Commodus

Commodus (161–192), son of Marcus Aurelius and the first emperor born in the purple, ruled from 177 to 192. When Marcus died in 180, he made peace with the tribes and returned to Rome in triumph. He left administration to favourites who sold offices, until a mob forced Cleander's beheading in 190.

His sister Lucilla's conspiracy failed in 182, and later plots made him more dictatorial. He posed as Hercules and fought as a gladiator, and in 192 renamed Rome Colonia Commodiana and declared himself a new Romulus. Cassius Dio called his accession a fall from a golden kingdom to iron and rust.

In December 192 his mistress Marcia, the prefect Laetus and the chamberlain Eclectus, on his death list, sent Narcissus to strangle him in his bath. The Senate declared him a public enemy, the dynasty ended, and Pertinax began the Year of the Five Emperors.