A Brief History
On December 31, 192 AD, Roman Emperor Commodus was assassinated by his own inner circle, setting the stage for The Year of the Five Emperors in 193.
Digging Deeper
A typical Roman emperor egomaniac, Commodus saw himself as a demi-god and often had himself depicted as Hercules. Robust physically, he often participated in gladiatorial events, and his character was played by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 movie Gladiator (with Russell Crowe in the title role), a Best Picture Oscar winner.
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On December 22, 2015, we featured an article about the hazards of serving as Emperor of Rome starting with the events of 69 AD, known as The Year of the Four Emperors. Today, it is easy to see what we were referring to when 192 AD was even more chaotic for the health of the Emperor.
Commodus was poisoned by his own mistress, Marcia, but when he vomited up the poison, his wrestling partner Narcissus was dispatched to strangle Commodus in his bath. Commodus was replaced on the throne by Pertinax, who only reigned until he too was murdered (by his own Praetorian Guards) in March of 193. The next in line was Didius Julianus, who only managed to survive until June of 193 when he was murdered by a soldier in retribution for dismissing and executing the Praetorian Guards that had killed Pertinax. Septimius Severus then made the dangerous move of ascending the throne of Rome, only to turn over the position of Emperor to his son, Caracalla, who ruled jointly until 211 along with Septimius. When Septimius died in 211, his other son, Geta, who was made co-Emperor with Caracalla and Septimius in 209, was murdered shortly afterwards by Caracalla less than a year after Septimius died. Caracalla himself was in turn assassinated in 217 by the Prefect of his own Praetorian Guard.
With the incredible shenanigans that went on among those at and close to the throne of Rome, it is amazing to us that the Roman Empire did not disintegrate and fall much sooner than it actually did. Can you imagine having five Presidents of the United States in one year? Especially if they were killing each other?
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite film about the Roman Empire? Please share with us your opinions in the comments section below this article. There are certainly many such films to choose from.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
McHugh, John S. The Emperor Commodus: God and Gladiator. Pen and Sword, 2015.
Gladiator. DVD. Directed by Ridley Scott. Warner Bros., 2003.
The featured image in this article, a Denarius of Commodus by
You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="12508 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=12508">21 Comments
I can definitely not imagine 5 presidents in the United States during one year. Can you imagine Romney killing Obama! It would be an unending cycle of uproar for a lot of Americans.
I feel like emperors were nothing like presidents they made rules up as they went and that is why they had five different emperors and was not that big of a deal.
The difference between emperors and presidents is kind of huge.
I cannot imagine five presidents in one year if they were killing each other because I would like to think that if they killed someone to gain power our government would step in and not allow them to become president.
It’s weird to think they could have 5 different people rule in one year when today presidents lead for 4 years. I can’t even imagine having that be the case. There is a huge difference in today’s society.
One would think during that time someone would be smart enough to think, “Maybe wanting to rule isn’t a good idea. The last few people have been killed pretty quickly.” But no, they’re gonna be different. No one would want to kill them…
Emperors and presidents are a huge difference!
The state of the Romans must have been in shambles during this year. Having power change that much would cause tremendous political unrest and it would be very tough for the Romans.
This must have been a rough time period for the Romans. When power changes hands, rulers become unpredictable and people have a hard time following and changing plans during each rulers reign, especially since the changes happened in such a time frame.
The Praetorian Guard were responsible for the death of a lot of Roman emperors.
Changing emperors so often couldn’t have been healthy for the empire. Each had varying goals and ideas. This probably led to part of the down fall of Rome. Even if a ruler wasn’t great you have to have some consistency.
Seem very similar to the Brown’s coaching situation over the last 8 years.
How these emperors ran their empires… interesting to say the least
I have never really seen any Roman Empire related movies before, but I hope to see some in the future. What does everyone else suggest?
I can’t believe Commodus was poisoned by his own mistress!
What seems worse for the empire? Constant change or leader or a wicked tyrant for a long time? I’m sure it was a rough time but it had to happen.
Crazy that Commodus was poisoned by his own mistress and then ultimately killed by his wrestling partner.
i think its quite funny he was murdered by his mistress
Emperor:0
Mistress: 1
I can’t believe his mistress killed him.
It seems like that throne was just bad luck for almost everyone who had it.
the roman empire didn’t fall then but all of the shifting leaders and murdering each other surely weakened the empire a bit! if they would have been more stable i wonder if rome would have lasted longer than it did.
Getting murdered by a mistress… What fantastic life choices