A Superb Commodus Aureus
Commodus. AD 177-192. AV Aureus (20mm, 7.29 g, 7h). Rome mint. Struck AD 183. M COMMODVS ANTON AVG PIVS, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / TR P VIII. IMP V-I COS IIII P. P, Mars standing left, leaning on shield set on ground with right hand and holding reversed spear in left. RIC III 55; MIR 18, 574-2/37; Calicó 2354; BMCRE p. 706*; Cohen -. Superb EF, Wonderful portrait.
Weak and dissolute in character Commodus became sole emperor at the early age of nineteen. Inevitably, he soon fell under the influence of worthless favorites and, like Domitian a century before, his regime gradually degenerated into a reign of terror. Fortunately, there was only one serious frontier problem during his reign, an uprising in northern Britain in 183 AD, and this was speedily suppressed by the capable governor Ulpius Marcellus, gaining for Commodus the honorary title of ‘Britannicus’. In his final years the emperor had delusions of being the reincarnation of Hercules, fought with wild animals in the arena, and even renamed Rome Colonia Commodiana. The end came on the night of December 31, 192, when he fell victim to a court conspiracy and was strangled by an athlete hired for the task.
