Commodus Lucius Aurelius Ant on in us

, son of Marcus Ant on in us, succeeded his father in the Roman empire. He was naturally cruel, and fond of indulging his licentious propensities; and regardle of the instructions of philosophers, and of the decencies of nature, he corrupted his own sisters, and kept 300 women, and as many boys, for his illicit pleasures. Desirous to be called Hercules, like that hero he adorned his shoulders with a lion’s skin, and armed his hands with a knotted club. He showed himself naked in public, and fought with the gladiators, and boasted of his dexterity in killing the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. He required divine honours from the senate, and they were granted. He was wont to put such an immense quantity of gold dust in his hair, that when he appeared bare-headed in the sunshine, his head glittered as if surrounded with sunbeams. Martia, one of his concubines, whose death he had prepared, poisoned him; but as the poison did not quickly operate, he was strangled by a wrestler. He died in the 31st year of his age, and the 13th of his reign, A.D. 192. It has been observed, that he never trusted himself to a barber, but always burnt his beard, in imitation of the tyrant Dionysius. Herodian.