[30] 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]. The fall of Perennis brought a new spate of executions: Aufidius Victorinus committed suicide. A work of history that reads like fiction, The Gladiator brings to life Spartacus, Commodus, Caligula, and all of the other memorable players of the nearly thousand-year-long gladiatorial era. [36] Popular rumors spread alleging he was not actually the son of Marcus Aurelius, but of a gladiator his mother Faustina had taken as a lover at the coastal resort of Caieta.[37]. ( Louisonze/CC BY-SA 3.0 ). Commoduss father was Marcus Aurelius, an emperor who presided over what has been regarded as one of ancient Romes golden ages. [5] He was the son of the reigning emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and Aurelius's first cousin, Faustina the Younger, the youngest daughter of Emperor Antoninus Pius, who had died only a few months before. In 177 Lucius was made coruler and heir to his father, the emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161180). The Eastern Tour - Chapter II: 4:01. It was reputed in local legend to be the seat of the god Wotan and to be haunted. Available from: http://www.roman-empire.net/highpoint/commodus.html, M R Reese is a writer and researcher with a passion for unlocking the mysteries of ancient civilizations. [42] Later, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially designed dart[43] and afterwards carried his sword and the bleeding head of the dead bird over to the Senators' seating area and motioned as though they were next. The megalomania of Commodus was not limited to the Colosseum. Faustina was the daughter of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius and was Aurelius first cousin. [15], On 23 December 176, the two imperatores celebrated a joint triumph. His death, however, was the result of an assassination plot in 192, culminating with Narcissus killing him in the bath. The slave who became a gladiator. It is the type of death indicative of Commodus notoriety as an emperor, which is fundamental to Gladiators plot, but the film is imaginative in its depiction of his death to provide closure to Maximus. 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). He kept most of the advisers from his fathers regime in place and the first three years of his reign ran as smoothly as that of his father with the added benefit that Rome was no longer fighting any wars. Cookies help us deliver our Services. He was very vain, and strongly believed himself to be the reincarnation of Hercules so much so that he ordered statues of himself be dressed like Hercules, and he ordered that people call him Hercules, son of Zeus. Commodus is commonly regarded as being an inadequate and megalomaniacal emperor, but Gladiators distortion of history portrays him as exclusively and resolutely evil. [44] Dio notes that the targeted senators actually found this more ridiculous than frightening, and chewed on laurel leaves to conceal their laughter. Unlike Maximus, they all let him win, letting him injure them to a non-fatal degree and then conceding, per LA Times. We will never see the like of the Roman Empire ever again. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. fascinating facts from the entirety of ancient history. The scene portrays the extent of Emperor Commodus malice and provides a realization of the vengeance sought by Maximus, following the crucifixion of his wife and child. 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 years. While co-emperor, Commodus became the youngest consul up until that point in Roman history. 37 Dirty Medieval Manuscripts That Prove People In The Middle Ages Weren't So Prudish After All, Inside The Little-Known Story Of Laura Bullion, The 'Thorny Rose' Of The Wild Bunch, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. He also believed himself to be a reincarnation of Hercules and enjoyed fighting in an arena as a gladiator. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. On 20 January 175, Commodus entered the College of Pontiffs, the starting point of a career in public life. It appeared that he had no interest in being a leader, and only wanted to take advantage of his leadership powers to fulfill his own desires. Commodus : The general who became a slave. But it didnt take long for him to delegate his leadership responsibilities to others so that he could engage in activities in which he enjoyed. 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. 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. Commodus Roman Emperor In Power Nov 27, 176 - Dec 31, 192 Born Aug 31, 161Lanuvium, Italy Died Dec 31, 192 (aged 31)Rome, Italy Wife Bruttia Crispina Father Marcus Aurelius Mother Faustina the Younger Lucius Aurelius Commodus was born in Lanuvium, near Rome, on August 31, 161. 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Gladiator is a 2000 epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson.The film was co-produced and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Universal Pictures.DreamWorks Pictures distributed the film in North America while Universal Pictures released it internationally through United International Pictures. In the story of Gladiator, the Roman general Maximus is betrayed by the evil Emperor Commodus. Maximus is a powerful Roman general, loved by the people and the aging Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Once that's done, he only has one more goal: reunite with his family in the afterlife. [38] Cassius Dio claimed that citizens of Rome who were missing their feet through accident or illness were taken to the arena, where they were tethered together for Commodus to club to death while pretending they were giants. This ancient Roman biographical article is a stub. As Edward Gibbon noted in his famous Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in the intervening years between the death of Domitian and the reign of Commodus, the vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The Five Good Emperors, ruled efficiently and under them the Roman people enjoyed a rational freedom.. A grateful Senate proclaimed a new emperorthe city prefect, Publius Helvius Pertinaxbut the empire quickly slipped into civil war. The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the French village of Carnac, in Brittany, consisting of more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany. Joaquin Phoenix's character is bad news, but he doesn't quite have the same unhinged level of megalomania as his real-life counterpart. The Syrian-born gladiator, who rose to fame under the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117 to 138 A.D.), is best known for the length of his career, and for being awarded his freedom four times . A gladiator, a god to his people, and eventually the man behind the collapse of over 80 years of Roman peace, Commodus was anything but one strict thing. Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10. This assassination attempt was successful, and both Commodus reign as Roman Emperor, and his life, ended on the final day of 192. Yet another attempt on his life had been foiled, but the conspirators did not lose their nerve. In December, he announced his intention to inaugurate the year 193 as both consul and gladiator on 1 January. It worked and the Nerva-Antonine dynasty which had ruled Rome for nearly a century had come to an end and the city soon descended into civil war. www.alexanderdoddy.com. Ancient Origins 2013 - 2023Disclaimer- Terms of Publication - Privacy Policy & Cookies - Advertising Policy -Submissions - We Give Back - Contact us. While Lucilla did actually try to orchestrate Commodus' assassination, there's no historical evidence of his disturbing attraction to her or their highly tempestuous relationship as depicted in the movie. Ridley Scott's Gladiator famously kills off Maximus (Russell Crowe) at the end, but the original plan for the ending was very different. The poison failed, so Narcissus entered Commodus's bedchamber. Roman Emperor Lucius Aurelius Commodus was a corrupt ruler who was not well-received by the Roman people during his reign. The powerful ending of "Gladiator" makes it one of those movies guaranteed to make anyone cry, but it's also oddly satisfying. The most famous scene in "Gladiator" is the one that launched a thousand memes (to use a phrase from a different Ancient European society). Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) takes power and strips rank from Maximus (Russell Crowe), one of the favored generals of his predecessor and father, Empero [27] Another event, as recorded by the historian Aelius Lampridius, took place at the Roman baths at Terme Taurine, where the emperor had an attendant thrown into an oven after he had found his bathwater to be lukewarm. Other victims at this time were the praetorian prefect Julius Julianus, Commodus's cousin Annia Fundania Faustina, and his brother-in-law Mamertinus. The ending, however sad to viewers, allows him to do that. "Back!" he cried. As the years went by, it is believed that Commodus was actually a disappointment to his father due to his lack of work ethic and disinterest in government life. 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. In 192 AD, several senators, led by Praetorian prefect Quintus Aemilius Laetus, recruited Narcissus to assassinate the emperor after a previous failed attempt by the conspirators. schizoform/ CC BY 2.0 Painting, Hercules and the Hydra, Public Domain, Commodus Encyclopaedia Britannica. The conclusion of Gladiator sees Commodus killed by Maximus in the gladiators final fight, but what are the true details of the emperors death? Commodus, who is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, was indeed the son of Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) and an emperor of Rome. The real Commodus was also a gladiator superfan, and he really did get in the arena and fight people. Under Commodus, Rome had descended from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust. Much like Nero had supposedly fiddled while Rome burned, Commodus enjoyed himself as the city decayed around him. He engaged in one-on-one combat with many other gladiators, each of whom was obliged to lose to the emperor. Thrown into the spotlight as Rome . Instead, he devoted himself to his harem of 300 females and a like number of males, played gladiator at Rome's. The climax came in the year 190, which had 25 suffect consuls a record in the 1,000-year history of the Roman consulshipall appointed by Cleander (they included the future Emperor Septimius Severus). Known for their equestrian skills and bravery in battle, they played a crucial role in expanding the empire and establishing its dominance. Commodus murders his father (Richard Harris) to gain power, orders the death of war hero Maximus (Russell Crowe) in order to circumvent any possible challenge to his rule, puts the moves on his. The assassination attempt marked a turning point in Commodus reign, for once [he had] tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse. He began executing people without regard for rank, wealth, or sex. War broke out in Dacia: few details are available, but it appears two future contenders for the throne, Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, both distinguished themselves in the campaign. Aside from the manner of his death in Gladiator, Commodus' onscreen depiction has a few other historical reworkings that help add spice to the plot, although some changes serve to tone down the character. Maximus is a powerful Roman general, loved by the people and the aging Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Striking story! One of the ways he paid for his donatives (imperial handouts) and mass entertainments was to tax the senatorial order, and on many inscriptions, the traditional order of the two nominal powers of the state, the Senate and People (Senatus Populusque Romanus) is provocatively reversed (Populus Senatusque). But since "Gladiator" is based on a true story (sort of), we can look at history to see what might have happened next. By December of that year, he declared that he would inaugurate the New Year on January 1, 193 as a gladiator in the arena. In 182 A.D., Commodus sister Lucilla organized an attempt on her brothers life. The emperor eventually decided to abandon the reins of the empire and chose to give himself up to chariot-racing and licentiousness and performed scarcely any of the duties pertaining to his office. He appointed a series of his favorites to manage the administration of his empire, each of whom seemed crueler and more incompetent than the last. Maximus : You would fight me? Jack is a feature writer for Screen Rant. As disgusted as the senators were by the sight of their emperor running around half-naked in the sands of the amphitheater, they were too terrified to do anything but play along. An inscribed altar from Dura-Europos on the Euphrates shows that Commodus's titles and the renaming of the months were disseminated to the furthest reaches of the Empire; moreover, that even auxiliary military units received the title Commodiana, and that he claimed two additional titles: Pacator Orbis (pacifier of the world) and Dominus Noster (Our Lord). Commodus ruled with chaos and left chaos in his wake. It's a great story of revenge but the character of Maximus is entirely made up. Unrest around the empire increased, with large numbers of army deserters causing trouble in Gaul and Germany. By 192 A.D., the Roman people had had enough. Non-military citizens who had lost their feet due to injury or illness would be tied together for Commodus to club to death. [6][7] The latter died in 169 having failed to recover from an operation, which left Commodus as Marcus Aurelius's sole surviving son. Interestingly, it took Scott a while to realize that, like a sadistic emperor at a gladiatorial display, the ending demanded Maximus's death. The final fight of Ridley Scott's Gladiator is relatively short, but it works very well for the movie's somewhat historically accurate story. Watching him collapse and die after restoring his own freedom and ridding Rome of its Tyrant in Chief seems like, well, a downer. Maximus : You would fight me? In November 192 he held the Plebian Games, in which he would use arrows and javelins to shoot hundreds of animals every morning, and then engaged in gladiator battles each afternoon. He reduced the weight of the denarius from 96 per Roman pound to 105 per Roman pound (3.85grams to 3.35grams). The movie is far from historically accurate. Upon his fathers death in 180, Commodus became the sole emperor. I am sure you are familiar with his legend which states that he was born in a manger surrounded by shepherds, about 5 Celebrity Gladiators of Bloodthirsty Ancient Rome, about Romes African Emperor: Septimius Severus and the Scottish Invasion, about Catastrophic Collapse: When Historic Good Governments Turned Bad, about Mimicking Gods and Gladiators: The Assassination Of Emperor Commodus, about The Philosopher-King of Ancient Rome: Marcus Aurelius' Imperium, about Fair-Weather Friends: A Weird Explanation for 20% of Roman Emperor Assassinations, The Lemon Grove Mummies: Ancient Corpses from Mexican Cave Found in California Garage, The Curious Apparitions of Pagan Goddesses to the German Knights Templar, Caesars Savage Human Skewers Unearthed In German Fort, The Warriors Who Shaped African History: The Horsemen of Oyo. He is a particular fan of works by Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, and Martin Scorsese. The second, the freeman Cleander, he allowed to be torn apart by a mob who were outraged at the freemans abuses. Now at the zenith of his power, Cleander continued to sell public offices as his private business. On December 31, 192, his advisers had him strangled by a champion wrestler, following his announcement the day before that he would assume the consulship, dressed as a gladiator. [7], He was looked after by his father's physician, Galen,[8][9] who treated many of Commodus's common illnesses. Well, kind of, but not really. His body was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there existcountless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts thathave yet to be discovered and explained. While the true story behind his reign and death are fascinating, I prefer the fictional story, where he is killed in the arena before thousands of subjects by a gladiator whose family was ordered killed by the emperor. The film portrays a fictionalized account of historical events, and it illuminates aspects of the culture of ancient Rome. 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. Unlike the preceding emperors Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, he seems to have had little interest in the business of administration and tended throughout his reign to leave the practical running of the state to a succession of favourites, beginning with Saoterus, a freedman from Nicomedia who had become his chamberlain. He also had the head of the Colossus of Nero adjacent to the Colosseum replaced with his own portrait, gave it a club, 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".[23]. The first attempt used poisoned meat, but Commodus vomited it up. [40][41] For each appearance in the arena, he charged the city of Rome a million sesterces, straining the Roman economy. Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161. He was left-handed and very proud of the fact. Maximus is given a very clear ending, but what about the rest of Rome? The Romans were outraged when Commodus would order wounded soldiers and amputees into the arena to be slayed. We'll explain. Indeed, director Ridley Scott's vision of Maximus slowly walking toward his family through the fields of their farm as he's dying is one of the most moving moments in movie history. His fictionalized depiction as a mad emperor in the film Gladiator actually plays down some of his less believable excesses while giving him a nobler death. Commodus was also known for fighting exotic animals in the arena, often to the horror and disgust of the Roman populace. In one final act of madness, Commodus ordered the head of the Colossus of Nero to be replaced with his own and added the inscription the only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times (as I recall the number) one thousand men.. The principal surviving literary sources are Herodian, Dio Cassius (a contemporary and sometimes first-hand observer, Senator during Commodus's 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). He also devalued Roman currency, reducing the weight of the denarius and reducing the purity of silver. Reigning from 180 to 192 A.D., Commodus all but ignored his official duties. Cassius, however, was killed by one of his centurions before the campaign against him could begin. so Romans had no choice but to obey Commodus. He took the throne as regent, but was killed by Maximus in the Colosseum. Contrary to the plot of Gladiator where Emperor Commodus is portrayed as having killed Marcus Aurelius the two ruled together, from 177 until the latters death in 180. Clearly, choosing to play gladiator, mercilessly killing animals and people with disabilities, was not a strategy that served to promote Roman culture, no matter how brutal it was at the time. In the same year, Pertinax unmasked a conspiracy by two enemies of Cleander Antistius Burrus (one of Commodus's brothers-in-law) and Arrius Antoninus. After this look at Commodus, check out these interesting facts about Ancient Rome. The historian Herodian, a contemporary, described Commodus as an extremely handsome man. Despite Maximus being a fictional character, the athlete Narcissus is one of the multiple historical figures serving as the likely inspiration for Gladiator's protagonist. Commodus accompanied his father during the Marcomannic Wars in 172, and on a tour of the Eastern provinces in 176. ( Public Domain ). 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."[26]. Herodian's Roman History F.L. It's ironic that we watched the film Gladiator the other night. However, he always spared their lives. He was appointed co-emperor of Rome and ruled alongside his father when he Marcus Aurelius is famed for various accomplishmentshis title as the last of the Five Good Emperors; his extensive study of and literary accomplishments in the field of Stoicism; and, last but not Long bouts of bad weather have been blamed as a cause for the downfall of ancient civilizations around the world. Commodus : The general who became a slave. Whatever its roots, the conspiracy failed and the incident aroused an insane paranoia in Commodus, who began seeing plots and treachery everywhere. Archaeologists have been able to take a closer look at one of the United Kingdoms most famous shipwrecks. The three of them plotted to assassinate the emperor. Wikimedia CommonsEmperor Commodus lust for power is widely credited with bringing an end to the fabled Pax Romana. 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. According to Aurelius, Commodus received his educational training with "an abundance of good masters.". Die ''Terme Taurine'' von Civitavecchia ein rmisches Heilbad. This biographical article related to crime is a stub. ( Naughtynimitz/CC BY-SA 3.0 ). Unfortunately, the damage to Rome was already done. Early Life - Chapter I: 1:03. Upon his ascension, Commodus devalued the Roman currency. But now, the people want to know how the story ends. Roman Artwork. Pescennius Niger mopped up the deserters in Gaul in a military campaign, and a revolt in Brittany was put down by two legions brought over from Britain. 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. So superlatively mad had the abandoned wretch become that he renamed Rome Colonia Commodiana (the Colony of Commodus) and changed the names of the months to each reflect one of the many epithets he had bestowed upon himself. Allows him to do that order wounded soldiers and amputees into the arena fight! Father, the emperor Marcus Aurelius legend to be torn apart by a mob who were at! 20 January 175, Commodus received his educational training with `` an abundance good. In 177 Lucius was made coruler and heir to his father, the Roman currency by A.D.! 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