Discussion Topic: How evil was Commodus (Commodus as Hercules)

Given the information in Lampridius’s biography, Commodus was an extremely cruelty driven individual- a grotesque, greedy, and barbaric person. To no surprise it was easily inferred that Commodus was only interested in being acknowledged and praised as one of “superior” and “god-like” qualities which can be identified in the Roman portrait of Commodus as Hercules. The sculpture presents Commodus as Hercules- relating himself to a god-like heroic figure. Plus, draped over his head and around the shoulders is the head and skin of a lion- this demonstrates to me his power, stating that he is stronger than the king of beasts; in the excerpt, it was stated that Commodus favored fighting wild beasts and could kill elephants in one strike with a pole. Lastly, there is a much smaller figure to the left of Commodus’ bust that is kneeling on one knee. This figure may represent one of his concubines, Marcia (stated in the excerpt), since this figure is suppose to represent an “amazon” and Commodus liked to think of Marcia, his favorite Concubine at the time, as an amazon. This little figure completes the overall suggestion of Commodus and his interpretation of himself; he believed that he deserved to be worshiped as a strong unbeatable figure and would not consider else wise.