A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

818 COMMODUS.
colleague in the tribunician power; on the 1st of
January, 177, he entered on his first consulship;
in the same year he married Bruttia Crispina, daughter of Bruttius Praesens, was hailed as Augustus
and Pater Patriae, and thus at the age of 16 was
admitted to a full participation in all the imperial
dignities except the chief pontificate, which, according to the principle maintained inviolate until
the reign of Balbinus and Pupienus [BALBINUS],
could be held by one individual only. On the
5th of August he set forth to take part in the war
then raging on the Upper Danube, which, as is
mentioned elsewhere [M. AURELIUS], was prosecuted with signal success until the death of M.
Aurelius, on the 17th of March, 180.
Impatient of hardship and eager to indulge
without restraint in the pleasures of the capital,
Commodus, disregarding alike the last injunctions
of his sire and the earnest advice of the trusty
counsellors to whose care he had been consigned,
concluded a hasty and therefore uncertain peace
with the barbarians, who in their depressed and
enfeebled condition might by a vigorous effort have
been crushed for ever. In autumn he reached
Rome, where his authority was as fully and freely
acknowledged by the senate, the praetorians, and
the people, as it had been by the legions which he
commanded in person and the armies of the distant
provinces. No prince ever commenced a career of
power under fairer auspices. The love and veneration entertained by men of every condition for the
father had descended like an inheritance on the,on, and although some who knew him well and
had marked his boyhood might whisper distrust
and fear, such murmurs were drowned by the
general acclamations which greeted his first appearance as emperor. Nor were the hopes of men
for a while disappointed. Grave and calculating
statesmen might feel displeasure and alarm at the
reckless profusion which characterised the very
commencement of the new reign; but since a
large portion of the sums squandered was lavished
upon the soldiers and the people, the lower orders at least of the community were enthusiastic in
their attachment to the new ruler. This state of
things did not endure long. A formidable plot
against his life was organised (A. D. 183) by his
sister Lucilla, jealous, it was believed, of the superior influence and position of Crispina; but the
scheme failed in consequence of the awkwardness
of the assassin, who, instead of dealing the fatal
blow at the proper moment, put the prince upon
his guard by exclaiming as he rushed forward,
" The senate sends thee this." The event seems
to have awakened the slumbering ferocity of a
temper which now burst forth with frightful
vehemence, and raging from that time forward
without controul, especially against the members of
that body in which the conspiracy was said to
have originated, rendered the remainder of his life
an unbroken tissue of sanguinary excesses. Every
pretext was seized for the exhibition of the most
savage cruelty; false accusations, vague suspicions,
great wealth, high birth, distinguished learning, or
any conspicuous virtue, were sufficient to point out
and doom his victims, long lists of whom have
been preserved by Lampridius, including nearly all
who had risen to fame and fortune under M. Aurelius, with the exception of Pertinax, Pompeianus,
and Victorinus. [PERTINAX; POMPEIANUS; VicTORINUS.] All other passions were indulged with

COMMODUS.
the same freedom as the thirst for blood. Resigning the reins of government into the hands of the
various favourites who followed each other in rapid
succession [see PERENNIS; CLEANDER; LAETUS;
ECLECTUS], he abandoned himself without interruption to the most shameless and beastly debauchery. But while devouring in gluttony the
resources of the empire and wallowing in every
description of sensual filth, he was at the same
time the slave of the most childish vanity, and
sought for popular applause with indefatigable
activity. He disdained not to dance, to sing, to
play the charioteer and the buffoon, to disguise
himself as a pedlar or a horse-dealer, and to essay
his skill in the practical pursuits of the humble
artizan. Frequently he would appear and officiate
as a sacrificing priest, and eagerly assisted in all
the orgies of foreign superstition, celebrating the
rites of Isis, of Anubis, of Serapis, or of Mithra,
in all their folly and all their horror. His pride
and boast, however, was his skill in the use of
martial weapons. This he sought not to display
against the enemies of his country in the field, but
he fought as a gladiator upwards of seven hundred
times, and slew many thousands of wild beasts in
the amphitheatre with bow and spear. Other emperors had sought or accepted the compliment of
having one month named after themselves, but
Commodus decreed that the whole twelve should
be designated by the epithets and titles which he
had at different periods assumed, and that they
should be arranged and enumerated in the following
order: -Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius,
Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus,
Romanus, Exsuperatorius, ordaining also that the
happy epoch during which he had sojourned on
earth should be distinguished as Seculum aureum
Commodianum, the nation as Commodiana, the
senate as Commodianus, the armies as Commodiani,
and the eternal city itself as Colonia Commodiana.
At length the miserable craving could be no longer
appeased by the homage and flatteries which a
mere mortal might claim. Long ere this, indeed,
the Greeks had been wont to compare their rulers,
both domestic and foreign, to deities, and the Romans had sometimes delicately hinted at some such
resemblance by the devices stamped on the reverse
of the coins of their Augusti. But as yet no inscription had appeared openly ascribing divine
attributes to living princes, nor had any symbol
appeared on their medals which could openly and
directly convey such impious meaning. It was
left for Commodus to break through these decent
restrictions; his exploits in the slaughter of wild
beasts suggested an analogy with the Tirynthian
hero; he demanded that he should be worshipped
as Hercules, and hence from the year 191 we find
a multitude of coins on which he is represented in
the attire of the immortal son of Alcmena, with
the epigraph of Hercules Commodianus or Hercules
Romanus. His statues also, we are told by the
historians of the day, were clad in the appropriate
robes; sacrifices were publicly offered as to a present God; when he went abroad the lion's hide
and other insignia were borne before him; and, to
crown the whole, a number of unhappy wretches
were inclosed in cases terminating in serpent-tails,
and these he slaughtered with his club, as if they
had been the giants warring against heaven.
After having escaped many plots provoked by
atrocious tyranny, he at length came to a fitting