THE SCENE: The Roman emperor Commodus was so keen to prove his vigor to his subjects that he regularly risked his life and reputation as a gladiator in the Colosseum. While the snobbish Roman people were disgusted, it is hard today not to be impressed with his brio.
THE TEXT: He also engaged in gladiatorial combat and accepted a gladiator’s name, with pleasure, as if he were accepting triumphal honours. He always entered the public shows and as often as he did so, he ordered it to be inscribed in the public records. He subsequently achieved so many gladiatorial crowns by defeating or killing net-fighters that he reached a thousand. Moreover, he killed with his own hand many thousands of wild animals, even elephants.
For such things as these, to be sure, he was strong enough, but otherwise he was weak and feeble, even having something wrong with him in the groin, which stuck out so much that the Roman people could detect the swelling through his silk clothing. Many verses were written on this subject. Such was his strength in slaying wild animals that he transfixed an elephant with a pole, pierced a wild goat’s horn with a spear, and dispatched many thousands of huge beasts, each with a single blow. Such was his lack of propriety that he very often drank in public, sitting in the amphitheater or theater, in women’s clothing.”
– The Augustan History, Aelius Lampridius, 4th Century AD
