I'm sure most of us have seen the portrayal of this guy by Joachim Phoenix in "Gladiator" but in reality,he was even more wacky. When Commodus became emperor at the age of 19,he was quite popular with the Roman people who had loved his father Marcus Aurelius but this soon faded.After a falling out with the Senate,Commodus began to dress like the god Hercules, wearing lion skins and carrying a club.Then he renamed Rome after himself "Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana" and tried to change the names of all the months of the year to coincide with his titles "Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius, Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius" Not content with this,he began taking part in spectacles in the ampitheater (as in the movie). Not only would Commodus fight and defeat the most skilled gladiators, he would also test his talents by encountering the most ferocious of the beasts. His one redeeming quality was that he relaxed persecution of the Christians probably due to the fact that his mistress Marcia was a convert.He should have been more careful because a plot against him was launched,possibly with Marcia's help and he was murdered by an athlete named Narcissus on December 31,192. Russell Crow was not involved.
How about the time when he had all the injured soldiers who had missing legs or arms come into the arena and positioned them so their missing appendages would appear to be underground (like a man missing his legs would stand on just the stumps, thus appearing to be venturing forth from the underworld), anyway using knobby club he proceeded to whack their brains out to the enjoyment of the crowd. Bone
Christopher Plummer played Commodus in the 1964 film "The Fall of the Roman Empire", which is probably the best of the 1950's-1960's Roman spectacle films. It is available on DVD. It tells mostly the same story as "Gladiator" but no Maximus. Another "quirky" emperor they could have invited to the party was Elagabalus. (If they needed a "girl").
HEY!...you guys are seriously limiting my pool of future kooks of the week. OK,never mind,there were plenty to last a while. Meanwhile,here is Elagabalus..the manly man as seen on his coin.My guess is he posed for the reverse as well.
