Ancient Rome

In Gladiator, Commodus is a scheming coward who murders his father, fears the arena, and dies in a cinematic sword fight. Almost none of it is historically accurate. Marcus Aurelius almost certainly died of illness, not murder. Commodus did not fear the arena - he was obsessed with it, fighting there on 735 documented occasions under conditions carefully designed to keep him safe. And his death, when it came, was considerably stranger than anything Hollywood attempted. The real Commodus is not more sympathetic than the film version. He is more bizarre, more interesting, and more revealing about how Rome actually worked. He renamed the city of Rome after himself, declared himself the reincarnation of Hercules, and was ultimately strangled by his own wrestling partner on New Year's Eve - after his mistress's poison failed to finish the job. Here is what actually happened.

The Roman Empire is one of those subjects that everyone knows something about and almost nobody feels they understand. The names are familiar - Augustus, Nero, Hadrian, Constantine - but the connective tissue is missing. Where do they fit relative to each other? What were they actually solving for? How does a civilization that produced the Pantheon and the Meditations end up sacked by people wearing animal skins? This post is the map most people are looking for.