COWSIODUS, LUCIUS sELItIS AURELIUS, son of Marcus Aurelius and of his wife Faustioa, was born A.D. 161. At the age of sixteen he accompanied his father in his journey to Syria, which had been disturbed by the revolt of Avidius Cassius. On his return to Rome, Commack. obtained his first consulship. Hs next s.ccoin. panied his father In his lad expedition against the Quadi and the Alarcomanni, during which Aurelius died at Vindebona (Vienna), and Commodus became his successor A.D. ISO. Having made peace with the northern tribes he returned to Rome, where be enjoyed a triumph. For • short time be appears to have governed with moderation, while several experienced officers—Albinus, Pescenulue Niger, Severue, Pertinax, and others—made the name of Rome respected on the frontiers of the empire. Commodus however, having dismissed the counsellors and friends of his father, gave himself up to the society of freedmen, gladiators, and profligate women, with whom he spent his thno in debauchery. His elder sister Lucille conspiring against him with Pompeianus, Quadratus, and other senators, they were all seized and executed. Having put to death his own wife Crispin*, Commudus took for hie concubine Marcia, a mistress of Quadratus, who seems to have maintained some sort of iuflucnce over him till his death. But a succession of unworthy favourites engrossed all political power, and committed every kind of injustice and cruelty. Conspiracy after con spiracy was discovered or invented by them, and a number of the principal senators were put to death and their property confiseatel. The favourites themselves destroyed each other in succession. One of them, Peronnie, was put to death with all hie family, and was replaced by Cleander, a Phrygian freedman, who put up to sale all the Immure and offices of the empire u well as the lives of the citizens. Mean. time the legions in Britain mutinied, and Commodes emit Pertinax, who had been exiled by Perenuie, to appease the mutiny. In Gaul also a soldier called Maternus collected a numerous baud of downers, but Peecennine Niger being sent against him, Msternus found means to escape with several of his followers, and came secretly to Rome with the intention of killing the emperor, but he was discovered and put to death. A dreadful pestilence afflicted Rome about the same time, which lasted three years, according to Dion. Commodus, to avoid the contagion, retired fur n time to Laurentmn, where he con tiuued his usual dissolute mode of life. At last a revolt broke out at Rome against the favourite Cleander ; the people repulsed the Praeto rian cavalry sent against them, and Commodue, to appease the storm, ordered the favourite to be put to death. In the year 19], under the
consulate of Apronianue and Brsdua, the Temple of Peace, one of the moat splendid buildings of Rome, took fire, and vast treasures, ne well as collections of books, which were deposited in it, were consumed. The fire spread to the temple of Vesta, from whence the Vestals ran away to the imperial palace, carrying the Palladium with them. The flames extended to the imperial palace also, and consumed part of it. In the following year Commodus was consul, for the seventh time, with Pertinax, whom ho bad recalled to Rome. Having had repeated information of Severus aspiring to the empire, Commodus wrote to Albinus in Britain offering him the title of Cmasr, which was refused. [CLAUDIUS ALBINOS.] At the close of his career, Commodus set no bounds to his extravagances: he disregarded common decency, exhi. bited himself in the circus and in the amphitheatre with the gladiators, dressed himself as Hercules, whose name he assumed, and on one occasion danced naked before the spectators. (Herodiau., i.15.) Being dissuaded by Marcia and some of hie officers from degrading himself in public in the company of gladiators, it is said that be wrote down their names for execution, and that the scroll being found by Marcia led to a plot against his life. However this may be, poison was administered to hires and while suffering under its effect., a powerful athlete was sent in, who strangled him (Ln. 192), in his thirty-second year and the thirteenth of his reign. Pertinax, who succeeded him, had hie body buried privately, but it was afterwards transferred to the Mausoleum of Hadrian. (Dion, lib. 12, Lampridiue, and Herodianue, 6-16.) Commodus had the advantage of a good education and the example of a virtuous father; he found the empire prosperous after a succession of wive reigns for nearly a century, with a number of able, officers, civil and military. lie left it a prey to confusion, sedition, ill-reprereed irruption. of barbarians, the army demoralised, and rival generals dis puting for the supreme power. The visible and rapid decline of the Roman empire may be said to date from his reign. The plea of insanity, which is put forth for Caligula's short career of frenzy, can. not be extended to Commodus: his was decidedly a vicious and depraved disposition, which had a full opportunity of displaying itself in the possession of unlimited power.