The Real Commodus Was Even Crazier Than His 'Gladiator' Character

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, if people want to know how the story ends, only a famous death will do. 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. 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 palestras, 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. On sanitary 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. 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' bath. This inflamed the young man's temper. And 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. 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' 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' 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. 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. It's shocking that there weren't more assassination plots. Speaking of assassination, 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 Tarutanius 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. After Commodus' marathon of taking out people came to pass, he needed a new lackey to run the Roman Empire's daily operations. Tarutanius Paternus was a capable prefect but could no longer perform the job duties because, well, he had been killed. So Commodus put his buddy Tegidius Peronnes in charge. An ambitious man, Peronnes spent his days persuading Commodus to indulge himself in physical pleasure and hedonism. Doing so distracted the emperor enough to allow Peronnes to run the government, at least for a while. Much as all good things come to an end, so too did the reign of Peronnes. One day, Commodus decided the man held too much power and had him executed. After that, the emperor handed the reigns 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. 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 of your win-loss when your opponents are forced to fall on their swords, but whatever. His insistence on fighting in the arena did 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' reputation in the eyes of typical Romans. But just like everything else in his life, Commodus didn't really care about such things. 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 led 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. 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 was the first Roman emperor 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. 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. 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 where the movie and real life history tend to intersect. The events of Gladiator showed 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' 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. In 191 AD, a great fire raged through Rome, burning significant portions of the city. Commodus rebuilt it with a new name, Colonia Lucchia Ania Comodiana. The citizens of the world's greatest city would be known as Comodiani. 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' 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' 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 dominatio 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.