The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: Understanding the Roman Games

145 Pages·2014·1.85 MB·English

by  Jerry Toner

THE DAY COMMODUS KILLED A RHINO
WITNESS TO ANCIENT HISTORY
Gregory S. Aldrete, Series Editor
THE DAY
COMMODUS
KI LLED A RHINO
§(
Understanding
the Roman Games
Jerry Toner
Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2014 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2014
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Toner, J. P.
The day Commodus killed a rhino : understanding the
Roman games / Jerry Toner.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4214-1585-7 (hardback : acid-free paper) —
ISBN 978-1-4214-1586-4 (paperback : acid-free paper) —
ISBN 978-1-4214-1587-1 (electronic) 1. Games—Rome—History.
2. Games—Social aspects—Rome—History. 3. Games—Political
aspects—Rome—History. 4. Violence—Social aspects—Rome—
History. 5. Commodus, Emperor of Rome, 161–192.
6. Emperors—Rome—History. 7. Gladiators—Rome—History.
8. Rome—Social life and customs. 9. Rome—Politics and
government. 10. National characteristics, Roman. I. Title.
GV31.T77 2014
796.0937—dc23 2014012493
A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library.
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CONTENTS
Prologue
The Rhino Dies 1
I
Commodus’s Great Games 7
II
When in Commodiana 19
III
An Emperor Loves His People 33
IV
Feeding the Monster 46
V
Win the Crowd 67
VI
How to Be a Roman 87
Epilogue
Fighting Back 105
Acknowledgments 121
Notes 123
Suggested Further Reading 127
Index 131
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THE DAY COMMODUS KILLED A RHINO
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PROLOGUE
The Rhino Dies
§
the emperor commodus wanted to kill a rhinoceros. And he wanted to
do it in the Colosseum. His passion for hunting animals was so great that
he wanted to shoot a tiger, an elephant, and a hippopotamus as well. So, at the
end of AD 192, he put on fourteen days of the most lavish and spectacular games
Rome had ever seen. And the emperor himself was to be the star attraction.
When news of this became known, people rushed from all over Italy to see what
they had never seen or even heard of before: an emperor in the arena. It was said
that the emperor’s prowess was so great that he never missed when hurling his
javelins or fi ring off arrows from his bow.
Dressed in a long- sleeved white tunic, made of silk interwoven with gold,
Commodus began the games by taking the formal greetings of Rome’s senators,
who were too terrifi ed of him not to attend. Commodus then changed into a
robe of pure purple with gold spangled stars, topped with a matching purple
cloak. On his head sat a golden crown encrusted with gems from India. In his
hand, he held a staff like that of the gods’ messenger, Mercury. Recently, the em-
peror had taken to dressing as Hercules, the man whose heroic actions had seen
him turned into a god. So Commodus used to wear a lionskin shawl and carried
a club as Hercules had, and countless statues of the emperor in this herculean
style were set up throughout Rome. But before he entered the oval arena of the
great Colosseum, which the emperors Vespasian and Titus had built more
than a century before, the emperor set aside the trappings of Hercules. They
were placed on a gilded chair, and he stepped out before the huge crowd of fi fty