Commodus Antoninus
161 – 192 · Generation XI · Roman emperor (r. AD 177–192) · Nerva–Antonine
Commodus (AD 161 – AD 192). Roman emperor (r. AD 177–192). The first emperor born to a reigning father in a century — he fought as a gladiator and renamed Rome after himself before being strangled in his bath. He accompanied Marcus Aurelius on the Marcomannic campaigns and on a tour of the eastern provinces, and at sixteen became the youngest emperor and consul Rome had yet seen. His years of sole rule brought less fighting than his father’s, but intrigue and conspiracy thickened around him, and his answer was an ever more dictatorial style crowned by a cult that presented him as divine. The daily business of empire he left to favourites — the chamberlain Saoterus, the praetorian prefect Perennis, then the chamberlain Cleander. His reign is commonly held to mark the close of the Pax Romana, and his death at the hands of the wrestler Narcissus extinguished the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, leaving the throne to Pertinax and the turmoil of the Year of the Five Emperors.
One of 12 people of Nerva–Antonine (30–192) in this archive. The adoptive emperors: for four reigns the purple passed to a chosen heir rather than a born one.
Line of descent: Nerva Cocceius → Trajan Optimus → Hadrian Aelius → Antoninus Pius → Marcus Aurelius Antoninus → Commodus Antoninus.
Parents
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 – 180)
- Faustina the Younger (130 – 175)
Siblings
- Lucilla Augusta (148 – 182)