Commodus - Roman Emperor: 177-192 A.D. -
Silver Denarius 17mm (3.23 grams) Rome mint: circa 177-192 A.D.
Reference: RIC 233, C 583
LAELAVRELCOMMAVGPFEL - Laureate head right.
PMTRPXVIIIMPVIIICOSVIIPP - Fides standing left, holding standard and cornucopia.
Star in right field.

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In Roman mythology, Fides ("trust") was the goddess of trust. Her Greek equivalent was Pistis. Her temple on the Capitol was where the Roman Senate kept state treaties with foreign countries, where Fides protected them. She was also worshipped under the name Fides Publica Populi Romani ("trust towards the Roman state"). She is represented by a young woman crowned with an olive branch, with a cup or turtle, or a military ensign in hand. She wears a white veil or stola; her priests wear white.

Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius instituted a yearly festival to Fides, and directed the priests to be borne to Her temple in an arched chariot drawn by two horses and should conduct Her services with their hands wrapped up to indicate protection.

Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus (31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was a Roman Emperor who ruled from 180 to 192 (also with his father, Marcus Aurelius, from 177 until 180). The name given here was his official name at his accession to sole rule; see Changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded his father since Titus succeeded Vespasian in 79. Commodus was the first emperor "born to the purple"; i.e., born during his father's reign.

Commodus vies with Caligula and Nero as Roman history's most perverse and sadistic of rulers. Like Caligula and Nero before, Commodus was an ordinary (by imperial standards) ruler who succeeded Marcus Aurelius, his father, upon his death. In his one major positive deed, Commodus called off the expedition against the Germans which his father had commenced on terms favorable to Rome. He sped off to Rome where he much preferred living the perks of an emperor to the dirty business of waging wars. While he whiled away his time pursuing a hedonistic lifestyle he was happy to delegate administrative responsibilities to others.

Unfortunately, his appointees never seemed to last long on the job. Whether through incompetence, bad luck or corruption, one by one these fell and needed replacement. Commodus little by little began gaining a taste for power as the shuffling of his foremen took place and, finally, he decided to manage the empire himself. It is starting with this period that Commodus began to act increasingly unpredictably and cruel. A botched conspiracy against him, orchestrated by no less than his beloved sister Lucilla, was discovered and his surviving the episode turned him afterwards into a highly paranoid individual who had countless officials executed for disloyalty imagined or real.

In his final year of life he shocked Romans of all classes by personally moonlighting as a gladiator. Of course, these fights were arranged so that he could invariably come out the victor. Because of this a record-breaking 700+ victories were scored in his name, each one ending in the deaths of one or more gladiators and/or wild beasts at the Colosseum. A successful conspiracy against him was finally hatched by one of his lovers who first tried poisoning him but he threw up and a wrestler was summoned who strangled him to death on the last day of the year 192.

The recent Hollywood release "The Gladiator" is a fictionalized account of Commodus as emperor which has him at odds with a popular gladiator.