Commodus
The Roman emperor Commodus, figure recently returned to the fore thanks to the film The Gladiator , in which a psychotic Emperor rivaled and eventually fought with the protagonist Russel Crowe, was one of the most hated political figures in the history of Rome.
Although we want to hypothesize that some contemporary writer may have trodden the hand in painting his nefarious actions, perhaps due to excessive passion or personal antipathy, the sources are so in agreement in the narratives, that it is impossible to doubt their veracity.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Commodus in the film "The Gladiator"
Commodus was the exact opposite of his father Marcus Aurelius, a man of exceptional gifts (it is even doubted that he was really his son, and it seems more likely that his mother, Faustina Minore, she conceived it with a gladiator): cowardly, cruel, ruthless, Commodus showed since he was a child the bad temper that would later lead him to implement a policy characterized by terror and turpitude of all kinds.
An episode above all:at the age of 12, annoyed at having found the bath water too cold for his tastes, Commodus did not hesitate to order that the attendant in charge of the imperial baths be burned alive, a horror finally avoided only thanks to a clever ruse.
Over time, far from improving as his father would have wished, Commodus showed the worst of himself:rather than dealing with politics and military matters, which he hated, he preferred to participate in bloody games which aroused anguish and amazement among the senators.
Commodus loved venationes, or the fights between men and beasts, but if as a spectator he squirmed and waved to incite the fight, when the protagonist of the meeting was himself, being cowardly and incorrect to the point of unbelievable, he was very careful to adapt the rules so that his personal safety was not in any danger.
In the 192 there was a particularly crude episode of gratuitous and unjustified violence:well protected in a hunting tower inside the Flavian Amphitheater, Commodus killed a hundred bears just for fun, and in the days immediately following, in the grip of a blind and absurd fury, he exterminated a large number of defenseless animals.
In ostrich hunting finally, it showed a disconcerting cruelty:hit with arrows that cut the neck suddenly and cleanly, the poor beasts, once wounded, continued to run for a few seconds headless.