What was Commodus known for?

Answer 1

Lucius Aurelius Commodus was born on 31 August AD 161 at Lanuvium, roughly 14 miles south-east of Rome.

Of the fourteen children of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger, Commodus was the tenth. He was born one of twins, though his twin brother died when he was only four years old. He was given the name Commodus in honor of Marcus Aurelius' co-emperor, who had originally had the name.

Commodus was the only son of the royal couple to survive childhood.

Already at the age of five, in the year AD 166, he was made junior emperor. And in 177, after the revolt of Cassius, Marcus Aurelius made him Augustus and joint emperor. Commodus also led his troops into Danube with his father until the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180. His reign is generally said to have begun on the death of his father in 180.

He appeared to possess a weak character and was easily influenced by others. But his father kept him in line. Once his father died, people began to think of him as a new Nero. Cassius' earlier rebellion, when he mistakenly thought Marcus Aurelius had died, might well have been inspired by a fear of what was to come if Commodus came to the throne.

Commodus' accession to power ended a spell of 80 years in Roman history which had brought men to the throne by merit rather than by birth. The last man to take the throne merely by right of birth had been Domitian.

If Commodus had not lived up to the gruelingly high standards of his father, the world would have most likely forgiven him. But rather than just failing to be a brilliant emperor, Commodus was in fact a terrible one. Cruelty, vanity, power and fear formed into a terrifyingly dangerous mix of bloodlust, suspicion and death. Commodus is remembered as a monster, a tyrant who renamed months in his own honor, and who slaughtered his way through the circuses in crazy displays of 'manliness'.

Despite his initial promises to the army to continue Marcus Aurelius' attempts of expanding the empire into the territories conquered from the Quadi and Marcomanni, Commodus soon after surrendered everything that father had achieved in his wars. But Commodus' retreat from those previously conquered territories was understood as a betrayal of everything the great Marcus Aurelius had stood for.

Whatever the circumstances surrounding the Roman withdrawal, Commodus did make a treaty with the Marcomanni. The treaty proved very successful in stopping the barbarians, forcing them to accept different conditions. Although such peace might also have been due to Marcus Aurelius' late successes having reduced the barbarians' abilities for war.

With peace re-established on the Danube, Commodus returned to Rome. It wasn't long before he uncovered the first conspiracy against him. In AD 182 his own sister Annia Lucilla, together with her cousin, the former consul Marcus Ummidius Quadratus, were involved in a plot to assassinate him. Lucilla's second husband Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus of Antioch, who had held the office of consul twice and who was a possible rival to the throne, was who the plotters wanted to make emperor.

And it was Pompeianus' nephew Quintianus who came from his hiding place with a dagger, trying to stab Commodus. But the guards were faster than Quintianus. He was overpowered and disarmed without doing the emperor any harm. Quadratus and Quintianus were executed. Meanwhile the emperor's sister Lucilla was first banished to Caprae but was soon afterwards put to death. Not much later the praetorian prefect Tarrutenius Paternus was also executed, either for being part of the plot to kill Commodus, or for being a conspirator in the murder of the emperor's influential court chamberlain from Bithynia called Saoterus. (It might have been Saoterus' advice which caused Commodus to withdraw from the territories his father had conquered beyond the Danube.

In the later stages of his reign Commodus became ever more obsessed with performing as a gladiator. He even changed parts of his palace into an arena in order to fight beasts there or gladiators. But Commodus was not satisfied with such private fights. He also appeared in public as a gladiator. For the Roman public, or at least the privileged classes, it was a harsh shock to see their emperor publicly debase himself to the level of a slave or a prostitute in the arena. For, in Roman attitudes, gladiators were indeed understood as one of the lowest possible levels of society. But Commodus cared little about such attitudes. He liked to appear in the arena dressed up in a lion skin as the ancient hero Hercules. There is little doubt that by this time Commodus was deranged. Senators had to be present at such performances, as their emperor slaughtered helpless animals or hapless gladiators. At one day he is said to have killed one hundred bears. Given this number, it is hard to imagine that the animals were anything but helplessly tethered with no chance to fight back and were simply stabbed to death. The fighters who would meet Commodus in the arena stood equally little chance. For if the emperor was armed, all they would have were harmless wooden weapons.

Chariot Racing was the only thing that Commodus would not do in public. Whenever he did race he would make sure he did it when no one was watching.

There was a fire that destroyed most of the city, and he decided to rebuild it. He thought of himself as a hero, so he tried to rename the city after himself. He also named the army the "Commodian army" and the institute of Rome after himself also.

Then, in November AD 192, plans emerged that to celebrate the 'new' city, Commodus was to take office as consul on 1 January AD 193. He even intended to march to the senate from a gladiatorial school within the city - dressed as a gladiator.

The initial plan appeared to be that Marcia would poison him in the evening. But Commodus merely became nauseous and vomited, ridding himself without knowing it of the poison. But the plotters appeared to have a back-up plan in place. An athlete called Narcissus, who was employed as Commodus' Wrestling partner, overpowered and strangled Commodus in his bed on the same night.

Answer 2

Yes, Commodus did exist. He was the worst Roman emperor. He fancied himself as a gladiator and fought in the arena. He always won because the gladiators let him and he spared their lives. However, he killed his sparring partners in practice when he won. He bound people who had lost their feet and then clubbed them to death .He also killed with a sword injured soldiers and amputees. He fought against animals in the arena. He decapitated an ostrich and carried its head to the section where senators sat and signalled to them they were going to be the next ones. He killed a giraffe, even though this animal was considered harmless and not worthy to fight against. He was megalomaniac. He called himself the new Romulus, renamed Rome Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana, changed the names of the months with names he gave to himself, renamed the legions Commodianae and the senate Commodian Fortunate Senate.

Answer 3

Commodus was a Roman Emperor who was known for being proud of his physical expertise. He is known for acting as a gladiator and fighting in the ring.