Commodus

The emperor, Titus Antoninus Pius, married Aenea Galeria Faustina, the sister of Aeneas Verus, and was consequently the uncle of Marcus Antoninus.

When Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius and declared him his successor in the empire, Antoninus Pius adopted both Lucius Sionius Commodus, the son of Aelius Caesar, and Marcus Antoninus, whose original name was Marcus Aeneas Verus.

Antoninus then took the name of Marcus Aelius Aurelius Verus, to which was added the title of Caesar in AD 139.

The name Aelius belonged to Hadrian's family, and Aurelius was the name of Antoninus Pius.

Antoninus was a dutiful son, and the emperor Pius loved and esteemed him.

Antoninus Pius died in March, A.D. 161.

The Senate, it is said, urged Marcus Antoninus to take the sole administration of the empire, but he associated with himself the other adopted son of Pius, Lucius Seanius Commodus, who is generally called Lucius Verus.

Thus Rome, for the first time, had two emperors.

Terms and conditions apply.

It was New Year's Eve, December 31st, 192 A.D. Commodus started the day as Roman Emperor, but he fell to an assassination plot orchestrated by his mistress Marcia.

First she tried poisoning him, but because he was already drunk, Commodus quickly fell ill and vomited the toxin before it could take effect.

Then Marcia resorted to less subtle methods, as she simply sent a wrestler into the Emperor's chambers to strangle him.

Commodus was dead, and so with him was the Nerva-Antonine dynasty, as he had no children of his own and never adopted any heirs.

The question now was, who would become the new emperor? This would not be an easy thing to answer.

In fact, the collapse of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty plunged the Roman Empire into the most turbulent period of its history so far.

In 193 AD, five men would vie for power, and in one way or another, each one of them would lay claim to the Roman throne, eventually after betrayals, conspiracies, and assassinations only one would emerge triumphant, ready to forge his own dynasty, following the chaos known as the Year of the Five Emperors.

I don't know what to tell you.

Up or down, Commodus? It's that terrible that down there in Texas, that guy is what? Flip of a coin?

It's not the people moving in, right? They're Republicans, the people moving in from California.

Yes,

Again, Domitian the emperor was so cunning in shooting that he could shoot betwixt a man's fingers, standing afar off, and never hurt him.

Commodus also was so excellent, and had so sure a hand in it, that there was nothing within his reach and shot, but he would hit it in what place he would, as beasts running, either in the head or heart, and never miss.

As Herodian saith, he saw himself, or else he would never have believed it.

Philologist said, Indeed, you praise shooting very well, in that you show that Domitian and Commodus love shooting.

Such an ungracious couple! I'm sure as a man shall not find again if he raked all hell for them.

Toxophilus said, "'Well, even as I will not commend their illness, so ought not you to dispraise their goodness.

And, indeed, the judgment of Herodian upon Commodus is true of them both, and that was this, that, besides strength of body and good shooting, they had no princely thing in them.' "'Which saying, methink, commends shooting wonderfully, calling it a princely thing?' Furthermore, how commendable shooting is for princes, Themistius, the noble philosopher, showeth in a certain oration made to Theodosius, the emperor, wherein he doth commend him for three things that he used as a child, for shooting, for riding of a horse well, and for feats of arms.

Moreover, not only kings and emperors have been brought up in shooting, but also the best commonwealths that ever were have made goodly acts and laws for it.

In fact, the epithet Invictus was used for hundreds of years for both Roman emperors and other gods.

Emperors like Trajan, Commodus, and Caracalla called themselves Invictus, as were gods like Jupiter, Mars, and Apollo.

There are even coins that mention Hercules Invictus.

So throughout this video, I use sun god or soul with or without his full title Invictus because the Romans themselves did not use the word to refer to a specific sun god or a specific sun god cult.

Sol was already popular within the Roman military, corroborated by inscriptions of Roman soldiers fulfilling vows to Sol Invictus as far back as the 2nd century, decades before Elagabalus.

And Roman emperors were stamping their coins with images of the sun god since the reign of Vespasian, basically 150 years before Elagabalus.

In fact, Sol appears on Roman coinage almost annually starting from the reign of Commodus, and this practice continued all the way through Constantine's reign.

During this time, Sol's iconography remains relatively unchanged.

I'll leave you on this one there, audience.

Commodus, the emperor of Rome, who was the, you know, whatever, bad guy and gladiator.

She always used to tell me, you know, Tanner...

Commodus was appropriately named.

I said, why is that? She goes, well, when Commodus became the emperor, that's when Rome went down the commode.

I never heard that, but it's true.

Ah, Nancy King.