome “Commodiana” and called the Roman people “Commodiani.” And he changed the names of every month into variations on his own name. This would not be the end of Commodus’ disgrace. Commodus was born as a twin to his brother who died when he was just 4 years of age. During these three short months Pompeianus, who had been the patron of Pertinax years before, took an active part in the counsels of state, and Not only was Faustina Marcus’ wife, but she was also his cousin, as well as the youngest daughter of Antoninus; the webs of the imperial dynasty were frequently complex. "Exsuperatorius" (the supreme) was a title given to Jupiter, and "Amazonius" identified him again with Hercules. In the spring of 175, one of the emperor’s most trusted generals, Avidius Cassius, rebelled. Although the historian Cassius Dio records that Marcus remained disappointed in his attempts to educate his son, his attempts to ensure the smooth succession were at least successful. Her motive is alleged to have been envy of the Empress Crispina. Ulpius Marcellus was replaced as governor of Britain by Pertinax; brought to Rome and tried for treason, Marcellus narrowly escaped death. He reduced the weight of the denarius from 96 per Roman poundto 105 per Roman pound (3.85 grams to 3.35 grams). Commodus had an elder twin brother, Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus, who died in 165. At 29, he took over more of the reins of power, though he continued to rule through a cabal consisting of Marcia, his new chamberlain Eclectus, and the new praetorian prefect Quintus Aemilius Laetus. The emperor Marcus Aurelius died in March AD 180, in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna) as he was overseeing the Romans’ ongoing campaigns on the Danubian frontier. In November 192, Commodus held Plebeian Games, in which he shot hundreds of animals with arrows and javelins every morning, and fought as a gladiator every afternoon, winning all the fights. Although the empire passed relatively smoothly into the care of the elder statesman Pertinax, as emperor he lost the support of the Praetorians and was murdered within months of his accession. They bungled the job and were seized by the emperor's bodyguard. Silver Denarius featuring obverse portrait of Marcus Aurelius and reverse portrait of young Commodus, 175 AD, via Museu de Prehistòria de València. Harvard University Press, 1961, 73.10.3, Dio Cassius 73.20.3, Loeb edition translated E. Cary, Gibbon p.. 106 "disgorged at once a hundred lions; a hundred darts". He then returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph for the conclusion of the wars on 22 October 180. Commodus’ bodyguards seized the foolish assassin, and the plot was foiled. Statues of Commodus were demolished. The Roman people? It seems likely that he was brought up in an atmosphere of Stoic asceticism, which he rejected entirely upon his accession to sole rule. When Commodus was only 19 years of age, Marcus Aurelius (just shy of his 59th birthday) died in AD 180 and the control of the empire was left to the a young man with a great deal to prove. Commodus became co-ruler with his father in 177, when he was only 15 years old. [33] Privately, it was also his custom to kill his opponents during practice matches. Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161. Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree. He thought of himself as the reincarnation of Hercules, frequently emulating the legendary hero's feats by appearing in the arena to fight a variety of wild animals. The senatorial decree ordering it, as recorded by Dio, is particularly shocking: “Cast the gladiator into the charnel-house. Away from Rome, the disturbances in the northern provinces of Britain and Gaul and prompted military desertion. The next emperor, Didius Julianus, lasted 66 days. On 1 January 177, Commodus became consul for the first time, which made him, aged 15, the youngest consul in Roman history up to that time. Quadratus and Quintianus were executed. Pertinax (/ ˈ p ɜːr t ɪ n æ k s /; Publius Helvius Pertinax; 1 August 126 – 28 March 193) was a Roman soldier and politician who ruled as Roman emperor for the first three months of 193. At the urging of his mistress Marcia, Commodus had Cleander beheaded and his son killed. In October of that year, Commodus was bestowed with the title Germanicus alongside his father. (These ailments returned, the historian drily adds, after the death of Pertinax.) One of the two praetorian prefects, Publius Tarrutenius Paternus, had actually been involved in the conspiracy but his involvement was not discovered until later on, and in the aftermath, he and his colleague, Sextus Tigidius Perennis, were able to arrange for the murder of Saoterus, the hated chamberlain. Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163. Lucilla was over ten years his senior and held the rank of Augusta as the widow of her first husband, Lucius Verus. Commodus was the first (and until 337, the only) emperor "born in the purple," meaning during his father's reign. Medusa's head had snakes instead of hair and eyes that turned those looking at... Socrates, Aristotle and Plato are by far the most famous Greek philosophers commonly associated with the Greek classical period. He was made the youngest consul in Roman history in 177 and elevated to co-augustus with his father, having been given the title imperator in 176. He was assassinated by strangulation in his bath on December 31st in the year 192. Gibbon, Edward. He is passionate about sharing his interest in the past with as many people as possible. Cleander fled to Commodus, who was at Laurentum in the house of the Quinctilii, for protection, but the mob followed him calling for his head. He was only a mere 19 years old when he took the throne. Most infamous amongst these was the freedman Cleander, who rose to command the Praetorians, the imperial bodyguard. Now, whether on our screens in the guise of a bloodthirsty gladiator, or in museums in the hubristic form of Hercules, Commodus remains seemingly fixed as an embodiment of imperial vices. Ever Wondered Who Turned Medusa Into a Gorgon and How? The Senate was renamed the Commodian Fortunate Senate, and … After Commodus was murdered, the Senate met before daybreak, and declared sixty-six year old Pertinax, who was the son of a former slave, emperor. Contemporary Roman writer Cassius Dio describes the young heir as “rather simple-minded,” but he ruled agreeably with his father and joined Marcus Aurelius in the Marcomannic Wars against the Germanic tribes along the Danube, which the emperor had been waging for several year… [22][23], His original name was Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus. Since Nerva, the Antonines had presided over unprecedented stability and prosperity. Kieren is a UK based contributing writer currently studying for a PhD in Classics and Ancient History, investigating the representation and authority of the Severan emperors. He also had four surviving sisters, all of them with husbands who were potential rivals. Papirius Dionysius was executed, too. [29] According to Herodian, spectators of Commodus thought it unbecoming of an emperor to take up arms in the amphitheater for sport when he could be campaigning against barbarians among other opponents of Rome. Cast the gladiator into the charnel-house. He ruled as junior co-e… After a major fire in Rome in 190AD, Commodus offered to finance a rebuilding of the city — if it was renamed after him. At the end of June, a mob demonstrated against Cleander during a horse race in the Circus Maximus: he sent the Praetorian Guard to put down the disturbances, but Pertinax, who was now City Prefect of Rome, dispatched the Vigiles Urbani to oppose them. [19], Cassius Dio, a first-hand witness, describes him as "not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guileless as any man that ever lived. This kind of raucous behavior was something he had allegedly had precedent for, so no-one was alerted that the emperor may be in danger…, Relief from an honorary monument to Marcus Aurelius, showing the emperor in triumphal procession with a space to the left possibly depicting the erasure of Commodus following the damnatio memoriae enacted against him, 176-80, via Musei Capitolini, Rome. [7], He was looked after by his father's physician, Galen,[8][9] who treated many of Commodus' common illnesses. Despite his notoriety, and considering the importance of his reign, Commodus' years in power are not well chronicled. His son, for all his other faults, had no desire for conflict. Lucius Aurelius Commodus and his twin brother Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus were born on the 31st of August in the Roman year 914, nowadays better known as 161 AD. [27] Cassius Dio and the writers of the Augustan History say that Commodus was a skilled archer, who could shoot the heads off ostriches in full gallop, and kill a panther as it attacked a victim in the arena. They then returned to Rome in the autumn of 176. [citation needed] On 27 November 176, Marcus Aurelius granted Commodus the rank of Imperator and, in the middle of 177, the title Augustus, giving his son the same status as his own and formally sharing power. With Commodus died the Antonine dynasty, as minimal provisions had been made for the succession. Grant, Michael. His role as the leader of the army, and as a triumphal Roman commander, was already being established. His role as the leader of the army, and as a triumphal Roman commander, was already being established. Having no living brothers, as his twin died at the age of four, he was brought up to be Emperor. The sources make clear that, as a man, Commodus was a fine physical specimen with an enjoyment of physical pursuits, including horse and chariot racing, as well as sparring. Early in 188, Cleander disposed of the current praetorian prefect, Atilius Aebutianus, and took over supreme command of the Praetorian Guard at the new rank of a pugione ("dagger-bearer"), with two praetorian prefects subordinate to him. Commodus' death marked the end of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Commodus (A.D. 180-192) Dennis Quinn. Perhaps it’s not surprising … However, he would eventually fall foul of popular discontent. [37] Dio notes that the targeted senators actually found this more ridiculous than frightening, and chewed on laurel leaves to conceal their laughter. He accompanied his father, Marcus, during the Marcomannic Wars in 172 and on a tour of the Eastern provinces in 176. Commodus, in full Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus, original name (until 180 ce) Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, (born August 31, 161 ce, Lanuvium, Latium [now Lanuvio, Italy]—died December 31, 192), Roman emperor from 177 to 192 (sole emperor after 180) Commodus was Roman emperor from 180 to 192 CE.With the death of Roman Emperor Marcus … On 20 January 175, Commodus entered the College of Pontiffs, the starting point of a career in public life. Disdaining the more philosophic inclinations of his father, Commodus was extremely proud of his physical prowess. The emperor’s relationship with the senate was irreparably poisoned by this close shave. Commodus was succeeded by Pertinax, whose reign was short-lived; he would become the first claimant to be usurped during the Year of the Five Emperors. She and her cohorts got the chop but this close brush with death convinced Commodus he was now untouchable. He also reduced the silver purity from 79 percent to 76 percent – the silver weight dropping from 2.57 grams to 2.34 grams. Just in case anyone living in the city had not grasped his sense of importance, he also had the Colossal statue adjacent to the Colosseum (hence the name) which had been originally erected by Nero, remodeled to look like himself; wielding a club and standing over a bronze lion, it again presented the emperor as Hercules. Caught between a gladiator and a god, the emperor Commodus was vilified as one of the very worst Roman emperors. During 191, the city of Rome was extensively damaged by a fire that raged for several days, during which many public buildings including the Temple of Pax, the Temple of Vesta, and parts of the imperial palace were destroyed. Commodus, however, crossed into the ridiculous. ), and Earnest Cary. The principal surviving literary sources are Herodian, Dio Cassius (a contemporary and sometimes first-hand observer, Senator during Commodus' reign, but his reports for this period survive only as fragments and abbreviations), and the Historia Augusta (untrustworthy for its character as a work of literature rather than history, with elements of fiction embedded within its biographies; in the case of Commodus, it may well be embroidering upon what the author found in reasonably good contemporary sources). Cassius Dio, the most reliable historian for the reign of Commodus, even attests that the emperor went so far as to be named a “god!” A fire that devastated the city in 191 was for Commodus, like Nero a century beforehand, an opportunity. The retaliatory purges in Rome allowed new men to occupy the positions of influence closest to Commodus. Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus, the son of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his wife-cousin Faustina, was born in Lanuvium in 161 AD. However, the emperor vomited up the wine, reputedly a side-effect of drinking too much in the hot climate of the bath he was taking. The future emperor was born not in Rome, but in Lanuvium, much like Antoninus Pius, another exalted imperial predecessor against whom history would judge him. Marcus is reported to have wept at the news of his friend’s death. In 187, one of the leaders of the deserters, Maternus, came from Gaul intending to assassinate Commodus at the Festival of the Great Goddess in March, but he was betrayed and executed. His mother Faustina was actually the youngest daughter of Antoninus, and though later histories slandered her as an adultress in truth she and Marcus Aurelius … This is what the Senate sends you!” whilst brandishing a dagger). [10] Among his teachers, Onesicrates, Antistius Capella, Titus Aius Sanctus, and Pitholaus are mentioned.[10][11]. 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