Transcript Commodus
Commodus Marino/Jash/Jacob Commodus’s Time Begins • Commodus was born on August 31, 161A.D, Lanuvium, Italy. • He was a Roman Emperor from 180-192A.D • Commodus was the only son of the royal couple to survive childhood. Commodus Early Age • From age 5, Commodus was groomed to succeed his father to the throne. • At the year 166A.D, he was made Caesar (junior emperor). • He appeared to posses a weak character and was easily influenced by others. Marcus Aurelius • Commodus’s father was a co-emperor of Rome, so he was destined to follow in his footsteps. • He ruled with Lucius Verus, until his death in 169A.D. • He was one of the last five emperor’s, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers. Commodus Takes Command • Commodus’s accession to power, ended a spell of 80 years in Roman history, which brought men to throne by merit rather than birth. • Despite his promises to the military to continue his fathers attempts of expanding the Roman empire into the territories conquered from the Quadi and Marcomanni, Commodus soon after surrendered everything that his father achieved in his wars. Commodus Honors Himself • Commodus, after the city of Rome had burned, he took this opportunity to rename the city in his own honor, as Colonia Commodiana. • Commodus renamed the months in his honor, and the senate was renamed as the Commodiana Fortunate Senate. • The army become known as the Commodiana Army. Commodus Was a Bad Emperor • Commodus was in fact a terrible emperor. • He should be remembered as a monster, a tyrant who renamed months in his own honor, and who slaughtered his way through the circuses in ludicrous displays of ‘manliness’. • He was cruel to the Roman people. Commodus Obsessed of Becoming a Gladiator • In the later stages, Commodus became ever-more obsessed with performing as a gladiator. • He changed parts of his palace into an arena, inorder to fight beasts/gladiators there. • He appeared in public as a gladiator. Commodus Becomes a Gladiator • He liked to appear in the arena dressed up in a lion skin as a hero named Hercules son of Jupiter. • He killed 100 bears in one day. • He said that the Romans should pay to come and watch him. Commodus’s Death • Commodus died on December 31, 192A.D. • Commodus grew into insanity so his advisors had him strangled by a champion wrestler. • After a new empire took over, Publius Helvius Pertinax, the empire quickly slipped into civil war.