He gave himself a string of new titles (Conqueror of the World, All-Surpasser, the Roman Hercules), renamed the months of the year after himself, and renamed the Roman legions the "Commodianae.". The couple never had a child together, and some historians even think that Commodus was completely sterile. As punishment for their disloyalty, Commodus sentenced the two men to death. Unfortunately, season two covers the republican period that I know well, and I am shocked. In the afternoon, he’d fight as a gladiator in the arena, though he was hardly in danger of being killed: somehow, the unhinged ruler won all the fights. Political … Looking for some great streaming picks? Before he lost his sight. Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree. In AD 182, Lucilla, the sister of Commodus, convinced Marcia to join in a plot with Quadratus to kill Commodus.
Commodus was left-handed, just like Hercules himself. As the U.S. confronts systemic racism, so does the Los Angeles Times. [2][4] Despite the fact that Marcia was not Commodus' legal wife, he treated her like one and was thus greatly influenced by her. [2], To celebrate the Roman New Year in AD 192, Commodus decided he wanted to make an appearance before the Roman people not from the palace in traditional purple robes, but from the gladiator's barracks, escorted by the rest of the gladiators. With Aaron Irvin, Corey Brennan, Jerry Toner, Steve West. Dancy Mason is the Editor-in-Chief at Factinate. Today, we might remember Commodus best as the unstable emperor played by Joaquin Phoenix in the film Gladiator. … Marble statue, in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.
Every time he appeared in the arena, he charged his own people enormous sums for the privilege of seeing him, helping to bankrupt the Roman economy in the process. He symbolically re-founded Rome—all in his own image. He dispatched lions, leopards, elephants, hippos, bears, rhinos and giraffes--sometimes 100 at a time. This is the story of the rise and fall of the Third Reich told like the drama it really was: through the personal relationships of the movers and shakers of the Nazi Party. “I Couldn’t Believe My Eyes”: Utterly Insane Real-Life Discoveries, Eleanor Of Aquitaine Was England’s Fiercest Queen—Until Her Brutal End, These Stories Of Unforgettable Close Calls Made Our Jaws Drop, Scandalous Facts About Catherine De Medici, The Deadly Queen Mother Of France, The Jaw-Dropping Life of Josephine Baker, The Black Pearl Of Paris, The Unforgettable Story Of Wu Zetian, China's Most Ruthless Empress, Absolute Legends: The Wildest Pranks Ever Pulled, These Eerie Supernatural Experiences Sent A Chill Down Our Spines, These Mega Embarrassing Moments Still Made Us Burst Out Laughing, "The Bride Kissed The Best Man" And Other Real-Life Wedding Disasters. Though they never married, Commodus treated her as his wife. [1] Verus, 18 years her senior, became her husband three years later in Ephesus in 164. But then it got worse. The three conspirators were afraid he would expel all the poison, so they ordered Narcissus, a young athlete, to strangle Commodus for a large reward. When Commodus rose to power, he was actually the first biological son of an emperor to succeed his father in almost an entire century. * It would be one way to humiliate her. As the son of emperor Marcus Aurelius, Commodus was the first Roman emperor to have been "born in the purple," and thus dynastically selected to be his successor. At one of his gladiator battles, he reportedly slew an ostrich and then carried its decapitated head over to where his rival senators were seated. Let’s just…, Flickr, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, These People Got Revenge In The Most Ingenious Ways, Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s First Wife, 43 Bizarre Facts About Life In East Germany, Don't Try This At Home: When Parenting Lessons Backfire, 26 Illuminating Facts about the Illuminati. Say what you want about Caligula, but he was really, really good at incest.