If you've seen the
film Gladiator, you may remember Commodus. Portrayed by Joaquin
Phoenix, the film shows a man motivated
by insecurity and a lust for power. But who was Emperor
Commodus, really? Today, we're examining
the strange life of the real Emperor Commodus. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel. Oh, and if that weren't
enough, leave a comment and let us know what
Roman topics you would like to hear about next, OK? Now, the people want to
know how the story ends. Only a famous death will do. [MUSIC PLAYING] Commodus entered the world
on August 31, 161 AD. Born alongside his twin
brother, Antoninus, Commodus was already the victim of
a prophecy against him. As the sons of Emperor
Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger-- who were first
cousins, by the way-- the two boys had
big sandals to fill. Faustina believed
Commodus would be doomed to mediocrity,
largely because of a dream she had prior to
the twins birth. In the dream,
Faustina gave birth to two snakes, one of which
was stronger than the other. While most would dismiss
this as a weird dream, she took it to be symbolic. Speaking with astrologers
about the dream led to a prophecy saying
Antoninus would have the more promising future. As for Commodus, he'd
live an average life, accomplishing
nothing noteworthy. But history tells a
very different story, and not necessarily
for the better. Antoninus died at the age of
four, after a long illness. Commodus survived, but
remained wary of disease throughout his childhood. [MUSIC PLAYING] Marcus Aurelius and
Faustina were pretty busy. Of their 14 children,
Commodus was the 10th. He was also the only male
child who survived childhood. Because disease
and other factors often ended life early
during the period, the young man's health
became a top priority. His personal physician,
Galen, had a sole mission, to keep Commodus healthy. It was definitely
a full-time job. The future emperor was
raised to be a hypochondriac. He was responsible for one
of the first palaestras, or gyms, coming
into regular use. For an ancient Roman dude,
he loved to work out. And he became obsessed
with baths, often bathing seven or eight times a day. Unsanitary conditions
and lack of disinfectant aside, he loved to
take a lot of baths. What else would you expect
from someone who believed the world revolved around him? One could say that belief
went straight to his head. [MUSIC PLAYING] As a child, Commodus was raised
to believe the entire world would be at his beck and call. And as the son of an emperor,
that was largely true. But the young Commodus really
took the idea in stride. He became a vicious and cruel
child, even going so far as to order the death of
one of his servants. Commodus was only
12 at the time. What did the servant
do to incur such wrath from the young emperor-to-be? Apparently, the servant
didn't draw enough hot water for Commodus's bath. This inflamed the
young man's temper, Commodus wanted him
thrown into the furnace. Fortunately, the child
wasn't completely in charge then, so someone just burnt
a lambskin in the hopes that the stench would
convince the little Caesar that his command had
been carried out. But that was only the
beginning of his long history of problematic behavior. As he got older, he took
things to brand new, screwed up heights. [MUSIC PLAYING] For Commodus, physical fitness
didn't stop at the gym. He was a big fan of
banquets and baths and getting it on with a
plethora of people, too. The depth of Commodus's
exploits is so deep, he makes Caligula
look like a saint. At the very least, he'd
give Rome's third emperor a run for his money. One account from "The
History of Augusta" describes Commodus's swinging
obsession in great detail. Commodus lived, rioting in
the palace amid banquets and in baths, along with 300
concubines gathered together for their beauty and chosen
from both matrons and harlots, and with minions. Also, 300 in number
whom he had collected by force and by purchase
indiscriminately from the common
people and the nobles solely on the basis
of bodily beauty. If your Roman lingo
is a little rusty, the passage roughly
translates to, Commodus spent his
days gathering, through acquisition or force,
an army of sex slaves composed of 300 women and 300 boys. Prolonged orgies were among the
emperor's favorite activities, leading him down the
road of dirty depravity, and it gets much worse. [MUSIC PLAYING] Commodus was a messed
up dude, especially when it came to family. After a failed
assassination plot, he ordered the execution
of his sister, Lucilla. After that, he committed
unspeakable acts on his remaining sisters. To add insult to injury, he
named one of his concubines after his mother. Freud would have had a
field day with that one. But his behavior
didn't stop there, as he proceeded to destroy
the lives of others, including his wife. It was such a common
thing with the emperor that the historian Augusta
captured it in writing. After debauching his other
sisters, as it is said, he formed a sexual relationship
with a cousin of his father and even gave the
name of his mother to one of his concubines. His wife, whom he
caught in adultery, he drove from his house, then
banished her and later put her to death. By his orders, his
concubines were debauched before his own eyes. And it's shocking that there
weren't more assassination plots. Speaking of assassination-- [MUSIC PLAYING] Commodus didn't take lightly
the assassination attempts against him. After the first attempt, he
ordered a slew of executions. He kicked off the
proceedings by executing the highest ranking Praetorian,
the prefect Tarrutenius Paternus. Paternus may not have
even been involved with the plot in
the first place. Commodus just didn't
want to take his chances and decided to execute anyone
who might have been involved. So much for innocent
until proven guilty. After that, the
emperor made his way down a checklist of high-ranking
politicians and aristocrats, many of whom had
little or no connection with the assassination plots. But the buck didn't stop there. Oh, no. Commodus executed
entire families so the children of his victims
wouldn't rise up or plot against him in the future. His insurance policy ended
up cementing his legacy as a monster. Not even his right
hand man would be safe from his
insatiable bloodlust. [MUSIC PLAYING] After Commodus's marathon of
taking out people came to pass, he needed a new lackey
to run the Roman empire's daily operations. Tarrutenius Paternus
was a capable prefect but could no longer perform the
job duties because, well, he had been killed. So Commodus put his buddy,
Tigidius Perrenis in charge. An ambitious man,
Perrenis spent his days persuading Commodus to indulge
himself in physical pleasure and hedonism. Doing so distracted the emperor
enough to allow Perrenis to run the government, at
least for a while. Much as all good
things come to an end, so, too, did the
reign of Perrenis. One day, Commodus decided
the man held too much power and had him executed. After that, the emperor
handed the reins to another official, and
another, and another. You can see where this is going. Commodus continued running
things in this manner until the very end. Historical accounts
make Commodus out to be a physically
attractive young man with thick, curly blonde hair. They let you figure out that he
was pretty ugly on the inside. He was easily
persuaded by others and always got into
fights, something he loved to do in his spare
time throughout his lifetime. [MUSIC PLAYING] At his heart, that
cold, black heart, Commodus believed himself
to be a great fighter. One of his most
enduring pastimes was battling in the
infamous Roman Colosseum. Some accounts claim him
to be a capable fighter. At any rate, he wasn't afraid
to murder defenseless animals in an arena or battle
with disabled gladiators and servants. Not sure how proud you
can be if your win-loss is when your opponents are forced
to fall on their swords, but whatever. His insistence on
fighting in the arena didn't make him a
celebrated emperor, though, among the Romans. During Roman times,
gladiators were slaves considered to be
the lowest class. Living and competing
with them likely smudged Commodus's reputation
in the eyes of typical Romans. But just like everything
else in his life, Commodus didn't really
care about such things. [MUSIC PLAYING] A quick glance into the
life and hobbies of Commodus makes him look like a sociopath. He certainly didn't care what
the Romans thought of him, nor did he care
about others at all. He just seemed to want
to create a spectacle and have an audience
for his ruthless deeds. To that end, he ordered the city
gazette to post his exploits and demanded high-ranking
political officials attend his matches. During his matches, he didn't
go by Commodus, Son of Marcus. Instead, he chose a different
moniker, Hercules, Son of Zeus. Not to let anyone else
steal his thunder, he abandoned
traditional Roman garb. Instead, he wore a lion
skin and carried a club just like Hercules. But the emperor's fandom didn't
stop with his Hercules cosplay. He began building statues of
himself as the legendary hero to inspire fear
from his subjects. But his constituents
didn't necessarily see him as evil, just
simple and misguided. One of them, Cassius Dio, wrote,
"He was 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 let on into lustful
and cruel habits, which soon became second nature." Commodus was thrust into
power at an early age, eventually seeing his
impulses and cruelty transform into lifelong habits. [MUSIC PLAYING] When he wasn't busy renaming
months after himself, he behaved erratically. Marcus Aurelius had impossible
expectations for his heir. Commodus showed no interest in
leadership or responsibility. His wild, erratic
behavior implied he believed being Rome's emperor
meant he could just do whatever he pleased without consequence. Despite these flaws,
Commodus failed upward through the ranks. By age 15, he became an
imperator, or commander in today's parlance. The following year, he became
an Augustus, essentially the co-ruler of
the Roman Empire. How's that for a sweet 16? While being Augustus meant
he technically held control, few doubted that Marcus Aurelius
was the real power in Rome. Three years later, in
180 AD, Marcus Aurelius died, effectively promoting
Commodus to full emperor, but the populace
still held its doubts. [MUSIC PLAYING] As far as father-son
relationships go, Marcus Aurelius
and Commodus were the epitome of dysfunction. These two made an
episode of Succession look like a Lifetime series. Marcus expected his
mildly inbred offspring to be the best ruler in history. Tempered by these insanely
high expectations, Commodus repeatedly
disappointed his father. It didn't help matters when
rumors abounded that Commodus was the product of an
affair between his mother and some random gladiator. Perhaps it was Marcus's
sneaking suspicion that pushed him to
place unrelenting pressure on his son. For his part, Commodus wasn't
exactly striving for perfection or even trying to live
up to Dad's expectations. Instead, he became a murderous
and debaucherous emperor who left a deadly legacy behind. It's in this area with a
movie and real life history tend to intersect. The events of Gladiator show
the first assassination attempt that resulted in his
sister, Lucilla's, death. In both history and the
film, this is quite likely the moment that Commodus's
true monstrous nature was revealed to the world. But like all things, the reign
of Commodus came to an end in much the same way he lived
his life, in a grisly way. [MUSIC PLAYING] In 191 AD, a great fire
raged through Rome, burning significant
portions of the city. Commodus rebuilt it with a
new name, Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana. The citizens of the
world's greatest city would be known as Commodiani. That didn't sit well
with many of the city's high-ranking officials. As the emperor prepared to
celebrate the city's rebirth on New Year's Day
in 193 AD, they took swift, decisive action. Commodus planned to inaugurate
the year in a dual role, as consul and gladiator. He spent the days prior throwing
javelins and shooting arrows at helpless animals
as a gladiator. He also prepared a
list of executions. One of the names that
happened to be on that list was that of the highest ranking
Praetorian guard, Marcia. As Commodus
celebrated, Marcia, who also happened to
be his mistress, tried to poison his
wine, but it didn't work. Maybe he spent years developing
a tolerance to it or something. When the old poisoned
glass of wine ploy failed, Commodus's fitness trainer
stepped in to finish the job. The emperor's fitness trainer,
a professional wrestler named Narcissus, charged
into the bathroom and choked the emperor out. It probably only
took a few minutes, but it ended his reign
once and for all. Following his death,
the people wanted to see Commodus's lifeless body
dragged through the streets. In the end, that didn't happen,
and his body was laid to rest. His body was interred in
the Mausoleum of Hadrian, and his death marked
the end of a dynasty. The Senate declared him a
de facto damnatio memoriae, or public enemy, restored
the name of Rome, and completely
demolished his statues. So what do you think? Commodus, was he
a weirdo or what? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History. [MUSIC PLAYING]
