Commodus (161 – 192), born Lucius Aurelius Commodus, was Roman Emperor from AD 180 to 192. He ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180.
Commodus as Hercules
Holding a huge club to beat his enemies, Commodus wears a lion skin in a marble portrait bust made in the second century AD, which is one of the treasures of Rome’s Capitoline Museum. The portrait equates the strength of Hercules with the power of the emperor. The son of the respected Marcus Aurelius took control of the Roman empire and embarked on a career of bizarre, erratic behavior and monstrous cruelty. He enjoyed executing his enemies and perceived enemies personally.
Commodus fought in the arena, killing gladiators with his own hands, a spectacle Romans found shameful.
His misrule precipitated civil strife that ended 84 years of stability and prosperity. His accession marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust" – a famous comment which has led historians to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline and end of the Roman Empire. Commodus would go on to claim to be the son of Jupiter, the supreme god of the Roman pantheon.
He viewed himself in megalomaniacal proportions.
In November 192, Commodus held Plebeian Games, in which he shot animals with arrows and javelins every morning, and fought as a gladiator every afternoon, winning all of his bouts easily as his opponents always submitted. For each appearance in the arena, he charged the city of Rome a million sesterces, a vast sum. (250,000 denarii)
He announced his intention to inaugurate the year 193 as both consul and gladiator. His foes had enough. They poisoned his food but he vomited it up; so the conspirators sent his wrestling partner Narcissus to strangle him.
Upon his death, the Senate declared him a public enemy. (damnatio memoriae)
A rare aureus of Commodus was sold in 2019. Dating to 178 AD and struck in Rome, it made 25,000 euros.
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