Commodus, The Roman Emperor Who Saw Himself As A Gladiator
TimeTravelRome/Wikimedia CommonsCommodus fancied himself a gladiator and spent much of his time watching or participating in gladiatorial contests.
“Even from his earliest years,” the Roman historian Aelius Lampridius wrote of the emperor Commodus, “he was base and dishonorable, and cruel and lewd, defiled of mouth, moreover, and debauched.”
Born in 161 C.E. as the son of emperor Marcus Aurelius (considered to be one of Rome’s “good” emperors), Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus came to power in 180 C.E. Despite the plot line of the 2000 film Gladiator, there is no evidence that Commodus had a hand in his father’s death. But Commodus would prove to be a very different kind of emperor than Marcus Aurelius.
Uninterested in the practicality of rule, Commodus spent most of his time playing at being a gladiator. He claimed that he was descended from Hercules and spent his days watching gladiatorial matches, participating in venatio, or fights against wild beasts (often unfair ones, like when he killed 100 bears from the safety of his balcony), tussling with actual gladiators, who let him win, or taking on opponents who had no chance against him. Commodus later boasted that he’d won roughly 12,000 matches.
Jofrey Rudel Marie-Lan Nguyen (Jastrow)/Wikimedia CommonsCommodus dressed as Hercules.
His preference for gladiator fights over actual governance was bad enough, but Commodus is considered one of Rome’s worst emperors for other reasons as well. He bled the Roman treasury dry, executed prominent citizens to get his hands on their wealth, renamed the months of the year after himself, and changed the name of Rome to “Colonia Commodiana,” or “Colony of Commodus.”
Unsurprisingly, Romans — including Commodus’ own sister — began to plot against him. After several assassination attempts, Commodus was killed by a wrestler named Narcissus in 192 C.E.
“Colonia Commodiana” was promptly renamed “Rome,” and Commodus went down in history as one of its worst emperors.