When he made it to the bathroom, the Emperor’s own fitness coach, a wrestler called Narcissus, strangled him to death. While he vomited this up, the conspirators still had a backup plan. She put poison in the cup of wine he always took before his bath. He became enraged and threatened to have her killed. Most importantly of all, the head of the Praetorian Guard also concurred and joined in the conspiracy to kill Commodus.Īt first, Marcia simply pleaded with Commodus to cancel his plans for the special games. His mistress Marcia felt this was a step too far, so too did his chamberlain, a man called Electus. The Emperor then announced his intention to hold a special day of games on 1 January 193, to represent the rebirth of the city under him. By morning he fought and killed hundreds of animals, and in the afternoon he played at being a gladiator. When Commodus announced plans for special Plebeian Games to celebrate his rebuilding of Rome, even his mistress agreed the Emperor had to dieĪt the end of 192, Commodus held the Plebeian Games. The Emperor’s own wrestling partner killed him while his mistress looked on. What’s more, according to Gibbon, he killed three elephants in an afternoon, and he famously threatened watching Senators with the head of an ostrich he had just killed!

But rather than getting down from his elevated fighting platform, he preferred to shoot at them with bow and arrows, thereby proving himself to be a skilled huntsman if not necessarily a brave, fearless warrior. According to the historian Edward Gibbon, the Emperor killed 100 lions in a single day, much to the amusement – and, surely, bafflement – of the Roman people. It wasn’t just helpless large herbivores Commodus fought in the Colosseum. According to contemporary accounts, the Emperor would ‘bravely’ take on giraffes, elephants and even a hippo once – all from the safety of an elevated platform in the middle of the arena and safe in the knowledge that his bodyguards were on hand to help if it started to look like Commodus might end up getting hurt.

Not content with fighting dwarfs and cripples, Commodus fought wild animals in the Colosseum as well – much to the amusement of sneering senatorsĪs well as fighting the disabled and dwarfs in the Colosseum, Commodus also liked to show off his fighting and hunting skills by taking on a wide range of exotic beasts in the arena. All kinds of exotic animals, including harmless ones, were butchered by the Emperor.

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