Commodus

Commodus
Commodus as Hercules, Capitoline Museums
18th Emperor of the Roman Empire
Reign	177 – 31 December 192
Predecessor	Marcus Aurelius, father
Successor	Pertinax
Co-emperor	Marcus Aurelius (177–180)
Born	(161-08-31)31 August 161 Lanuvium, near Rome
Died	31 December 192(192-12-31) (aged 31) Rome
Burial	Rome
Wife	Bruttia Crispina
Full name (with titles) Lucius Aurelius Commodus (from birth to 166); Caesar Lucius Aurelius Commodus (166 to 176); Caesar Lucius Aurelius Commodus Augustus (176 to 180); Caesar Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus (180); Caesar Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus (180 to 191); Caesar Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus Augustus (191 to death)
Dynasty	Nerva–Antonine
Father	Marcus Aurelius
Mother	Faustina

Roman imperial dynasties
Antonine Dynasty

Antoninus Pius Children    Natural - Faustina the Younger, also one other daughter and two sons, all died before 138    Adoptive - Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus Marcus Aurelius alone Children    Natural - 13, including Commodus and Lucilla Commodus

Commodus (31 August 161 AD;– 31 December 192 AD), born Lucius Aurelius Commodus^[1] and died Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180.

His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded his biological father since Titus succeeded Vespasian in 79. He was also the first emperor to have both a father and grandfather (who had adopted his father) as the two preceding emperors. Commodus was the first (and until 337, the only) emperor "born in the purple", i.e., during his father's reign.

Commodus was assassinated in 192, succeeded by Pertinax whose reign did not last long during the tumultuous Year of the Five Emperors.

Early life and rise to power (161–180)

Early life

Commodus was born on 31 August AD 161, as Commodus, in Lanuvium, near Rome.^[2] He was the son of the reigning emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and Aurelius's 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. On 12 October 166, Commodus was made Caesar together with his younger brother, Marcus Annius Verus.^[3][4] The latter died in 169 having failed to recover from an operation, which left Commodus as Marcus Aurelius's sole surviving son.^[4]

He was looked after by his father's physician, Galen,^[5][6] in order to keep Commodus healthy and alive. Galen treated many of Commodus' common illnesses. Commodus received extensive tutoring by a multitude of teachers with a focus on intellectual education.^[7] Among his teachers Onesicrates, Antistius Capella, Titus Aius Sanctus, and Pitholaus are mentioned.^[7][8]

Commodus is known to have been at Carnuntum, the headquarters of Marcus Aurelius during the Marcomannic Wars, in 172. It was presumably there that, on 15 October 172, he was given the victory title Germanicus, in the presence of the army. The title suggests that Commodus was present at his father's victory over the Marcomanni. On 20 January 175, Commodus entered the College of Pontiffs, the starting point of a career in public life.

In April 175, Avidius Cassius, Governor of Syria, declared himself Emperor following rumours that Marcus Aurelius had died. Having been accepted as Emperor by Syria, Judea and Egypt, Cassius carried on his rebellion even after it had become obvious that Marcus was still alive. 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. Cassius, however, was killed by one of his centurions before the campaign against him could begin.

Commodus subsequently accompanied his father on a lengthy trip to the Eastern provinces, during which he visited Antioch. The Emperor and his son then traveled to Athens, where they were initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. They then returned to Rome in the Autumn of 176.

Joint rule with father (177)

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. 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.

On 23 December of the same year, the two Augusti celebrated a joint triumph, and Commodus was given tribunician power. 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. He subsequently married Bruttia Crispina before accompanying his father to the Danubian front once more in 178, where Marcus Aurelius died on 17 March 180, leaving the 18-year-old Commodus sole emperor.

Solo reign (180–192)

Upon his ascension, Commodus devalued the Roman currency. He reduced the weight of the denarius from 96 per Roman pound to 105 (3.85 grams to 3.35 grams). He also reduced the silver purity from 79 percent to 76 percent – the silver weight dropping from 2.57 grams to 2.34 grams. In 186 he further reduced the purity and silver weight to 74 percent and 2.22 grams respectively, being 108 to the Roman pound.^[9] His reduction of the denarius during his rule was the largest since the empire's first devaluation during Nero's reign.

Whereas the reign of Marcus Aurelius had been marked by almost continuous warfare, that of Commodus was comparatively peaceful in the military sense but was marked by political strife and the increasingly arbitrary and capricious behaviour of the emperor himself. In the view of Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer of the period, his accession marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust"^[10] – a famous comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.

Despite his notoriety, and considering the importance of his reign, Commodus' years in power are not well chronicled. The principal surviving literary sources are Dio Cassius (a contemporary and sometimes first-hand observer, but for this reign, only transmitted in fragments and abbreviations), Herodian 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).

Commodus remained with the Danube armies for only a short time before negotiating a peace treaty with the Danubian tribes. He then returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph for the conclusion of the wars on 22 October 180. 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.

Dissatisfaction with this state of affairs would lead to a series of conspiracies and attempted coups, which in turn eventually provoked Commodus to take charge of affairs, which he did in an increasingly dictatorial manner. 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.

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...).

Conspiracies of 182

At the outset of his reign, Commodus, aged 18, inherited many of his father's senior advisers, notably Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus (the second husband of Commodus' sister Lucilla), his father-in-law Gaius Bruttius Praesens, Titus Fundanius Vitrasius Pollio, and Aufidius Victorinus, who was Prefect of the City of Rome. He also had four surviving sisters, all of them with husbands who were potential rivals. His eldest sister, Lucilla, was over ten years his senior and held the rank of Augusta as the widow of her first husband, Lucius Verus.

The first crisis of the reign came in 182, when Lucilla engineered a conspiracy against her brother. Her motive is alleged to have been envy of the Empress Crispina. 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. They bungled the job and were seized by the emperor's bodyguard.

Quadratus and Quintianus were executed. Lucilla was exiled to Capri and later killed. Pompeianus retired from public life. One of the two praetorian prefects, Tarrutenius Paternus, had actually been involved in the conspiracy but his involvement was not discovered until later on, and in the aftermath, he and his colleague, Sextus Tigidius Perennis, were able to arrange for the murder of Saoterus, the hated chamberlain.

Commodus took the loss of Saoterus badly, and Perennis now seized the chance to advance himself by implicating Paternus in a second conspiracy, one apparently led by Publius Salvius Julianus, who was the son of the jurist Salvius Julianus and was betrothed to Paternus' daughter. Salvius and Paternus were executed along with a number of other prominent consulars and senators. Didius Julianus, the future emperor and a relative of Salvius Julianus, was dismissed from the governorship of Germania Inferior.

Cleander

Perennis took over the reins of government and Commodus found a new chamberlain and favourite in Cleander, a Phrygian freedman who had married one of the emperor's mistresses, Demostratia. Cleander was in fact the person who had murdered Saoterus. After those attempts on his life, Commodus spent much of his time outside Rome, mostly on the family estates at Lanuvium. Being physically strong, his chief interest was in sport: taking part in horse racing, chariot racing, and combats with beasts and men, mostly in private but also on occasion in public.

Dacia and Britain

Commodus was inaugurated in 183 as consul with Aufidius Victorinus for a colleague and assumed the title Pius. 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. Also, in Britain in 184, the governor Ulpius Marcellus re-advanced the Roman frontier northward to the Antonine Wall, but the legionaries revolted against his harsh discipline and acclaimed another legate, Priscus, as emperor.^[13]

Priscus refused to accept their acclamations, but Perennis had all the legionary legates in Britain cashiered. On 15 October 184 at the Capitoline Games, a Cynic philosopher publicly denounced Perennis before Commodus, who was watching, but was immediately put to death. According to Dio Cassius, Perennis, though ruthless and ambitious, was not personally corrupt and generally administered the state well.^[13]

However, the following year, a detachment of soldiers from Britain (they had been drafted to Italy to suppress brigands) also denounced Perennis to the emperor as plotting to make his own son emperor (they had been enabled to do so by Cleander, who was seeking to dispose of his rival), and Commodus gave them permission to execute him as well as his wife and sons. The fall of Perennis brought a new spate of executions: Aufidius Victorinus committed suicide. Ulpius Marcellus was replaced as governor of Britain by Pertinax; brought to Rome and tried for treason, Marcellus narrowly escaped death.

Cleander's zenith and fall (185–190)

Cleander proceeded to concentrate power in his own hands and to enrich himself by becoming responsible for all public offices: he sold and bestowed entry to the Senate, army commands, governorships and, increasingly, even the suffect consulships to the highest bidder. Unrest around the empire increased, with large numbers of army deserters causing trouble in Gaul and Germany. 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.

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. In the same year, Pertinax unmasked a conspiracy by two enemies of Cleander – Antistius Burrus (one of Commodus' brothers-in-law) and Arrius Antoninus. As a result, Commodus appeared even more rarely in public, preferring to live on his estates.

Early in 188, Cleander disposed of the current praetorian prefect, Atilius Aebutianus, and himself took over supreme command of the Praetorians at the new rank of a pugione ("dagger-bearer") with two praetorian prefects subordinate to him. Now at the zenith of his power, Cleander continued to sell public offices as his private business. 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).

In the spring of 190, Rome was afflicted by a food shortage, for which the praefectus annonae Papirius Dionysius, the official actually in charge of the grain supply, contrived to lay the blame on Cleander. 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. 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.

At the urging of his mistress Marcia, Commodus had Cleander beheaded and his son killed. Other victims at this time were the praetorian prefect Julius Julianus, Commodus' cousin Annia Fundania Faustina, and his brother-in-law Mamertinus. Papirius Dionysius was executed too.

The emperor now changed his name to Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus. At 29, he took over more of the reins of power, though he continued to rule through a cabal consisting of Marcia, his new chamberlain Eclectus, and the new praetorian prefect Quintus Aemilius Laetus, who about this time also had many Christians freed from working in the mines in Sardinia. Marcia, the widow of Quadratus, who had been executed in 182, is alleged to have been a Christian.

Megalomania (190–192)

In opposition to the Senate, in his pronouncements and iconography, Commodus had always laid stress on his unique status as a source of god-like power, liberality and physical prowess. 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 battler against beasts and men (see "Commodus and Hercules" and "Commodus the Gladiator" below). Moreover, as Hercules, he could claim to be the son of Jupiter, the representative of the supreme god of the Roman pantheon. These tendencies now increased to megalomaniacal proportions. 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.

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.

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. 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, Pius. 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.^[14]

Thus he presented himself as the fountainhead of the Empire and Roman life and religion. 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".^[15]

Assassination (192)

In November 192, Commodus held Plebeian Games, in which he shot hundreds of animals with arrows and javelins every morning, and fought as a gladiator every afternoon, winning all the fights. Also in December he announced his intention to inaugurate the year 193 as both consul and gladiator on 1 January.

At this point, the prefect Laetus formed a conspiracy with Eclectus to supplant Commodus with Pertinax, taking Marcia into their confidence. On 31 December Marcia poisoned his food but he vomited up the poison; so the conspirators sent his wrestling partner Narcissus to strangle him in his bath. Upon his death, the Senate declared him a public enemy (a de facto damnatio memoriae) and restored the original name to the city of Rome and its institutions. Commodus' statues were thrown down. His body was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian.

Commodus' death marked the end of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Commodus was succeeded by Pertinax, whose reign was short lived, being the first to fall victim to the Year of the Five Emperors.

In 195 the emperor Septimius Severus, trying to gain favour with the family of Marcus Aurelius, rehabilitated Commodus' memory and had the Senate deify him.^[16]

Character and physical prowess

Character and motivations

Cassius Dio, a first-hand witness, describes him as "not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guileless as any man that ever lived. 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."^[17]

His recorded actions do tend to show a rejection of his father's policies, his father's advisers, and especially his father's austere lifestyle, and an alienation from the surviving members of his family. It seems likely that he was brought up in an atmosphere of Stoic asceticism, which he rejected entirely upon his accession to sole rule.

After repeated attempts on Commodus' life, Roman citizens were often killed for making him angry. One such notable event was the attempted extermination of the house of the Quinctilii. 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.^[18]

Changes of name

On his accession as sole ruler, Commodus added the name Antoninus to his official nomenclature, presumably to honor his grandfather, Antoninus Pius. In October 180 he changed his praenomen from Lucius to Marcus, presumably in honour of his father. He later took the title of Felix in 185. In 191 he restored his praenomen to Lucius and added the family name Aelius, apparently linking himself to Hadrian and Hadrian's adopted son Lucius Aelius Caesar, whose original name was also Commodus.

Later that year he dropped Antoninus and adopted as his full style Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus Augustus Herculeus Romanus Exsuperatorius Amazonius Invictus Felix Pius (the order of some of these titles varies in the sources). "Exsuperatorius" (the supreme) was a title given to Jupiter, and "Amazonius" identified him again with Hercules.

An inscribed altar from Dura-Europos on the Euphrates shows that Commodus' 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 Commodus claimed two additional titles: Pacator Orbis (pacifier of the world) and Dominus Noster (Our Lord). The latter eventually would be used as a conventional title by Roman emperors, starting about a century later, but Commodus seems to have been the first to assume it.^[19]

Commodus and Hercules

Disdaining the more philosophic inclinations of his father, Commodus was extremely proud of his physical prowess. The historian Herodian, a contemporary, described Commodus as an extremely handsome man.^[20] As mentioned above, he ordered many statues to be made showing him dressed as Hercules with a lion's hide and a club. He thought of himself as the reincarnation of Hercules, frequently emulating the legendary hero's feats by appearing in the arena to fight a variety of wild animals. He was left-handed and very proud of the fact.^[21] 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.

Commodus the gladiator

Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a secutor.^[22] The Romans found Commodus' naked gladiatorial combats to be scandalous and disgraceful.^[23] It was rumoured that he was actually the son, not of Marcus Aurelius, but of a gladiator whom his mother Faustina had taken as a lover at the coastal resort of Caieta.^[24]

In the arena, Commodus always won since his opponents always submitted to the emperor. Thus, these public fights would not end in death. Privately, it was his custom to slay his practice opponents.^[25] For each appearance in the arena, he charged the city of Rome a million sesterces, straining the Roman economy.

Commodus raised the ire of many military officials in Rome for his Hercules persona in the arena. Often, wounded soldiers and amputees would be placed in the arena for Commodus to slay with a sword. Citizens of Rome 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.^[26] These acts may have contributed to his assassination.

Commodus was also known for fighting exotic animals in the arena, often to the horror of the Roman people. According to Gibbon, Commodus once killed 100 lions in a single day.^[27] Later, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially designed dart^[28] and afterwards carried the bleeding head of the dead bird and his sword over to the section where the Senators sat and gesticulated as though they were next.^[29] Dio notes that the targeted senators actually found this more ridiculous than frightening, and chewed on laurel leaves to conceal their laughter.^[30] On another occasion, Commodus killed three elephants on the floor of the arena by himself.^[31] Finally, Commodus killed a giraffe, which was considered to be a strange and helpless beast.^[32]

In popular culture

• In 1964's The Fall of the Roman Empire, a fictionalized Commodus who serves as the main antagonist of the film is portrayed by Christopher Plummer.
• In 2000's Academy Award-winner for Best Picture, Gladiator, a fictionalized Commodus serves as the main antagonist of the film. He is played by Joaquin Phoenix.^[33]
• A character in the 2013 video game Ryse: Son of Rome is named Commodus and is one of the main antagonists of the game. The son of Emperor Nero, he shares several traits with the historic Commodus.
• Commodus is the main character in the 2016 Netflix series Roman Empire: Reign of Blood.
• In Rick Riordan's book series The Trials of Apollo, Commodus appears as one of the main antagonists, being part of the evil Triumvirate of deified Roman emperors.

Nerva–Antonine family tree

Nerva–Antonine family tree
Q. Marcius Barea Soranus Q. Marcius Barea Sura Antonia Furnilla M. Cocceius Nerva Sergia Plautilla P. Aelius Hadrianus Titus (r. 79–81) Marcia Furnilla Marcia Trajanus Pater Nerva (r. 96–98) Ulpia[lower-roman 1] Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus Julia Flavia[lower-roman 2] Marciana[lower-roman 3] C. Salonius Matidius[lower-roman 4] Trajan (r. 98–117) Plotina P. Acilius Attianus P. Aelius Afer[lower-roman 5] Paulina Major[lower-roman 6] Lucius Mindius (2) Libo Rupilius Frugi (3) Matidia[lower-roman 7] L. Vibius Sabinus (1)[lower-roman 8] Paulina Minor[lower-roman 6] L. Julius Ursus Servianus[lower-roman 9] Matidia Minor[lower-roman 7] Suetonius?[lower-roman 10] Sabina[lower-roman 3] Hadrian[lower-roman 5][lower-roman 11][lower-roman 6] (r. 117–138) Antinous[lower-roman 12] Julia Balbilla?[lower-roman 13] C. Fuscus Salinator I Julia Serviana Paulina M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 14] Rupilia Faustina[lower-roman 15] Boionia Procilla Cn. Arrius Antoninus L. Ceionius Commodus Appia Severa C. Fuscus Salinator II L. Caesennius Paetus Arria Antonina Arria Fadilla[lower-roman 16] T. Aurelius Fulvus L. Caesennius Antoninus L. Commodus Fundania Plautia ignota[lower-roman 17] C. Avidius Nigrinus M. Annius Verus[lower-roman 15] Domitia Lucilla[lower-roman 18] Fundania[lower-roman 19] M. Annius Libo[lower-roman 15] FAUSTINA[lower-roman 16] Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161)[lower-roman 16] L. Aelius Caesar[lower-roman 17] Avidia Plautia[lower-roman 17] Cornificia[lower-roman 15] MARCUS AURELIUS (r. 161–180)[lower-roman 20] FAUSTINA Minor[lower-roman 20] C. Avidius Cassius[lower-roman 21] Aurelia Fadilla[lower-roman 16] LUCIUS VERUS (r. 161–169)[lower-roman 17] (1) Ceionia Fabia[lower-roman 17] Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 22] Q. Servilius Pudens Ceionia Plautia[lower-roman 17] Cornificia Minor[lower-roman 23] M. Petronius Sura COMMODUS (r. 177–192)[lower-roman 20] Fadilla[lower-roman 23] M. Annius Verus Caesar[lower-roman 20] Ti. Claudius Pompeianus (2) Lucilla[lower-roman 20] M. Plautius Quintillus[lower-roman 17] Junius Licinius Balbus Servilia Ceionia Petronius Antoninus L. Aurelius Agaclytus (2) Aurelia Sabina[lower-roman 23] L. Antistius Burrus (1) Plautius Quintillus Plautia Servilla C. Furius Sabinus Timesitheus Antonia Gordiana Junius Licinius Balbus Furia Sabina Tranquillina GORDIAN III (r. 238–244)
(1) = 1st spouse (2) = 2nd spouse (3) = 3rd spouse   Reddish purple indicates emperor of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty   lighter purple indicates designated imperial heir of said dynasty who never reigned   grey indicates unsuccessful imperial aspirants   bluish purple indicates emperors of other dynasties dashed lines indicate adoption; dotted lines indicate love affairs/unmarried relationships small caps = posthumously deified (Augusti, Augustae, or other)
Notes: Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree. ↑ Sister of Trajan's father: Giacosa (1977), p. 7. ↑ Giacosa (1977), p. 8. 1 2 Levick (2014), p. 161. ↑ Husband of Ulpia Marciana: Levick (2014), p. 161. 1 2 Giacosa (1977), p. 7. 1 2 3 DIR contributor (Herbert W. Benario, 2000), "Hadrian". 1 2 Giacosa (1977), p. 9. ↑ Husband of Salonia Matidia: Levick (2014), p. 161. ↑ Smith (1870), "Julius Servianus". ↑ Suetonius a possible lover of Sabina: One interpretation of HA Hadrianus 11:3 ↑ Smith (1870), "Hadrian", pp. 319–322. ↑ Lover of Hadrian: Lambert (1984), p. 99 and passim; deification: Lamber (1984), pp. 2-5, etc. ↑ Julia Balbilla a possible lover of Sabina: A. R. Birley (1997), Hadrian, the Restless Emperor, p. 251, cited in Levick (2014), p. 30, who is sceptical of this suggestion. ↑ Husband of Rupilia Faustina: Levick (2014), p. 163. 1 2 3 4 Levick (2014), p. 163. 1 2 3 4 Levick (2014), p. 162. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Levick (2014), p. 164. ↑ Wife of M. Annius Verus: Giacosa (1977), p. 10. ↑ Wife of M. Annius Libo: Levick (2014), p. 163. 1 2 3 4 5 Giacosa (1977), p. 10. ↑ The epitomator of Cassius Dio (72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA "Marcus Aurelius" 24. ↑ Husband of Ceionia Fabia: Levick (2014), p. 164. 1 2 3 Levick (2014), p. 117.
References: DIR contributors (2000). "De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families". Retrieved 2015-04-14.  Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta. ISBN 0-8390-0193-2.  Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-15708-2.  Levick, Barbara (2014). Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537941-9.  William Smith, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Ancestors

Ancestry of Commodus

8. Marcus Annius Verus               4. Marcus Annius Verus                       9. Rupilia Faustina               2. Marcus Aurelius                             10. Tullus Domitius Calvisius               5. Domitia Lucilla Minor                       11. Domitia Lucilla Major               1. Commodus                                   12. Titus Aurelius Fulvus               6. Antoninus Pius                       13. Arria Fadilla               3. Faustina the Younger                             14. Marcus Annius Verus               7. Faustina the Elder                       15. Rupilia Faustina

References

Citations

Bibliography

• "Lucius Aurelius Commodus", Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. VI, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878, pp. 207–8 .
• "Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus", Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. VI, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911, p. 777 .

Further reading

• Geoff W Adams, The Emperor Commodus : gladiator, Hercules or a tyrant?. Boca Raton: BrownWalker Press, [2013]. ISBN 1612337228
• G. Alföldy, "Der Friedesschluss des Kaisers Commodus mit den Germanen," Historia, 20 (1971), pp. 84-109.
• P. A. Brunt, "The Fall of Perennis: Dio-Xiphilinus 79.9.2," Classical Quarterly, 23 (1973), pp. 172-77
• J. Gagé, "La mystique imperiale et l'épreuve des jeux. Commode-Hercule et l'anthropologie hercaléenne," ANRW 2.17.2 (1981), 663-83
• Olivier Hekster, Commodus: An Emperor at the Crossroads: Dutch monographs on ancient history and archaeology, 23. Brill, 2002. ISSN 0924-3550
• L. L. Howe, The Praetorian Prefect from Commodus to Diocletian (A. D. 180-305). Chicago, 1942
• M.P. Speidel, "Commodus the God-Emperor and the Army," Journal of Roman Studies, 83 (1993), pp. 109-114.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Commodus.

• Historia Augusta: Life of Commodus
• Book 73 of Cassius Dio's History
• Herodian's Roman History

Commodus Antonine dynasty Cadet branch of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty Born: 31 August 161 Died: 31 December 192
Regnal titles
Preceded by Marcus Aurelius	Roman Emperor 180–192	Succeeded by Pertinax
Political offices
Preceded by Titus Pomponius Proculus Vitrasius Pollio and Marcus Flavius Aper II	Consul of the Roman Empire 177 With: Marcus Peducaeus Plautius Quintillus	Succeeded by Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus and Domitius Velius Rufus
Preceded by Servius Cornelius Scipio Salvidienus Orfitus and Domitius Velius Rufus	Consul of the Roman Empire 179 With: Publius Martius Verus	Succeeded by Gaius Bruttius Praesens and Sextus Quinctilius Condianus
Preceded by Gaius Bruttius Praesens and Sextus Quinctilius Condianus	Consul of the Roman Empire 181 With: Lucius Antistius Burrus	Succeeded by Marcus Petronius Sura Mamertinus and Quintus Tineius Rufus
Preceded by Marcus Petronius Sura Mamertinus and Quintus Tineius Rufus	Consul of the Roman Empire 183 With: Gaius Aufidius Victorinus	Succeeded by Lucius Cossonius Eggius Marullus and Gnaeus Papirius Aelianus
Preceded by Triarius Maternus Lascivius and Tiberius Claudius Marcus Appius Atilius Bradua Regillus Atticus	Consul of the Roman Empire 186 With: Manius Acilius Glabrio II	Succeeded by Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus and Lucius Roscius Aelianus Paculus
Preceded by Domitius Iulius Silanus and Quintus Servilius Silanus	Consul of the Roman Empire 190 With: Marcus Petronius Sura Septimianus	Succeeded by Popilius Pedo Apronianus and Marcus Valerius Bradua Mauricus
Preceded by Popilius Pedo Apronianus and Marcus Valerius Bradua Mauricus	Consul of the Roman Empire 192 With: Pertinax	Succeeded by Quintus Pompeius Sosius Falco and Gaius Julius Erucius Clarus Vibianus