Emperor Commodus: Born to the Purple

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Emperor Commodus as Hercules, Capitoline Museums

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On August 31st 161, the emperor Commodus was born.   

Commodus (r. 180 - 192) was the first Roman emperor to be born to the purple, in other words he was born into the reigning family; his father, Marcus Aurelius, having come to the throne on March 7th 161. 

Commodus became emperor on March 17th 180, at the age of eighteen. He reigned for just under thirteen years. On December 31st 192 he was strangled to death in his bath in a conspiracy involving his praetorian prefect and his mistress!

There is a beautifully preserved bust of Commodus in Rome's Musei Capitolini. The bust portrays the emperor in the guise of Hercules, his favoured deity, whose attributes he has been given: the lion's skin over his head, the club in this right hand, and the golden apples of Hesperides in his left hand.