Books
18 Best Novels About the Reign of Commodus
Bestselling authors first, then star rating.
Phase
Reign of Commodus
180–192 CE
Commodus succeeded Marcus Aurelius and quickly became associated with court favouritism, executions, suspicion of senators and an increasingly theatrical public image.
Frontier pressures, fiscal strain and court intrigue combined with aristocratic resentment. His assassination in 192 led directly to the crisis of 193 and the Year of the Five Emperors.
Anthony Riches’s Empire series begins under Commodus, with Marcus Valerius Aquila driven into hiding by the emperor’s agents. The reign suits fiction about paranoia, Praetorian power, provincial armies and the collapse of dynastic legitimacy.
