The figure of Commodus still conjures, in the modern imagination, Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000). Literary and historical tradition alike paint him as a mad, depraved emperor, the stark opposite of his father, the Stoic Marcus Aurelius. But was that truly the whole story?

Commodus succeeded his father upon the latter’s death in AD 180, either in Vindobona (Vienna) or, according to other sources, in Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica). Marcus Aurelius’ choice was driven by dynastic necessity: Commodus was his only surviving direct heir. Aside from a lifestyle perceived as dissolute and influenced by Eastern customs, Commodus had shown no clear signs of mental instability, and his father trusted that the weight of imperial responsibility would push him toward maturity. After concluding an unfavorable peace with the Marcomanni, Commodus returned to Rome, where he secured the loyalty of both the army and the populace through generous distributions.

At the same time, he patronized the Antonine arts, encouraged Eastern cults, especially Mithraism, and displayed a degree of tolerance toward Christianity, perhaps influenced by his lover Marcia, who was rumored to be a Christian herself.

His popularity among the people grew thanks to his frequent appearances as a gladiator, during which he delighted in impersonating Hercules. This behavior scandalized Roman society for two main reasons: first, gladiators were mostly slaves, belonging to the very lowest rung of the social hierarchy; and second, the bouts in which Commodus participated were often staged, with opponents who were defenseless or deliberately disarmed.

In 190, taking advantage of yet another fire that swept through the city, Commodus symbolically refounded Rome, renaming it Colonia Commodiana and attaching his own name to every state and military institution. Although such acts may strike us today as eccentric or antisocial, they fit coherently within a political vision modeled on an Eastern-style autocracy, already foreshadowed by predecessors such as Caligula, Nero, and Domitian, and stood in deliberate contrast to the princeps civilis ideal Marcus Aurelius had sought to embody.

Yet, as with those earlier emperors, his actions eventually alienated those closest to him. Fearing for his own life, the praetorian prefect, Aemilius Laetus, orchestrated a conspiracy involving Marcia and the gladiatorial trainer Narcissus. After a failed attempt to poison the emperor, it was Narcissus who ultimately strangled Commodus in 192.