Commodus
–
Roman Emperor
: 177-192 A.D.
Bronze Sestertius
30mm (24.29 grams) Struck 183 A.D.
Reference: RIC 370; Sear’88 #1650; Cohen 907.
M COMMODVS ANTONINVS AVG PIVS, laureate head right
TR P VIII IMP VI COS IIII P P S-C, Felicitas standing facing, head left,
holding
caduceus & cornucopiae.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae) or horn of plenty
is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container
overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form.
Originating in
classical antiquity
, it has continued as a
symbol in
Western art
, and it is particularly associated
with the
Thanksgiving
holiday in
North America
.
Allegorical
depiction of the Roman
goddess
Abundantia
with a cornucopia, by
Rubens
(ca. 1630)
In Mythology
Mythology
offers multiple
explanations of the origin
of the cornucopia.
One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant
Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father
Cronus
. In a cave on
Mount Ida
on the island of
Crete
, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by
a number of divine attendants, including the goat
Amalthea
(“Nourishing Goddess”), who fed him
with her milk. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and
strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her
horns
, which then had the divine power to
provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the god.
In another myth, the cornucopia was created when
Heracles
(Roman
Hercules
) wrestled with the river god
Achelous
and wrenched off one of his horns;
river gods were sometimes depicted as horned. This version is represented in the
Achelous and Hercules
mural painting
by the
American Regionalist
artist
Thomas Hart Benton
.
The cornucopia became the attribute of several
Greek
and
Roman deities
, particularly those associated
with the harvest, prosperity, or spiritual abundance, such as personifications
of Earth (Gaia
or
Terra
); the child
Plutus
, god of riches and son of the grain
goddess Demeter
; the
nymph
Maia
; and
Fortuna
, the goddess of luck, who had the power
to grant prosperity. In
Roman Imperial cult
, abstract Roman deities who
fostered peace (pax
Romana) and prosperity were also depicted with a cornucopia,
including Abundantia
, “Abundance” personified, and
Annona
, goddess of the
grain supply to the city of Rome
.
Pluto
, the classical ruler of the underworld in
the
mystery religions
, was a giver of agricultural,
mineral and spiritual wealth, and in art often holds a cornucopia to distinguish
him from the gloomier Hades
, who holds a
drinking horn
instead.
Modern depictions
In modern depictions, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped
wicker basket filled with various kinds of festive
fruit
and
vegetables
. In North America, the cornucopia
has come to be associated with
Thanksgiving
and the harvest. Cornucopia is
also the name of the annual November Wine and Food celebration in
Whistler
, British Columbia, Canada. Two
cornucopias are seen in the
flag
and
state seal
of
Idaho
. The Great
Seal
of
North Carolina
depicts Liberty standing and
Plenty holding a cornucopia. The coat of arms of
Colombia
,
Panama
,
Peru and
Venezuela
, and the Coat of Arms of the State of
Victoria, Australia
, also feature the
cornucopia, symbolising prosperity.
The horn of plenty is used on body art and at Halloween, as it is a symbol of
fertility, fortune and abundance.
-
Base of a statue of
Louis XV of France
The caduceus from
Greek
“herald’s staff” is the staff carried by
Hermes
in
Greek mythology
. The same staff was also borne
by heralds in general, for example by
Iris
, the messenger of
Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two
serpents
, sometimes surmounted by wings. In
Roman iconography it was often depicted being carried in the left hand of
Mercury
, the messenger of the gods, guide of
the dead and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars, and thieves.
As a symbolic object it represents Hermes (or the Roman Mercury), and by
extension trades, occupations or undertakings associated with the god. In later
Antiquity
the caduceus provided the basis for
the
astrological symbol
representing the
planet Mercury
. Thus, through its use in
astrology
and
alchemy
, it has come to denote the
elemental metal
of the same name.
By extension of its association with Mercury/Hermes, the caduceus is also a
recognized symbol of commerce and negotiation, two realms in which balanced
exchange and reciprocity are recognized as ideals. This association is ancient,
and consistent from the Classical period to modern times. The caduceus is also
used as a symbol representing printing, again by extension of the attributes of
Mercury (in this case associated with writing and eloquence).
The caduceus is sometimes mistakenly used
as a symbol of medicine and/or medical practice
,
especially in
North America
, because of widespread confusion
with the traditional medical symbol, the
rod of Asclepius
, which has only a single snake
and no wings.
The term kerukeion denoted any herald’s staff, not necessarily
associated with Hermes in particular.
Lewis Richard Farnell
(1909) in his study of
the cult of Hermes assumed that the two snakes had simply developed out of
ornaments of the shepherd’s crook used by heralds as their staff. This view has
been rejected by later authors pointing to parallel iconography in the Ancient
Near East. It has been argued that the staff or wand entwined by two snakes was
itself representing a god in the pre-anthropomorphic era. Like the
herm
or
priapus
, it would thus be a predecessor of the
anthropomorphic Hermes of the classical era.
Ancient Near East
William Hayes Ward
(1910) discovered that
symbols similar to the classical caduceus sometimes appeared on
Mesopotamian cylinder seals
. He suggested the
symbol originated some time between 3000 and 4000 BCE, and that it might have
been the source of the Greek caduceus.[10]
A.L. Frothingham incorporated Dr. Ward’s research into his own work, published
in 1916, in which he suggested that the prototype of Hermes was an “Oriental
deity of Babylonian extraction” represented in his earliest form as a snake god.
From this perspective, the caduceus was originally representative of Hermes
himself, in his early form as the Underworld god
Ningishzida
, “messenger” of the “Earth Mother”.
The caduceus is mentioned in passing by
Walter Burkert
[12]
as “really the image of copulating snakes taken over from Ancient Near Eastern
tradition”.
In Egyptian iconography, the
Djed pillar is depicted as containing a snake in a frieze of the
Dendera Temple complex
.
The rod of Moses
and the
brazen serpent
are frequently compared to the
caduceus, especially as Moses is acting as a messenger of God to the
Pharaoh
at the point in the narrative where he
changes his staff into a serpent.[13]
Classical antiquity
Mythology
The
Homeric hymn
to Hermes relates how Hermes
offered his lyre fashioned from a tortoise shell as compensation for the
cattle he stole
from his half brother
Apollo
. Apollo in return gave Hermes the
caduceus as a gesture of friendship. The association with the serpent thus
connects Hermes to Apollo
, as later the serpent was associated
with Asclepius
, the “son of Apollo”. The association
of Apollo with the serpent is a continuation of the older
Indo-European
dragon
-slayer motif.
Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher
(1913) pointed out
that the serpent as an attribute of both Hermes and Asclepius is a variant of
the “pre-historic semi-chthonic serpent hero known at Delphi as
Python
“, who in classical mythology is slain by
Apollo.
One Greek myth of origin
of the caduceus is part of the
story of Tiresias
, who found two snakes copulating and
killed the female with his staff. Tiresias was immediately turned into a woman,
and so remained until he was able to repeat the act with the male snake seven
years later. This staff later came into the possession of the god Hermes, along
with its transformative powers.
Another myth suggests that Hermes (or Mercury) saw two serpents entwined in
mortal combat. Separating them with his wand he brought about peace between
them, and as a result the wand with two serpents came to be seen as a sign of
peace.
In Rome, Livy
refers to the caduceator who
negotiated peace arrangements under the diplomatic protection of the caduceus he
carried.
Iconography
In some vase paintings ancient depictions of the Greek kerukeion are
somewhat different from the commonly seen modern representation. These
representations feature the two snakes atop the staff (or rod), crossed to
create a circle with the heads of the snakes resembling horns. This old graphic
form, with an additional crossbar to the staff, seems to have provided the basis
for the graphical
sign of Mercury
(☿) used in
Greek astrology
from Late Antiquity.
Use in alchemy
and occultism
As the symbol of both the
planet
and the
metal
named for Mercury, the caduceus became an
important symbol in
alchemy
.
The
crucified serpent
was also revived as an
alchemical symbol for
fixatio
, and
John Donne
(Sermons 10:190) uses
“crucified Serpent” as a title of
Jesus Christ
.
Symbol of commerce
A simplified variant of the caduceus is to be found in dictionaries,
indicating a “commercial term” entirely in keeping with the association of
Hermes with commerce. In this form the staff is often depicted with two winglets
attached and the snakes are omitted (or reduced to a small ring in the middle).
The Customs Service of the former
German Democratic Republic
employed the
caduceus, bringing its implied associations with thresholds, translators, and
commerce, in the service medals they issued their staff.
Misuse as symbol
of medicine
It is relatively common, especially in the United States, to find the
caduceus, with its two snakes and wings, used as a symbol of medicine instead of
the correct rod of Asclepius, with only a single snake. This usage is erroneous,
popularised largely as a result of the adoption of the caduceus as its insignia
by the
US Army medical corps
in 1902 at the insistence
of a single officer (though there are conflicting claims as to whether this was
Capt. Frederick P. Reynolds or Col. John R. van Hoff).
The rod of Asclepius is the dominant symbol for professional healthcare
associations in the United States. One survey found that 62% of professional
healthcare associations used the rod of Asclepius as their symbol. The same
survey found that 76% of commercial healthcare organizations used the Caduceus
symbol. The author of the study suggests the difference exists because
professional associations are more likely to have a real understanding of the
two symbols, whereas commercial organizations are more likely to be concerned
with the visual impact a symbol will have in selling their products.
The initial errors leading to its adoption and the continuing confusion it
generates are well known to medical historians. The long-standing and abundantly
attested historical associations of the caduceus with commerce, theft,
deception, and death are considered by many to be inappropriate in a symbol used
by those engaged in the healing arts. This has occasioned significant criticism
of the use of the caduceus in a medical context.
In
ancient Roman culture
, felicitas
(from the Latin
adjective
felix, “fruitful, blessed,
happy, lucky”) is a condition of divinely inspired productivity, blessedness, or
happiness
. Felicitas could encompass
both a woman’s fertility, and a general’s luck or good fortune. The divine
personification of Felicitas was
cultivated
as a goddess. Although felicitas
may be translated as “good luck,” and the goddess Felicitas shares some
characteristics and attributes with
Fortuna
, the two were distinguished in
Roman religion
.Fortuna was unpredictable and
her effects could be negative, as the existence of an altar to Mala Fortuna
(“Bad Luck”) acknowledges.Felicitas, however, always had a positive
significance. She appears with
several epithets that focus on aspects of her divine power.
Felicitas had a temple in Rome as early as the mid-2nd century BC, and during
the Republican era
was honored at two
official festivals
of
Roman state religion
, on July 1 in conjunction
with
Juno
and October 9 as Fausta Felicitas.
Felicitas continued to play an important role in
Imperial cult
, and was frequently portrayed on
coins
as a symbol of the wealth and prosperity
of the Roman Empire
. Her primary attributes are the
caduceus
and
cornucopia
.The English word “felicity” derives
from felicitas.
As virtue or quality
Phallic
relief
with the inscription
“Felicitas dwells here”
In its religious sense, felix means “blessed, under the protection or
favour of the gods; happy.” That which is felix has achieved the
pax divom
, a state of harmony or peace with
the divine world. The word derives from
Indo-European
*dhe(i)l, meaning “happy,
fruitful, productive, full of nourishment.” Related Latin words include
femina, “woman” (a person who provides nourishment or suckles); felo,
“to suckle” in regard to an infant; filius, “son” (a person suckled); and
probably fello, fellare, “to perform
fellatio
“, with an originally non-sexual
meaning of “to suck”. The continued magical association of sexual potency,
increase, and general good fortune in productivity is indicated by the
inscription Hic habitat Felicitas (“Felicitas dwells here”)[8]
on an
apotropaic
relief of a
phallus
at a bakery in
Pompeii
.
In archaic Roman culture, felicitas was a quality expressing the close
bonds between
religion and agriculture
. Felicitas was
at issue when the
suovetaurilia
sacrifice conducted by
Cato the Elder
as
censor
in 184 BC was challenged as having been
unproductive, perhaps for
vitium
, ritual error. In the following
three years Rome had been plagued by a number of ill omens and prodigies (prodigia),
such as severe storms, pestilence, and “showers of blood,” which had required a
series of expiations (supplicationes).
The speech Cato gave to justify himself is known as the Oratio de lustri sui
felicitate, “Speech on the Felicitas of his
Lustrum
“, and survives only as a possible
quotation by a later source. Cato says that a lustrum should be found to
have produced felicitas “if the crops had filled up the storehouses, if
the vintage had been abundant, if the olive oil had flowed deliberately from the
groves”, regardless of whatever else might have occurred. The efficacy of a
ritual might be thus expressed as its felicitas.
The ability to promote felicitas became proof of one’s excellence and
divine favor. Felicitas was simultaneously a divine gift, a quality that
resided within an individual, and a contagious capacity for generating
productive conditions outside oneself: it was a form of “charismatic
authority”. Cicero
lists felicitas as one of the
four virtues of the exemplary general, along with knowledge of
military science
(scientia rei militaris),
virtus
(both “valor” and “virtue”), and
auctoritas
, “authority.” Virtus was
a regular complement to felicitas, which was not thought to attach to
those who were unworthy. Cicero attributed felicitas particularly to
Pompeius Magnus (“Pompey the Great”)
, and
distinguished this felicitas even from the divine good luck enjoyed by
successful generals such as
Fabius Maximus
,
Marcellus
,
Scipio the Younger
and
Marius
.
The sayings (sententiae) of
Publilius Syrus
are often attached to divine
qualities, including Felicitas: “The people’s Felicitas is powerful when she is
merciful” (potens misericors publica est Felicitas).
Epithets
Epithets
of Felicitas include:
Augusta
, the goddess in her association
with the emperor and
Imperial cult
.- Fausta (“Favored, Fortunate”), a state divinity
cultivated
on October 9 in conjunction with
Venus Victrix
and the Genius Populi
Romani (“Genius”
of the Roman People, also known as the Genius Publicus).
- Publica, the “public” Felicitas; that is, the aspect of the
divine force that was concerned with the res publica or commonwealth,
or with the Roman People (Populus Romanus).
- Temporum, the Felicitas “of the times”, a title which emphasize
the felicitas being experienced in current circumstances.
Republic
The
cult
of Felicitas is first recorded in the
mid-2nd century BC, when a
temple
was dedicated to her by
Lucius Licinius Lucullus
, grandfather of the
famous Lucullus
, using booty from his military
campaigns in
Spain
in 151–150 BC. Predecessor to a noted
connoisseur of art, Lucullus obtained and dedicated several statues looted by
Mummius
from
Greece
, including works by
Praxiteles
: the Thespiades, a statue
group of the
Muses
brought from
Thespiae
, and a
Venus
. This Temple of Felicitas was among
several that had a secondary function as art museums, and was recommended by
Cicero
along with the
Fortuna Huiusce
DieiTemple of
for those who enjoyed viewing art but lacked the means to
amass private collections. The temple was located in the
Velabrum
in the
Vicus Tuscus
of the
Campus Martius
, along a route associated with
triumphs
: the axle of
Julius Caesar
‘s triumphal
chariot
in 46 BC is supposed to have broken in
front of it. The temple was destroyed by a fire during the reign of
Claudius
, though the Muses were rescued. It was
not rebuilt at this site.
Sulla identified himself so closely with the quality of felicitcas
that he adopted the
agnomen
(nickname) Felix. His
domination as
dictator
resulted from civil war and
unprecedented military violence within the city of Rome itself, but he
legitimated his authority by claiming that the mere fact of his victory was
proof he was felix and enjoyed the divine favor of the gods. Republican
precedent was to regard a victory as belonging to the Roman people as a whole,
as represented by the
triumphal procession
at which the honored
general submitted public offerings at the
Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
at the
Capitol
, and Sulla thus established an
important theological element for the later authority of the emperor. Although
he established no new temple for Felicitas, he celebrated games (ludi
circenses) in her honor.
On July 1 and October 9, Felicitas received a sacrifice in Capitolio,
on the
Capitoline Hill
, on the latter date as
Fausta Felicitas in conjunction with the
Genius Publicus
(“Public
Genius
“) and
Venus Victrix
. These observances probably took
place at an altar or small shrine (aedicula),
not a separate
temple precinct
. The
Acts of the Arval Brothers
(1st century AD)
prescribe a cow as the sacrifice for Felicitas. Pompey established a shrine for
Felicitas at
his new theater and temple complex
, which used
the steps to the Temple of Venus Victrix as seating. Felicitas was cultivated
with Honor
and Virtue, and she may have shared her
shrine there with
Victory
, as she did in the Imperial era as
Felicitas Caesaris (Caesar’s Felicitas) at
Ameria
. Pompey’s collocation of deities may
have been intended to parallel the Capitoline grouping.
A fourth cult site for Felicitas in Rome had been planned by Caesar, and
possibly begun before his death. Work on the temple was finished by
Lepidus
on the site of the
Curia Hostilia
, which had been restored by
Sulla, destroyed by fire in 52 BC, and demolished by Caesar in 44 BC. This
temple seems not to have existed by the time of
Hadrian
. Its site probably lies under the
church of
Santi Luca e Martina
. v It has been
suggested that an
Ionic capital
and a
tufa wall uncovered at the site are the only known remains of the
temple.
Felicitas was a
watchword
used by Julius Caesar’s troops at the
Battle of Thapsus
, the names of deities and
divine personifications being often recorded for this purpose in the late
Republic.
Felicitas Iulia
(“Julian Felicitas”) was
the name of a
colony
in
Roman Spain
that was refounded under Caesar and
known also as Olisipo
, present-day
Lisbon
, Portugal.
During the Republic, only divine personifications known to have had a temple
or public altar were featured on coins, among them Felicitas. On the only extant
Republican coin type, Felicitas appears as a bust and wearing a
diadem
.
Empire
Felicitas Temporum represented by a pair of cornucopiae on a
denarius
(193-194 AD) issued under
Pescennius Niger
A calendar from Cumae
records that a
supplicatio
was celebrated on April 16 for
the Felicitas of the Empire, in honor of the day
Augustus
was first acclaimed
imperator
. In extant Roman coinage,
Felicitas appears with a
caduceus
only during the Imperial period. The
earliest known example is Felicitas Publica on a
dupondius
issued under
Galba
. Felicitas Temporum (“Prosperity
of the Times”), reflecting a
Golden Age
ideology, was among the innovative
virtues that began to appear during the reigns of
Trajan
and
Antoninus Pius
.
Septimius Severus
, whose reign followed the
exceedingly brief tenure of
Pertinax
and unsatisfactory conditions under
Commodus
, used coinage to express his efforts
toward restoring the
Pax Romana
, with themes such as Felicitas
Temporum and Felicitas Saeculi, “Prosperity of the Age” (saeculum),
prevalent in the years 200 to 202. Some Imperial coins use these phrases with
images of women and children in the emperor’s family.
When the Empire came under Christian rule, the personified virtues that had
been cultivated as deities could be treated as abstract concepts. Felicitas
Perpetua Saeculi (“Perpetual Blessedness of the Age”) appears on a coin
issued under
Constantine
, the first emperor to convert to
Christianity.
Commodus (Latin:
Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus;
31 August, 161 AD – 31 December, 192 AD), 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 father
since Titus
succeeded
Vespasian
in 79. He was also the first Emperor
to have both a father and grandfather 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.
Early life and rise to power (161–180)
Early life
Commodus was born on 31 August 161, as Commodus, in
Lanuvium
, near
Rome
. He was the son of the reigning emperor,
Marcus Aurelius, and Aurelius’s first cousin, Faustina the Younger; the youngest
daughter of
Roman Emperor
Antonius Pius
. 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
. The latter died in 169
having failed to recover from an operation, which left Commodus as Marcus
Aurelius’ sole surviving son.
He was looked after by his father’s physician,
Galen
, in order to keep Commodus healthy and
alive. Galen treated many of Commodus’ common illnesses. Commodus received
extensive tuition at the hands of what Marcus Aurelius called “an abundance of
good masters.” The focus of Commodus’ education appears to have been
intellectual, possibly at the expense of military training.
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
rumors that Marcus Aurelius had died. Having been accepted as Emperor by Syria,
Palestine
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, the Prince 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 biological son of his own
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.
Sole reign
(180–192)
Upon his accession 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. 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, his
accession marked the descent “from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron” –
a famous comment which has led some historians, notably
Edward Gibbon
, to take Commodus’s reign as the
beginning of the
decline of the Roman Empire
.
Despite his notoriety, and considering the importance of his reign,
Commodus’s 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 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…).
The conspiracies of
182
A bust of Commodus as a youth (Roman-Germanic
Museum, Cologne).
At the outset of his reign, Commodus, age 18, inherited many of his father’s
senior advisers, notably
Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus
(the second
husband of Commodus’s 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 five
surviving sisters, all of them with husbands who were potential rivals. Four of
his sisters were considerably older than he; the eldest, Lucilla, 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 the theatre. 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 was not detected at this time, 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’s daughter. Salvius and Paternus were executed along with a number of
other prominent consulars and senators.
Didius Julianus
, the future emperor, 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
A bust of Commodus (Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna). According to
Herodian
he was well proportioned
and attractive, with naturally blonde and curly hair.
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.
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.
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’s 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 1000-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’s 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
megalomaniac
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.
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, and added an
inscription boasting of being “the only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve
times one thousand men”.
Character and
physical prowess
Character and
motivations
Dio Cassius, 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.”[8]
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 raising
his ire. 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.
Changes of name
On his accession as sole ruler, Commodus added the name Antoninus to his
official nomenclature. 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’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 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.
Commodus and Hercules
Disdaining the more philosophic inclinations of his father, Commodus was
extremely proud of his physical prowess. He was generally acknowledged to be
extremely handsome. 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. 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 gladiator. The
Romans found Commodus’s naked gladiatorial combats to be scandalous and
disgraceful. 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
.
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. 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. Commodus’s eccentric behaviour
would not stop there. 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. 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. Later, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially
designed dart 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. On another occasion, Commodus killed three
elephants
on the floor of the arena by himself.
Finally, Commodus killed a
giraffe
, which was considered to be a strange
and helpless beast.
Assassination (192)
In November 192 Commodus held Plebian Games, in which he shot hundreds of
animals with arrows and javelins every morning, and fought as a gladiator every
afternoon, winning all the bouts. 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’s statues were
thrown down. His body was buried in the
Mausoleum of Hadrian
. In 195 the emperor
Septimius Severus
, trying to gain favour with
the family of Marcus Aurelius, rehabilitated Commodus’s memory and had the
Senate deify him.
Commodus was succeeded by
Pertinax
, whose reign was short lived, being
the first to fall victim to the
Year of the Five Emperors
. Commodus’s death
marked the end of the
Nervan-Antonian dynasty
.
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