Ancient Rome - 177-192 AD Commodus AV Aureus NGC Choice MS

Commodus (31 August 161--31 December 192), who was born Lucius Aurelius Commodus and died Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, was Emperor of Rome from 180 to 192. He was co-emperor with his father, Marcus Aurelius, from 177 until the death of his father in 180. The reign of Commodus was a turning point in the history of Rome. His time on the throne was marked by political strife and Commodus's ever increasingly arbitrary and unpredictable behavior. A contemporary witness of the period, Dio Cassius, wrote that his taking office marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust." This famous quote led Edward Gibbon, among other historians, to see the reign of Commodus as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.

When he took the throne, it was the first time a son had succeeded his biological father since Titus succeeded Vespasian in 79. Commodus was also the first emperor to have both his father and grandfather as the two preceding emperors. On 12 October 166, Commodus was made Caesar along with his younger brother, Marcus Verus, who died in 169 as a result of an operation, which left Commodus as Marcus Aurelius's only surviving son. It was on 27 November 176 that Commodus was given the rank of Imperator. In the middle of 177, he was given the title Augustus, which gave him the same status as his father and he formally shared power with him. On 1 January 177, Commodus became consul for the first time, thereby making the 15-year-old the youngest consul in Roman history up to that time. Upon his father's death on the Danubian front on 17 March 180, Commodus became sole emperor at age 18.

Unlike emperors before him, he appeared to have had little interest in running the empire, and handed those responsibilities to a series of favorites, beginning with Saoterus, a freedman from Nicomedia who was his chamberlain.  Such behavior resulted in several conspiracies and attempted coups, which eventually led Commodus to control the government in a dictatorial fashion. Hated and feared by the Senate, he was popular with the common people and the army, mostly because of his largesse and because he staged and participated in spectacular gladiatorial combats. In his pronouncements and iconography, Commodus had promoted his uniqueness as a source of god-like power, bigheartedness and physical prowess. Many statues around the empire were erected that displayed Commodus in the apparel of Hercules, thus reinforcing his self-image as that of demigod, giant, protector, and a fighter against men and beasts. As Hercules, he could claim to be the son of Jupiter, the representative of the supreme god in the Roman pantheon. After a huge fire raged throughout Rome in 191, Commodus, in 192, declared himself the new Romulus, who ritually re-founded Rome, naming it Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana. The months of the year were conveniently renamed to match the twelve names Commodus had taken for himself.

A conspiracy was hatched to replace Commodus with Pertinax. He was poisoned, and when he vomited up the poison and did not die, the conspirators sent his wrestling partner, Narcissus, to strangle him in his bath.