Commodus

Ceasar Commodus

Caesar Lucius Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus Augustus (161 – 192 AD), Roman emperor.

Quotes about Commodus:

• Commodus, after the death of his father, ascended the throne at a very young age. He had been educated to recognize and appreciate the arts and sciences: but corrupted by the flattering courtiers, who always surround the young and inexperienced princes, he left the government in the hands of these, and occupied himself, as an amateur, in showing himself on the theater below. the likeness of Apollo with the lyre, in the amphitheaters as an athlete or gladiator, hunting like Diana and Apollo. Without perhaps being a tyrant by nature, he left the empire in the hands of the tyrants who are the flatterers and intriguers of the courts, and abandoned himself in the arms of debauchery and all the comforts of life. (Ion Heliade Rădulescu)
• Commodus had shown himself from his early years as he was later to progress: devoid of elevation of soul, feeling, and courage, succumbing to all bad impressions, and contumacious to any sort of good that was desired inspire him; a very strong inclination to pleasure, and a violent aversion to fatigue. If he had any ability, he had it only for those things, which did not befit his rank. He knew how to joust, dance and sing: he was a comedian and gladiator. But the teachers that his father placed around him to form his intellect and heart, and the lessons of wisdom and virtue that he himself gave him, found neither input nor good will in this Prince. (Jean-Baptiste-Louis Crevier)
• The assimilation of the foreign element was so rapid that the son of Marcus Aurelius [Commodus] seems to be the last emperor of Rome who could claim untainted descent from Italian parentage. (Frank Tenney)

Edward Gibbon:

• Commodus, from his early years, showed aversion to all liberal sciences and arts, and excessive love for the entertainment of the populace, the games of the circus and the amphitheatre, the gladiator fights, and the hunting of wild beasts. The masters of every science, which Marcus Aurelius procured for his son, were listened to with inattention and boredom; while the Moors and Parthians, who trained him to throw the dart and shoot the bow, found in him an attentive pupil, who soon equaled his most skilled teachers in the correctness of his aim and the dexterity of his hand.
• The monstrous vices of his son have overshadowed the splendor of his father's virtues. Marcus Aurelius has been reproached for having chosen a successor rather from his family than from the Republic, and sacrificing the happiness of millions of men to his excessive tenderness for an unworthy boy.
• Born weaker than evil, he became, through natural simplicity and shyness, the slave of his courtiers, who little by little corrupted his spirit. His cruelty, which at first was the effect of the suggestions of others, degenerated into a habit and a page of history was stained with civil blood; but similar reasons do not justify the unprovoked cruelties of Commodus, who, enjoying everything, had nothing to desire. Mark's beloved son succeeded his father amidst the acclamations of the Senate and the armies. And when this fortunate young man ascended the throne, he found neither rivals to fight, nor enemies to punish. In that quiet and sublime fortune he naturally had to prefer the love of men to their detestation, and the sweet glories of his five predecessors to the ignominious fate of Nero and Domitian.

Gladiator:

• Commodus is a man without morality, you have known this since you were a boy... Commodus cannot govern, he absolutely must not govern.
• Commodus... your failures as a son are my failure as a father.
• The young emperor proclaimed a series of performances to commemorate his father, Marcus Aurelius; I find it funny since it was Marcus Aurelius, the wise, the knowledgeable Marcus Aurelius who interrupted the games.