I'm curious about the relationship between Commodus and his father, Marcus Aurelius. How could a man such as Marcus Aurelius sire such a horribly inept ruler? Furthermore the fact that Commodus was the only male child (of a total of 14 boys and girls) to survive as a heir is pretty remarkable.
What always struck me as odd while reading the Meditations was how Marcus Aurelius never mentions his son. Does any knowledge exist of their personal relationship? What the hell went down?
>Commodus was inept
Senatorial propaganda.
This tired argument is best used against some of the other "bad emperors" of the earlier Imperial age. By all accounts Commodus was pretty fucking stupid and cared little, if at all, for the actual work that accompanies being emperor. He was an utmost autismo chad that spent the vast majority of his time running around killing exotic animals in the arena and renaming himself and Rome.
I think a lot of it, from an armchair psychology perspective, would have a lot to do with Commodus' formative years.
He was made Caesar at 5, brought on campaign at 11 and stayed on campaign until his father died.
His entire boyhood was spent in the trenches of the Legions. By the time he finally returned to Rome, he was a late teenager with all of the desires of one and all of the power to do what he wanted. Rome was the city of decadence and the deprived man-child reveled in it.
Aurelius' stoicism also lends him to be a distant father, not the best when trying to raise a future emperor.
>By all accounts Commodus was pretty fucking stupid and cared little, if at all, for the actual work that accompanies being emperor.
t. Gnaeus Brutus Cicero the Younger.
fuck u gaius
Marcus never liked fatherhood
The theory that you accumulate unfulfilled desires is very popular in pop culture, but not a good one... Desires are more likely to increase if you indulge in them than if you don't.
I wouldn't put it quite like that
I mean he might have had sensory overload and indulged.
There's no record or reason to believe he was a decadent little shit while on campaign. It was only after arriving back in Rome and partaking in Roman festivities that he slowly descended.
>sensory overload
You saying he was autistic?
thats because we have records that suggest he literally gave up all Marcus had fought for in Germania so he could return to Rome and get to chimp out with orgies and gladiator games. He hated being on campaign and he tried to get away from the army as soon as he could. If anything the movie is actually nice to him. His policies were no more foresighted than when the next fucking game was.
Serious question: how many posters here are Americans? I have the feeling that Europeans don't give a shit about these details of the Roman history.
OP here, American
>I have the feeling that Europeans don't give a shit about these details of the Roman history.
Lmao how silly, what makes you say that
I am a burger
>OP here, American
Is there a Roman that wasn't?
forced
Chad and autismo in the same sentence is an oxymoron I hope you know.
Sons are not clones of their fathers.
There is a great deal of chance involved with children. Perhaps they inherit all your and your partners best traits, perhaps they get all the worst.
That's what I thought... thx
stop forcing your shitty /pol/ meme here
>we ameriflaps care about european history more than europeans
Kekked
On top of obvious personal deficiencies, it's very likely Commodus was severely mentally ill, possibly schizophrenia. It was a perfect storm.
Not necessarily. One is entirely capable of possessing both autistic traits and an uncanny level of self-confidence. I remember a while ago someone posted a chart of Roman emperors with the x-axis being something along the lines of "CHAD LEVEL" and the y-axis being "AUTISM LEVEL". Commodus was far and away top right whilst guys like Claudius were high left.
>hurdurr psychohistory
what do it mean tho
It means that Americans (ex Europeans) are far more interested/obsessed about European antiquity (the roots?) than European themselves. When someone talks about lorica segmentata for example, that sort of detail, I'm almost certain it's an American.
>Americans (ex Europeans)
I'm a New Zealander. While I don't give many shits about the most overrated period of Roman History, I do find somethings interesting.