Marcus Aurelius Cleander

Marcus Aurelius Cleander was a freedman who rose to exceptional power in the household of the emperor Commodus. As chamberlain and political broker, he was accused of selling offices, manipulating appointments and enriching himself through access to the emperor. During a food shortage and public disturbance in 190, Commodus sacrificed him to the crowd and ordered his execution.

In historical fiction about Commodus, Cleander often embodies the sale of influence and the instability created when imperial access replaces formal authority. Ancient senatorial writers had strong reasons to condemn an imperial freedman, so novels can either reproduce the image of a corrupt favourite or examine how his outsider status shaped hostile accounts of his career.