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Hand of fate 2 palace armoury7/4/2023 ![]() In the Minucian Portico a bronze statue of Hercules sweated for several days. The twin gates of the temple of Janus opened of their own accord, and a marble image of Anubis was seen to move. Commodus himself moved his residence from the Palace to the Aedes Vectilianae on the Caelian hill, saying that he could not sleep in the Palace. On January 1st a swift coming mist and darkness arose in the Circus and before dawn there had already been fire-birds and ill-boding portents. Before the war of the deserters the heavens were ablaze. Footprints of the gods were seen in the Forum departing from it. The prodigies that occurred in his reign, both those which concerned the state and those which affected Commodus personally, were as follows. Among other triumphal titles, he was also given the name “Captain of the Secutores” six hundred and twenty times. He gave an order, also, for the burning of the city, as though it were his private colony, and this order would have been executed had not Laetus, the prefect of the guard, deterred him. And although the people regularly applauded him in his frequent combats as though he were a god, he became convinced that he was being laughed at, and gave orders that the Roman people should be slain in the Amphitheatre by the marines who spread the awnings. He entitled the Roman people the “People of Commodus,” since he had very often fought as a gladiator in their presence. And it was his custom, moreover, to order the insertion in the city-gazette of everything he did that was base or foul or cruel, or typical of a gladiator or a pimp - at least, the writings of Marius Maximus so testify. And he frequently did these things before the eyes of the Roman people.Īt gladiatorial shows he would come to watch and stay to fight, covering his bare shoulders with a purple cloth. ![]() He also killed with his own hand thousands of wild beasts of all kinds, even elephants. Afterwards, by vanquishing or slaying retiarii, he won enough gladiatorial crowns to bring the number up to a thousand. Besides these facts, it is related in records that he fought 365 gladiatorial combats in his father’s reign. He had been called Amazonius, moreover, because of his passion for his concubine Marcia, whom he loved to have portrayed as an Amazon, and for whose sake he even wished to enter the arena of Rome dressed as an Amazon. The Historia Augusta’s Life of Commodus gives some more sensational details:Ĭertain months were renamed in his honour by his flatterers for August they substituted Commodus, for September Hercules, for October Invictus, for November Exsuperatorius, and for December Amazonius, after his own surname. Historia Augusta, Life of Marcus Aurelius 19.1-9 The Emperor Commodus Leaving the Arena at the Head of the Gladiators And what was her dowry? The Empire, which, after he had been adopted at the wish of Hadrian, he had inherited from his father-in‑law Pius. When Marcus Antoninus was told about this so he might divorce, if not kill her, he is reported to have said “If we send our wife away, we must also return her dowry”. Many writers, however, state that Commodus was really the child of adultery, since it is generally known that Faustina, while at Caieta, used to choose out lovers from among the sailors and gladiators. This story is considered plausible, as a matter of fact, because the son of so virtuous an emperor had habits worse than any lanista, any actor, any arena roadie, anything brought into existence from the dregs of all dishonour and crime. When this was done, the passion was ended, but their son Commodus was born a gladiator, not really a prince for afterwards as emperor he fought almost a thousand gladiatorial bouts before the people, as shall be related in his life. And when Marcus reported this to the Chaldeans, it was their advice that Faustina should bathe in his blood and thus couch with her husband. Later, when she had been sick for a long time, she confessed the passion to her husband. On a certain occasion, it was said, Faustina, the daughter of Pius and wife of Marcus, saw some gladiators pass by and burned with love for one of them. Some say, and it seems plausible, that Commodus Antoninus, his son and successor, was not his child, but the product of an affair they embroider this assertion, moreover, with a story current among the people. The ever reliably over the top Historia Augusta gives a scurrilous story to explain Commodus’ mania for gladiators it claims that Commodus’ real father was a gladiator. Commodus is perhaps best remembered now as the Emperor in Gladiator (2000) the real life Commodus was certainly fond of fighting as a gladiator, though he was also co-emperor with his father, Marcus Aurelius, and ruled for several years after he died, which is something the film ignores.
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