He also reduced the silver purity from 79 percent to 76 percent – the silver weight dropping from 2.57 grams to 2.34 grams. Commodus. During the preparations for the campaign against Cassius, Commodus assumed his toga virilis on the Danubian front on 7 July 175, thus formally entering adulthood. Lucilla was exiled to Capri and later killed. His titles quickly came to reflect Marcus’ commitment to ensuring the succession of his son; by 176 Commodus was recognized as Imperator, and by 177 as Augustus, confirming that rule of the empire was not shared between father and son. The title suggests that Commodus was present at his father's victory over the Marcomanni. Commodus’ megalomania had gone on too long and continued to threaten their own status (and frequently, their lives). He also had the head of the Colossus of Nero adjacent to the Colosseum replaced with his own portrait, gave it a club, and placed a bronze lion at its feet to make it look like Hercules Romanus, and added an inscription boasting of being "the only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men".[18]. Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161. The emperor was famed for his beast hunts, including his rescue of a condemned criminal from the jaws of a leopard in one bout. According to Cassius Dio, Commodus once killed 100 lions in a single day. There would be five emperors in A.D. 193, the year after the assassination of Commodus. Commodus was born on 31 August AD 161 in Lanuvium, near Rome. He thought they should all be named after him, too. Speidel, "Commodus the God-Emperor and the Army,", This page was last edited on 21 December 2020, at 11:12. Italics indicates a junior co-emperor, while underlining indicates a usurper. He succeeded Commodus to become the first emperor during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors. Oh, and the months of the year? Unfortunately, tragedy struck the imperial household in 165 when Titus, his elder brother, died, leaving Commodus as Marcus’ only son, and his heir. Portrait head of Commodus, 182-90 AD, via the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. [17], Thus, he presented himself as the fountainhead of the Empire, Roman life, and religion. Far from celebrating his descent from Marcus Aurelius, the actual source of his power, he stressed his own personal uniqueness as the bringer of a new order, seeking to re-cast the empire in his own image. Upon his death, the Senate declared him a public enemy (a de facto damnatio memoriae) and restored the original name of the city of Rome and its institutions. However, he would eventually fall foul of popular discontent. On 12 October 166, Commodus was made Caesar together with his younger brother, Marcus Annius Verus. These tendencies now increased to megalomaniacal proportions. In October of that year, Commodus was bestowed with the title Germanicus alongside his father. On 31 December, Marcia poisoned Commodus' food but he vomited up the poison, so the conspirators sent his wrestling partner Narcissus to strangle him in his bath. Her motive is alleged to have been envy of the Empress Crispina. Engraving showing Commodus killing a leopard in the arena, attributed to Adriaen Collaert, 1594-98, via Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Publius Domitius Calvisius Tullus Ruso, Imperator Caesar Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus Augustus (177, 191–192), Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus (180–191), Commodus is a minor antagonist in the 2005 video game, dashed lines indicate adoption; dotted lines indicate love affairs/unmarried relationships, G. Alföldy, "Der Friedesschluss des Kaisers Commodus mit den Germanen,", P. A. Brunt, "The Fall of Perennis: Dio-Xiphilinus 79.9.2,", J. Gagé, "La mystique imperiale et l'épreuve des jeux. [33] Privately, it was also his custom to kill his opponents during practice matches. In popular culture Film. His body was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Cast the gladiator into the charnel-house. Roman History: Epitome of Book LXXIII pp 111. The fickleness of the emperor would be Cleander’s undoing. Cleander was in fact the person who had murdered Saoterus. Commodianus. To subdue any residual unrest, Marcus ensured that the question of succession had a definitive answer. Grant, Michael. Upon his ascension, Commodus devalued the Roman currency. Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree. 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. The legions? But Commodus, who ascended to the imperial throne when only 19, was one of the worst. Commode-Hercule et l'anthropologie hercaléenne,", M.P. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. His assassination in 192 marked the end of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. 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. Commodus was the first (and until 337, the only) emperor "born in the purple," meaning during his father's reign. In the view of Dio Cassius, his accession marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust".[13]. According to Dio Cassius, Perennis, though ruthless and ambitious, was not personally corrupt and generally administered the state well.[16]. Pertinax thus became emperor on January 1st, but he was murdered by a group of soldiers the following March, after less than three months in power. Condianus and Maximus were executed on the pretext that, while they were not implicated in any plots, their wealth and talent would make them unhappy with the current state of affairs. [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. Muller Edition 1.15.7, Echols, Edward C. "Herodian of Antioch's History of the Roman Empire." During his solo reign, the Empire enjoyed a period of reduced military conflict compared with the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but intrigues and conspiracies abounded, leading Commodus to an increasingly dictatorial style of leadership that culminated in a god-like personality cult, with him performing as a gladiator in the Colosseum. Perhaps seeing this as an opportunity, early in 192 Commodus, declaring himself the new Romulus, ritually re-founded Rome, renaming the city Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana. Food shortages ravaged Rome in 190, and the Prefect of the Annona, or grain supply (the praefectus annonae) laid the blame at Cleander’s door. Innumerable statues around the empire were set up portraying him in the guise of Hercules, reinforcing the image of him as a demigod, a physical giant, a protector, and a warrior who fought against men and beasts (see "Commodus and Hercules" and "Commodus the Gladiator" below). 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. 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. Most infamous was Commodus’ proclivity for the gladiatorial arena. The climax came in the year 190, which had 25 suffect consuls – a record in the 1,000-year history of the Roman consulship—all appointed by Cleander (they included the future Emperor Septimius Severus). Perhaps it’s not surprising … The iconography of Commodus displays a consistent emphasis on presenting the emperor as Hercules. Sister of Trajan's father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7. At the urging of his mistress Marcia, Commodus had Cleander beheaded and his son killed. Her husband, Pompeianus, was not involved, but two men alleged to have been her lovers, Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus (the consul of 167, who was also her first cousin) and Appius Claudius Quintianus, attempted to murder Commodus as he entered a theater. 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… His tale wasn't believed and he was immediately put to death. At this point, the prefect Laetus formed a conspiracy with Eclectus to supplant Commodus with Pertinax, taking Marcia into their confidence. In December, he announced his intention to inaugurate the year 193 as both consul and gladiator on 1 January. [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. The Roman people? Statues of Commodus were demolished. Marcus Aurelius was the first emperor since Vespasian to have a legitimate biological son and, though he himself was the fifth in the line of the so-called Five Good Emperors, each of whom had adopted his successor, it seems to have been his firm intention that Commodus should be his heir. September (from Latin septem, "seven") or mensis September was originally the seventh of ten months on the ancient Roman calendar that began with March (mensis Martius, "Mars' month"). In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of the three Gorgons. In 183 AD Commodus officially changed the name of the Roman Empire to the Commodian Empire and renamed all the months of the year in his honour:- January - Madtime; February - Barking; March - Fairies In an effort to foreshadow the depravities that would follow, some of the later sources, particularly the luridly entertaining, but historically questionable Historia Augusta, are keen to portray Commodus’ youth as the period when the first tendencies were evident. At the imperial court in Rome, he would have encountered the court physician Galen, one of antiquity’s most influential doctors and medical practitioners. The emperor’s relationship with the senate was irreparably poisoned by this close shave. Commodus became co-ruler with his father in 177, when he was only 15 years old. Several of the series of painting Nine Discourses on Commodus, (One, Five and Nine are shown here, left to right) by Cy Twombly, 1963, via Guggenheim Bilbao. All the months of the year were renamed to correspond exactly with his (now twelve) names: Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius, Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, and Pius. Nevertheless, though the senatorial order came to hate and fear him, the evidence suggests that he remained popular with the army and the common people for much of his reign, not least because of his lavish shows of largesse (recorded on his coinage) and because he staged and took part in spectacular gladiatorial combats. Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus, opponents always submitted to the emperor, "De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families", Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, "Tulane University "Roman Currency of the Principate, "History Behind The Game – Ryse: Son of Rome", "Box Set Binge: Roman Empire: Reign of Blood, The Path and Deutschland 83", "Imperial Elements in the Formula of the Roman Emperors during the First Two and a Half Centuries of the Empire", Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus, Lucius Fulvius Rusticus Gaius Bruttius Praesens, Tiberius Claudius Marcus Appius Atilius Bradua Regillus Atticus, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commodus&oldid=995501279, Roman emperors murdered by the Praetorian Guard, Roman emperors to suffer posthumous denigration or damnatio memoriae, Articles with dead external links from October 2016, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2018, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 10. The retaliatory purges in Rome allowed new men to occupy the positions of influence closest to Commodus. He is passionate about sharing his interest in the past with as many people as possible. [10] Among his teachers, Onesicrates, Antistius Capella, Titus Aius Sanctus, and Pitholaus are mentioned.[10][11]. Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872, via Phoenix Art Museum; with Bust of Commodus as Hercules, 180-93 AD, via Musei Capitolini, Rome. 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. 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. Commodus was also known for fighting exotic animals in the arena, often to the horror and disgust of the Roman people. Commodus immediately began to treat with the Marcomanni in order to bring the decade's long wars of his father to a close. Commodus, in his own time, was accused of being a megalomaniac. Gibbon, Edward. The legions were renamed Commodianae, the fleet which imported grain from Africa was termed Alexandria Commodiana Togata, the Senate was entitled the Commodian Fortunate Senate, his palace and the Roman people themselves were all given the name Commodianus, and the day on which these reforms were decreed was to be called Dies Commodianus. The life of the poor household attendant was only spared by the quick thinking of a fellow slave, who tossed a sheepskin onto the furnace instead. In private, this was nothing to be mocked or criticized. more entertaining passages of ancient history. In a speech recorded (and probably invented) by the historian Herodian, Commodus makes clear his uniqueness to the soldiers and courtiers gathered on the frontier: “I alone was born for you in the imperial palace… The purple received me as I came forth into the world, and the sun shone down on me, man and emperor, at the same moment.”, Portrait bust of Commodus, 185-90 AD, via the British Museum, London. His great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions, and it was through them that he at first, out of ignorance, missed the better life and then was led on into lustful and cruel habits, which soon became second nature."[20]. He was the son of the reigning emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and Aurelius' first cousin, Faustina the Younger; the youngest daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, who had died only a few months before.Commodus had an elder twin brother, Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus, who died in 165. This was acting as the emperor’s headquarters during the Marcomannic War, as the emperor fought against incursions made by a series of Germanic tribes. 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. Commodus was born as a twin to his brother who died when he was just 4 years of age. His victories were often welcomed by his bested opponents, as bearing scars dealt by the hand of an Emperor was considered a mark of fortitude. 5. The historians who described his reign paint vivid portraits of a man who embodied a plethora of vices; this was a man who was cruel and capricious, slovenly and sensual. [24] On his father's death in 180, Commodus changed this to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Commodus, before changing back to his birth name in 191.[1]. 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