All language subtitles for Gladiators Warriors s01e05 Commodus The Emperor Gladiator

Commodus becomes the emperor of Rome at
a young age, but his rule will be unlike

any other.

He quickly indulges himself. He gets
used to the amount of power he has.

While the people need a leader, he
disappears, training not to govern, but

fight as a gladiator.

Commodus is obsessed with gladiators.

He's not interested in being a military
man, but he is interested in spectacle.

Obsessed with the arena, he abandons the
capital to perfect his lethal skills,

leaving the empire adrift.

It produced a lot of discontent among
the Romans.

It's a sign of a bad emperor.

On his return to Rome, he stages grand
games with a real shock.

is yet to come as Commodus enters the
coliseum to perform in gladiatorial

for the entertainment of the masses.

Commodus is unique, the only emperor
ever to appear as a gladiator.

For the senate it is humiliating and for
the emperor deadly.

192 CE.

The Colosseum has been standing for more
than 100 years.

Since its completion, a succession of
emperors has focused on expanding the

Roman Empire.

But now, a different kind of emperor
reigns.

50 ,000 people have gathered in the
coliseum for an extravagant day.

Among them, this is the Emperor Commodus
in the coliseum.

The Emperor Commodus has been emperor
for about 12 years, and he's decided to

hold some magnificent games to show just
what a powerful figure he is.

And these are going to be unlike any
games that have ever been held before,

because he himself, is going to be the
star attraction.

The emperor appears in his box, dressed
as a god.

Commodus wants to show the audience that
he as an emperor is so powerful, he is

basically one of the gods.

Everyone can see the emperor.

The emperor is as much the center of
attention on these shows as the

down in the arena.

Some people want their emperor to share
in the same kind of passions and

entertainment that they do.

And so that's an extra special spectacle
for the people to witness.

And for the crowd, one of the big
fuzzies they get is that there they are

sharing this hugely expensive
entertainment with the emperor himself.

And then the games begin.

First he's going to show off to everyone
what a skilled and brilliant hunter of

animals he can be He begins by killing a
hundred bears

But he's never in any danger He has a
catwalk built above

the coliseum so that he can safely walk
above the animals and just pick them off

with his bow and arrow

And he actually kills them so that they
line up in rows so that people could

count them easily.

And his audience marveled at his skill.
He was in particular a very skilled

archer.

And it's not just terrifying animals
that they're killing like lions and

rhinoceroses. They're gentle beasts like
giraffes.

It seems that he sees this as an
expression of his power.

Commodus calls for a drink.

The crowd shouts out, cheers.

And he raises his glass tube in
acknowledgement.

The crowd, thrilled by the action, is
eager for more.

But this is just the beginning.

The spectacles succumb.

will astonish the people of rome to make
his games really special commodus had

brought in a rhinoceros that's the
hardest beast to capture and to

the idea of a rhinoceros in the coliseum
it was not new once

every few years maybe once or twice a
decade might be introduced but it was

simply too exotic too difficult too
expensive

You can't be killing rhinos at a regular
rate. All the logistics and all the

economics argue against it.

And they're pretty hard to kill.

A rhinoceros has very tough hide.

They're big, they're powerful.

And yet, Commodus is on his catwalk,
repeatedly throwing spears at it, firing

arrows at it, until the poor beast is
dead.

As the game continues, Commodus kills
countless exotic animals.

The slaughter is witnessed by a Roman
senator and historian,

Cassius Dio.

Cassius Dio is making his way up the
senatorial ladder at this point, and he

one of our main sources for the imperial
period of Roman history.

He writes this huge, multi -volume
history of Rome.

but it includes this great story of
being at the games.

Commodus, as part of his theatrical
spectacle in the Colosseum, cuts off the

head of an ostrich, pulls it up
menacingly at the senator,

which they don't take quite

as they should, instead of being
terrified by this spectacle of

They are trying desperately to stifle
love.

These games are already notorious, but
they take a shocking turn.

Commodus is about to cross a line no
emperor ever should.

The moment in Rome's history has finally
reached its pinnacle when we think

about gladiatorial games.

The crowd is going to witness an emperor
fighting as a gladiator.

This is a spectacle no one has ever
seen.

We've had emperors appear on the stage
before in chariot races.

but we've never had an emperor actually
appear as a gladiator.

I think for the ordinary Romans they see
this as the emperor showing that he's

one of them.

He's prepared to get his hands dirty and

do things that will impress the ordinary
people.

But for people like the senators who are
watching this, this is just absolutely

unacceptable.

The emperor, the person who's meant to
be at the top of Roman society, mixed

with those who are at the very bottom.

In general, the senate disapproved of
showmen, and so Commodus was hardly

to endure himself to the senatorial
class by performing as a gladiator, an

unheard -of disgrace.

You can hear the hearts of Roman men
breaking as they watch their emperor put

himself into this position.

Because whilst they might all enjoy the
game, certainly by that stage their

standards were such that you were not
meant to participate in them if you were

from the upper classes.

What does it mean to take the position
of imperial power and to colour

it? with all of the negative
connotations that get associated with

combat.

Their bodies being slightly sullied by
the way that they are forced to fight.

They are not achieving things on the
battlefield.

This is just a display.

What does this say about an emperor that
they would do this?

The Senate would have seen it as
unbecoming of the most powerful man.

An individual is supposed to represent
all the pomp and circumstance and

ceremony associated with the upper
classes of Rome's society to fight in

Colosseum.

But, of course, Commodus, I don't think
particularly cared much for the opinion

of that.

Commodus entering the arena may have
shocked Rome and its senators, but it's

culmination of an obsession.

Commodus is an emperor gladiator, and he
was particularly interested in

gladiatorial combat from very early in
his life.

Commodus was born to a ruling emperor,
the emperor Marcus Aurelius.

one of the famous good emperors of the
second century CE.

As you would expect of someone who was
born into the imperial family, Commodus

had a very good education.

Commodus was very fortunate.

One of his tutors was a spectacular
doctor who had previously cared for

gladiators, Galen.

Galen was perhaps the greatest doctor
from antiquity.

and becomes Marcus Aurelius' own
personal physician, who then he succeeds

becomes Commodus' doctor as well.

So he came with an absolute wealth of
medical knowledge and also knowledge

gladiators, and that may have inspired
Commodus' own interest in gladiators.

It's not perhaps completely out of the
question that Commodus would be

some training from gladiators as a young
man.

We know that from as far back as 105 BCE
that Roman soldiers are receiving

training from gladiators.

His father was trying to train him.

Marcus Aurelius is generally remembered
by later historians as an intelligent

philosopher, emperor, so to speak.

He's not really interested in
gladiators. For him, they're populist,

unintellectual.

And who says that he didn't like the
amphitheatre because it was boring?

Marcus can see is that you don't want to
waste a lot of good fighting men in

gladiatorial combat when they should be
out fighting for the empire.

So he puts limits on how much people can
spend on gladiators.

Marcus Aurelius tried to limit the
violence of gladiatorial combat

insisting that gladiatorial parrots
fight with wooden swords.

But of course it was very difficult, if
not impossible, to enforce these rules.

So while he personally may have had
reservations about the role of

matches in society, they certainly still
took place during his reign.

Marcus Aurelius had spent almost all of
his reign fighting in what is now

Germany and the area north of the
Danube.

And he had started to bring this area
under Roman control.

While fighting for Roman dominance,
Marcus Aurelius spends years on the

battlefield and sends for his son
Commodus to join him.

So Commodus goes out with his father on
a military campaign.

He and his father seem to have had a
fairly close relationship.

He seems to have quite liked his son.

Marcus Aurelius' intent was for his son
to succeed him.

By 180 CE, Marcus Aurelius has secured
major victories,

but he falls ill and dies while on
campaign.

His son Commodus ascends to the throne.

Commodus is the sole emperor of Rome.

At only 18.

It's the first time you've actually had
an emperor have a male heir succeed him

since the first century CE.

And since then there have been a series
of good emperors where they have been

appointed on merit.

So you have a line of good emperors and
then suddenly you get Commodus.

Commodus comes to lots of diplomatic
arrangements with the groups that Marcus

Aurelius has been fighting.

Commodus just wasn't really interested
in actual fighting.

He's not interested in being a military
man.

So what he does is he makes peace with
these tribes.

Which means that he doesn't have to stay
out on those borders anymore but can

come back to Rome.

For Commodus to relinquish all his
father's territorial gains hardly

could have gone down well with the Roman
Senate.

Marcus Aurelius saw that as his greatest
legacy.

This is perceived as being an act of
cowardice, that he should have carried

wars that had largely been going Rome's
way and consolidated his father's gains.

People back home thought that this was
throwing in the towel prematurely.

With Commodus now on the throne,

There is hope the new emperor will
govern wisely, like his father before

Homer is strikingly different from his
father, Marcus Aurelius.

He's not interested in doing things the
philosophical way.

He's not interested in the running of
the Roman Empire.

It's a bunch of paperwork.

It's a bunch of grumpy senators.

Being in charge might be the most boring
part of being a Roman emperor.

The emperors were expected to make sure
that things run as they should, making

sure that the people have things that
meet their basic needs.

And the idea is that the emperor will
talk to the Senate and they'll negotiate

together to find the best way forward.

He should be passing laws. He should be
mixing with the powerful men who run the

city and make policy.

So that's part of the role of being an
emperor.

But that doesn't happen.

He entrusted major tasks to individuals
that didn't show any particular aptitude

for the jobs that they were entrusted.

He quickly indulges himself.

He gets used to the amount of power he
has.

wanting to follow his own interests and
his own pursuit.

He spends a lot of money putting on
shows.

And he needs to get the money from
somewhere.

And the easiest way to do it is just to
condemn rich men and then just

confiscate all their property.

So it means that the emperor can just
appropriate their assets.

So many, many senators have this happen
to them.

Now, obviously, that does not endear him
to the senatorial class as a whole.

And so we get this tension between the
emperor and the senate.

The senate is outraged by the emperor's
actions.

Plots against Commodus slowly form.

And soon, his life will be placed in
grave danger.

By 182 CE, Commodus has been in power
for two years.

He has taken money from the wealthy
elite of the city to indulge his own

pleasures. The Senate's dissatisfaction
with his dangerous ruler grows deeper.

He's still judged with his character,
prone to displays of great

extravagance.

It was very unclear in which way his
reign was taking not just the city but

empire.

It seems like Commodus is doing things
that don't accord with a number of

of Rome.

Not being able to control kind of his
own indulgences, as it were, and the

effect that that then has on the
imperial treasury.

And so a conspiracy is formulated.

that also involves his sister.

His sister Lucilla didn't see a way that
Rome could continue to function under

this sort of emperor.

She must have had powerful backers.

People like the senators, they get a
sense that Commodus has gone too far.

The conspiracy itself is to stab
Commodus.

The assassination attempt is made as
Commodus approaches the amphitheater,

flanked by his bodyguards.

From the shadows, the attack is
launched.

A man produces this dagger and says, the
Senate sends you this.

So they're unsuccessful.

And at first, Commodus doesn't seem to
overreact.

It makes the Emperor think, well,
perhaps the Senate are out to get me.

It's framed in terms of these political
implications of what Commodus is doing

to the state.

But then there seems to be more
investigation.

Some of the people involved in the
initial attempt were trying to cover up

had happened and their involvement in
it.

And that's when we start to see more
accusations coming out.

When you have these sort of big
conspiracies, there are often leaks.

Lucilla had a lover.

She was talking about getting rid of
Commodus with this lover.

And then that maybe came to the fore.

When Commodus learns the identities of
the assassins, he is enraged.

The conspirators are executed, including
his own sister, Lucilla.

Commodus realizes the threat of
conspiracy and decides to leave Rome.

That means leaving someone in charge,
and he leaves one of his imperial

attendants, Cleander.

And that is seen as sort of wholly
unsuitable as a person to be in charge

functionally of running the empire.

Commodus leaves Rome, goes to hang out
in Lanuvia, tucked away in his palace,

and he's just enjoying himself.

He's investing all of his energy in
doing exactly what he loves.

Commodus is endlessly practising all his
gladiatorial skills.

One of the people that Commodus is
training with during this period when

Lanuvium is a wrestler named Narcissus.

He teaches him all of these different
moves.

Practising throwing his spears, firing
his bows and arrows.

And how to wrestle effectively.

He's having hundreds of mock fights
against people.

He actually has genuine skill.

He's repeated to have had almost 1 ,000
fights in private in his own purpose

-built amphitheatre in Linuvium.

Even though these are not proper fights,
fighting the emperor could be dangerous

for the gladiators.

He may cut off the tips of their ears or
the tip of their nose.

On one occasion, the gladiator offered
to fight him with no weapon, but he took

this as an insult, fearing that the
gladiator would seize his own sword and

him with it.

And so he immediately has the gladiator
executed.

It appears that Commodus is engaging in
all sorts of debauchery, leading a

dissolute. The sources even describe him
at this point as dressing up as a god.

He starts dressing as the god Hercules.

So he would wear a lion -skin shawl and
carry this club around.

Hercules is a really popular demigod for
gladiators in the ancient world.

Hercules is known for the incredible
feats of strength that he performs.

That's part of his mythology.

Gladiators could identify with him.

He's a god of labour, who through his
hard work and his skill, who acquires

divine status.

Makes him quite a good model for people
who fight for a living.

So, you know, the imagery of Hercules as
this mythological hero.

carries the potential to display this
sort of powerful image, but again also

one that connects them to a deeply
heroic and mythologized past.

That is what Commodus wants to
underline, that he is an emperor who is

skillful, so powerful, that he has
become a living god.

Commodus has abandoned his
responsibilities as emperor to play at

gladiator, and the empire starts to feel
the consequences.

Back in Rome, the empire is not doing
very well.

The emperor is away from Rome, they've
left someone else in charge, and that,

definition, is a problem.

Cleander is pretty much in control in
Rome.

He's not particularly well set up for
political life.

He's corrupt.

He's very unpopular with the senatorial
class.

Cleander's corruption reaches a point
where he is seen as a symbol of imperial

mismanagement by the Senate.

And at one point there's a food
shortage, a famine, and the people are

for someone to blame.

Cleander falls out of favour with
different elements of Roman society, by

people as well as by the Senate, and his
position becomes untenable.

He's hated by the Roman people.

He's hated by the senators.

The people turn on him, hurling insults
at him, threatening him and wanting

Commodus back.

They call for his head and Commodus
gives it to them.

Cleander's head is displayed through the
city on a pole.

And it's after this that Commodus then
comes back to Rome.

Commodus reluctantly returns to Rome,
but his extravagance and self

-indulgence continue.

Commodus believes that he is a new kind
of emperor for a new kind of age.

And in some respect, he's right, because
he is nothing like his dad.

Marcus Aurelius was wise and a good
ruler, whereas Commodus is the absolute

opposite of that.

The emperor gets bigger and bigger ideas
about himself.

His megalomania seems really quite
pronounced by this stage.

He goes about refashioning Rome in his
own image.

Commodus has a colossal statue changed
so that it is a statue of himself

as the god Hercules.

Coins were remade depicting Hercules.

And this would be too much to believe
unless we had the coins that actually

it. Commodus' obsession with Hercules
and the refashioning of Rome.

are matched only by his continuing love
for gladiatorial combat.

Commodus is training in the Ludus
Magnus.

The training barracks for gladiators
right next door to the Colosseum.

And it has a training arena inside it
with seating, so clearly people were

to be watching when the gladiators were
training.

Maybe the public was allowed to come in,
like attending a dress rehearsal.

He has his own personal passageway
underground.

The tunnel attaches it to the Colosseum.
So that he can have private access to

the imperial box in the Colosseum. Go
backwards and forwards without going

the open.

From the Senate's point of view, he's
just abandoning his real job of being

emperor.

This must have been reminiscent to what
people's great -grandparents must have

said about Nero's reign. The emperor
should be above a profession that's

associated with the enslaved class.

In 191 CE, a fire breaks out in Rome and

this gives Commodus the opportunity,
because of the destruction, to rebuild

city.

much like Nero had done after the fire
of 64.

But also he decides to take this
opportunity to rename the city after

Commodus renamed Rome Commodania in an
attempt to quite literally emulate

Alexander the Great by naming the great
city of the Roman Empire after himself.

Which I think more than anything else
speaks to sheer megalomaniac ego that

at the heart of who he is as a human
being.

He believes himself to be the
representative of what Romanists now...

And for him, that is tied up directly
with this idea of the spectacle.

So it's about the chariot racing. It's
about the beast fighting. It's about

gladiatorial combat. It's about the show
of Roman power in the center.

So he sees Rome as a new place that he
is building through his own interests.

So he does see it as a refounding.

To celebrate the rebuilding of Rome,
Commodus announces 14 days of

games. People flood into the capital
from across the empire.

And Commodus has another shocking
revelation.

After a life spent training in private,
for the first time ever, he will

publicly step into the arena.

Not as emperor.

but as a gladiator.

November 192 CE.

The Colosseum is filled to capacity for
14 days of lavish games and the

debut of Emperor Commodus as a
gladiator.

The Colosseum was always packed, but
when you've got the Emperor appearing,

would have been tough to get a ticket.

You'll have had to have used your
contact. If you knew people who knew the

emperor, you know, you would have to
source a ticket for yourself. So it

wouldn't have been easy to get in at
all.

The games were free to locals and
visitors from out of town had to pay.

This is really an insult to the
population who should be getting the

free in the first place.

Commodus also doesn't just appear for
fun. He decides that he should be paid

his actions.

Commodus charges the Senate a million
thirties for every gladiatorial combat

puts on.

Enough money that could make you a
senator.

So not only to be charging people to
attend his spectacles, but charging the

senators to attend his spectacles would
really heap insult upon the senators'

heads. who would have despised him for
appearing there in the first place.

As parts of his games, he kills a
variety of beasts.

But the real star attraction is when he
acts as a gladiator.

He likes to enter the arena from the
gladiatorial school as if he somehow

belongs there and is like a real
gladiator.

kind of part of the spectacle that he's
enjoying as much as anything.

Commodus stepped into Colosseum to
engage in combat.

Commodus liked to fight as a secutio,
the gladiator who fights with a sword

shield.

This is where Commodus really excelled.

The fact he was so good at it is
something that really won the admiration

contemporaries.

The Romans loved seeing an amazing
fight, a technical fight.

The court didn't really combat his
opponent for the day on with a wooden

He fights a gladiator who has been told
not to harm the emperor in any way.

He's going to make sure he's not in any
danger himself.

It is clear enough that whatever
Commodus' pretensions to being a

is not a fight he will allow himself to
lose.

It is a bizarre sight to see Emperor
Commodus fight as a gladiator.

But more strange spectacles await.

At one point, a group of gladiators
refused to fight, so he has them chained

together and made to fight for death.

He rounds up people with disabilities to
slaughter them.

He's trying to mimic one of Hercules'
mythical fights against giants.

He wants to show he is as skilled a
fighter as Hercules was.

that his level of skill is so high that
it raises him up to the level of a

deity.

It does become a bit of a bloodbath for
the sake of it.

As far as the audience is concerned,
there would have been a fair amount of

trepidation because Commodus clearly was
not well.

It's a bizarre form of entertainment
that presumably he thought people would

find interesting, but I think for those
watching, was just beyond anything

normal.

People worry that he's even intending to
kill sections of the crowd.

Given how unpredictable Commodus was,
there was a good reason for the average

Roman spectator to fear for his or her
life.

For 14 days, Commodus lives out his
strange desires.

But after the games have drawn to a
close, he makes a grand announcement.

The final straw is when Commodus
announces that he's going to celebrate

year by becoming a gladiator.

Being a full -time gladiator versus
practicing like a gladiator or appearing

as a gladiator, that was a real
commitment, a real decision.

He has mixed one of the highest officers
of state with an occupation of low

repute.

He has blurred the lines beyond his
predecessors.

For an emperor to become a gladiator
really bucks the whole system of the

belief in dignity and the pecking order
in society.

The senatorial class start to freak out,
really. They think he really has lost

it this time.

The emperor's advisors urge him to
reconsider.

But Commodus...

sees this as betrayal.

Some other senators find themselves on a
list of people who will be put to death

in the new year.

At that point they realise that they
need to do something.

It seems that Commodus ends up facing
turmoil from within his own

household.

The imperial palace at this point in
time There are a lot of positions that

filled by freedmen, so people who used
to be enslaved but are now freed so that

they can be in the employ of the
emperor.

And Commodus has this situation going on
in his household as well.

And these freedmen see everything that
is going on.

And when they decide that things are
going too far, that's when the talk

to happen.

The discussion is that perhaps they can
poison him.

So Marcia is a woman who lives with
Commodus.

She's not his wife, but we might think
of her as a concubine.

And she can dispense the poison.

She's like, I've got this. Don't you
worry.

Sensing an opportunity, Marcia mixes
poison into Commodus' wine.

She hands him the chalice.

The Emperor drinks deep.

The fate of the Empire now hangs in the
balance.

Commodus has drunk from Marcia's
poisoned chalice.

The conspirators wait for the effects to
take hold.

This gave them hope.

That was going to be the end of the
emperor.

Unfortunately for her, and indeed
everybody involved in this plot,

Commodus has managed to get himself out
of trouble.

He's eating a lot and drinking a lot,
which means he's not feeling great.

He vomits up the poison, and instead of
it taking full effect, so they have to

be quick on their feet, find another
method.

This leads to a secondary plan.

They send in Narcissus, his former
wrestling partner to smother him to

Narcissus could see that Commodus was on
the way out.

And he wanted to show that he was no
longer just Commodus' right -hand man.

It was a way of keeping him safe under
the next dynasty.

Commodus, the guy who wants to be a
gladiator so badly, dying at the hands

equally impressive athlete, is kind of a
full -circle moment for Commodus' life.

Commodus is dead.

The Senate give a collective shout of
joy.

The Senate declare him a public enemy,
and they engage in various memory

sanctions.

What is often termed damnatio memoriae,
the damnation of memory, not in fact a

Roman term, but it is a series of memory
fashioning practices.

disliked and ends up having to be
removed from the record in particular

The Senate changed the name of
Commodenia back to Rome.

They find images of Commodus on coins,
on statues, and they destroy them.

His name is taken out of inscriptions.

The idea wasn't to completely render
someone invisible.

but to show the terrible behaviour of
that individual.

You don't forget him, but rather you
remember him badly.

And what we see after the assassination
of Commodus is that Rome really starts

to turn in on itself.

There are a lot of political players
that are interested in filling that

vacuum, and unfortunately Commodus
hasn't had a chance to set up who might

next.

Commodus doesn't leave an heir. He is
the last of the Antonine dynasty, as we

call it.

So we get into a situation where we
enter the third century of...

Imperial Rome.

And it's chaos.

Political upheaval and quite a lot of
turmoil.

This institutes a cycle of emperors from
the empires clashing in the attempt all

to get to top jobs.

We have five emperors in that one year.

The stories mark this point at the end
of the golden age of the Roman Empire.

It's a bit difficult to know what to
make of Commodus.

On the one hand, our thoughts are very
clear. He is a terrible, terrible

emperor.

Cassius Dio perhaps tries to be
balanced, maybe, by saying he doesn't

Commodus is naturally wicked, but rather
that he had a weak character and

therefore was sort of influenced by the
luxury and decadence of empire and

became worse and worse as things went
on.

He describes him as being guileless.

but just a bit kind of easily led and a
bit stupid, really.

It should be said that, unlike many of
his predecessors, he didn't engage in

widespread genocide.

Arguably, him making peace with some of
the enemies on the frontier allows room

to stabilise itself.

So, in fact, we just have an emperor who
is slightly peculiar in terms of his

interest in the arena, but not perhaps
the worst of all time.

But he ended up being the son of a man
who is remembered as one of the greatest

emperors that Rome ever had, Marcus
Aurelius. So Commodus, no matter what he

like personally, was always going to be
facing the problem that Marcus Aurelius

was a really tough act to follow.

And Commodus probably squandered more of
an inheritance than any human being

had before or since to fight as a
gladiator himself.

The association of the highest office in
the land with the spectacle and blood

and thunder of gladiatorial combat is
reinvented under the rule of Commodus.

He's the first emperor to appear as a
gladiator and he's the last emperor to

so.