The Emperor Commodus: God and Gladiator by John S McHugh

By John S McHugh

Commodus is synonymous with debauchery and megalomania, top remembered for battling as a gladiator. Ridiculed and maligned through historians given that his personal time, smooth pop culture understands him because the patricidal villain in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. a lot of his infamy is obviously according to truth, yet is that this the whole story?
John McHugh experiences the traditional proof to offer the 1st full-length biography of Commodus in English. His twelve-year reign is determined in its historic context, displaying that the 'kingdom of gold' he supposedly inherited was once truly an empire devastated via plague and warfare. brazenly autocratic, Commodus compromised the privileges and vested pursuits of the senatorial clique, who for this reason plotted to homicide him. Surviving repeated conspiracies in basic terms confident Commodus that he used to be less than divine safety, more and more determining himself as Hercules reincarnate. This and his antics within the area allowed his senatorial enemies to provide Commodus as a mad tyrant to justify his homicide, which they ultimately succeeded in arranging via having him strangled by means of a wrestler.

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