Description
The son of the enlightened Marcus Aurelius, Commodus had more in common with the emperor Caligula. Believing himself a genuine deity, he filled Rome with statues of himself in godly poses, and altered the names of the twelve months to correspond with his twelve official names. When he tried to rechristen Rome as Commodiana, however, the prefect Laetus had him strangled to death in the bathtub. He is the emperor portrayed in the Academy Award-winning film Gladiator.
