Commodus, Part I

The popular movie Gladiator told the story of Maximus, a great Roman general who served the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. During the Emperor's last days, Maximus fought the barbarians to the north of the Roman Empire. But Maximus was betrayed by the Emperor's son, Commodus, a spoiled cowardly politician lately arrived at the frontier. Commodus, burning with envy and jealousy, murdered his father - becoming Emperor in his place - and sent Maximus to be executed. Maximus narrowly escaped death only to be sold into slavery and forced to live as a gladiator. As the movie builds to a climactic ending, Maximus ultimately gets his vengeance against Commodus on the Coliseum floor.

Though an utterly gripping story of courage and resolve, it is mostly fictional. And it's not nearly as remarkable as the story of the real Commodus. Let's take a look.

It's true that Commodus was Marcus Aurelius' son and heir. But unlike his fictional counterpart, he accompanied his father into battle for most of his early life. When his father died of plague (not strangulation-by-Commodus), Commodus became emperor at age nineteen. He quickly made peace with the empire's enemies on the border and returned to Rome.

Commodus entered the capitol as a hero, and he then tried to position himself as a man of the people. Much to the dismay of the ruling classes, Commodus soon began proving his courage and skill by performing in the Coliseum. He killed lions, rhinoceroses, and elephants. A skilled bowman, he felled numerous other animals with single shots from his bow. In one encounter, he killed one hundred leopards using one hundred javelins. It's also worth noting that he had the lame suited to hide their deformations, and killed them in the arena, too. It's said that the rapport Commodus gained with the common people was remarkable.

At this point in the story, we clearly see that Commodus was quite impressed with himself. Next week we'll take a deeper dive into the severity of Commodus' character flaws, and conclude the story of his brief but tumultuous reign.

J.