Tag: How Evil was Commodus

Commodus was a Roman emperor, and just along his bust (“The Bust of Commodus”), it was designed to be sculpted to give off the appearance of masculinity and dominance, as he wanted to be seen as Hercules. The sculpture has Commodus holding fruits with his left hand, while a club in his right hand, resting on his shoulder (Which the club representing gladiator matches he would partake in, or the other killings he has done. While the fruits could mean the “giving” he thought he had done as being a Roman emperor). Along with wearing a headpiece that resembles a lion (which also represents power and/or strength). I viewed it as Commodus abusing the power he had and getting the respect he thought he deserved and becoming egoistic. However, with the brutal pain he brought when he was an emperor, as based on the Lampridius’s biography “Historia Augusta”, Commodus was sinister and conceited and in the biography stated that for his amusement he would have cut open someone who was obese, down the middle of his belly; This is so that his intestines would fall out and Commodus put a starling on the head of a man who had a few white hairs which resembled worms and it caused his head to fester through the continual pecking of the bird’s beak. Commodus would slaughter thousands just for his own entertainment. Killing thousands of innocent civilian lives to show that he was superior and almighty to his empire. In the final analysis, the view of the bust is different than I first thought of it to be, Commodus led his life to be violent and destructive to the whoever went against him or questioned his authority.

Commodus Antoninus, he is a very horrible person he did many unspeakable things. Which I believe is way past borderline torture, it is full on torture and for no good reasons. All the bad things that Commodus did had no real purpose. I believe that he did it because he just felt like it and because he was in a position to do so. He abused his power and used it as an excuse to do things that were not right. I think that he might be a psychopath. One of the examples of Commodus’s evil act is when he put a starling on the head of a man who he noticed had a few white hairs, resembling worms and caused his head to fester through the continual pecking of the bird’s beak. I thought was horrible because what did he have against this man? What was the reason for this?. I found Commodus, who murdered some people because they were noble and handsome than him was something really childish. In one part of the reading it said that Commodus often mixed human excrement with the most expensive foods and he tasted them. I found that to really disgusting and weird. I do not think that Commodus was a well man he might have been mentally ill. In my opinion, he was a really selfish, childish, weird and cruel person.