Here's something I just read about Commodus:
------
Was Emperor Commodus really a bad guy as we saw in the movie Gladiator?
Great question! He was WAY worse in real life compared to Gladiator.
Gladiator portrays Commodus as this obsessive power-hungry monster concerned with the love of the people above all.
In reality, Commodus was a vain, sick, and evil bastard that caused tons of suffering to countless people and cared only for himself.
Commodus’s had a good father to learn from. His dad and Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was a top-tier Emperor who worked very hard to maintain the strength of the Empire.
When Marcus died and passed power to his son he was at the end of a years-long war against the Germanic tribes along the border, specifically the Marcomanni. These tribes had long been a serious problem and had been raiding the Empire constantly for centuries.
Marcus was closing in on victory when he died and made his son promise to finish the wars. Once Commodus was in power though he decided that he just didn’t want to spend any more time fighting the Germans and ended the war with a crappy peace deal.
Back in Rome, there were problems. Commodus could care less though.
You see Commodus never wanted to be Emperor. He only ever wanted to be a gladiator.
So Commodus appointed his two best friends (both slaves) to run the Empire while he went off to be a gladiator.
This was bonkers FYI. Gladiators were slaves who died for the amusement of the people. To see an Emperor fight as a gladiator is like seeing the President walk the street as a hooker trying to turn tricks.
While Commodus trained and fought his buddies mucked it all up. Rome would experience a famine, economic hardship, and social upheaval all while Commodus played gladiator.
Commodus would nearly bankrupt the treasury his father had built up by throwing near-constant gladiator games. You see Commodus loved to fight in the ring, though his opponents had dull swords and could never win. Mostly though Commodus enjoyed killing animals.
Moreover, Commodus loved to kill people he deemed “weird”. This includes women, dwarfs, disabled people, mentally ill people- you name it. He really enjoyed making them suffer often slowly killing them to show off his sword or bow skills.
In the end, the idiot would leave a “people I am going to kill” list on his desk for his mistress to find. The chief name on the list was hers, Commodus’s trainer, and a number of Senators. They decided to strike first and Commodus was strangled to death in his bath.
Read more>>> https://deepheeds.com/?p=1230
------
Given Commodus likes to fight the whole time, consider the following scenarios.
1. Commodus predeceases Marcus Aurelius due to a gladiator accident (slips and falls on his sword, run over by a chariot, etc).
2. Commodus is not permitted become a gladiator by the Senate or some other official unless he abdicates, in which case the next man in line becomes emperor.
3. Commodus starts being a jerk so the host of the gladiator combat "accidentally" gives one of the emperor's opponents, a trained assassin, a real sword. Commodus is killed and it's passed off as an accident.
4. Commodus does not leave the note on his desk and is not killed when he is.
5. The caretakers running the empire in Commodus's absence are more qualified (smart slaves) than IOTL. The Senate thinks one of these interim emperors should replace Commodus de jure after first being emancipated. Commodus is stripped of his title and left out to dry.
6. The Senate demands that they appoint the caretakers in case of an absent or incapacitated emperor. Hmm: two guys running the show when there's no emperor? Sounds pretty familiar. Did they still have consuls?
BONUS SCENARIOS:
7. Marcus Aurelius wins the Marcomanni war before he dies and Commodus succeeds him as IOTL.
8. The Senate wants to make both caretakers emperors but can't. How about, say, dividing the empire in two...who could have possibly thought of doing something like that?
------
Was Emperor Commodus really a bad guy as we saw in the movie Gladiator?
Great question! He was WAY worse in real life compared to Gladiator.
Gladiator portrays Commodus as this obsessive power-hungry monster concerned with the love of the people above all.
In reality, Commodus was a vain, sick, and evil bastard that caused tons of suffering to countless people and cared only for himself.
Commodus’s had a good father to learn from. His dad and Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was a top-tier Emperor who worked very hard to maintain the strength of the Empire.
When Marcus died and passed power to his son he was at the end of a years-long war against the Germanic tribes along the border, specifically the Marcomanni. These tribes had long been a serious problem and had been raiding the Empire constantly for centuries.
Marcus was closing in on victory when he died and made his son promise to finish the wars. Once Commodus was in power though he decided that he just didn’t want to spend any more time fighting the Germans and ended the war with a crappy peace deal.
Back in Rome, there were problems. Commodus could care less though.
You see Commodus never wanted to be Emperor. He only ever wanted to be a gladiator.
So Commodus appointed his two best friends (both slaves) to run the Empire while he went off to be a gladiator.
This was bonkers FYI. Gladiators were slaves who died for the amusement of the people. To see an Emperor fight as a gladiator is like seeing the President walk the street as a hooker trying to turn tricks.
While Commodus trained and fought his buddies mucked it all up. Rome would experience a famine, economic hardship, and social upheaval all while Commodus played gladiator.
Commodus would nearly bankrupt the treasury his father had built up by throwing near-constant gladiator games. You see Commodus loved to fight in the ring, though his opponents had dull swords and could never win. Mostly though Commodus enjoyed killing animals.
Moreover, Commodus loved to kill people he deemed “weird”. This includes women, dwarfs, disabled people, mentally ill people- you name it. He really enjoyed making them suffer often slowly killing them to show off his sword or bow skills.
In the end, the idiot would leave a “people I am going to kill” list on his desk for his mistress to find. The chief name on the list was hers, Commodus’s trainer, and a number of Senators. They decided to strike first and Commodus was strangled to death in his bath.
Read more>>> https://deepheeds.com/?p=1230
------
Given Commodus likes to fight the whole time, consider the following scenarios.
1. Commodus predeceases Marcus Aurelius due to a gladiator accident (slips and falls on his sword, run over by a chariot, etc).
2. Commodus is not permitted become a gladiator by the Senate or some other official unless he abdicates, in which case the next man in line becomes emperor.
3. Commodus starts being a jerk so the host of the gladiator combat "accidentally" gives one of the emperor's opponents, a trained assassin, a real sword. Commodus is killed and it's passed off as an accident.
4. Commodus does not leave the note on his desk and is not killed when he is.
5. The caretakers running the empire in Commodus's absence are more qualified (smart slaves) than IOTL. The Senate thinks one of these interim emperors should replace Commodus de jure after first being emancipated. Commodus is stripped of his title and left out to dry.
6. The Senate demands that they appoint the caretakers in case of an absent or incapacitated emperor. Hmm: two guys running the show when there's no emperor? Sounds pretty familiar. Did they still have consuls?
BONUS SCENARIOS:
7. Marcus Aurelius wins the Marcomanni war before he dies and Commodus succeeds him as IOTL.
8. The Senate wants to make both caretakers emperors but can't. How about, say, dividing the empire in two...who could have possibly thought of doing something like that?
Last edited: