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Historical person

Commodus

161–192

Commodus was Roman emperor from AD 180 to 192 and son of Marcus Aurelius. His reign is remembered for court intrigue, autocratic display, military insecurity and his assassination, which opened a period of civil conflict.

In Anthony Riches’s The Eagle’s Vengeance, the Danube frontier under Commodus. In Anthony Riches’s The Emperor’s Knives, Rome under Commodus. Other novels featuring Commodus include Anthony Riches’s River of Gold, Adam Lofthouse’s Shield of the Rising Sun, Steven Saylor’s Dominus, Anthony Riches’s Vengeance, and Anthony Riches’s Wounds of Honour.

In non-fiction, Commodus is discussed in L. J. Trafford’s Ancient Rome’s Worst Emperors, Mary Beard’s The Colosseum, and Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome. In L. J. Trafford’s Ancient Rome’s Worst Emperors, the selected cases include notorious figures such as Caligula, Commodus and Elagabalus alongside less predictable choices including Galba, Vitellius, Nerva, Gordian I and Valentinian II.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to Commodus

Reign of Commodus 180–192 CE Severan Dynasty 193–235 CE

Series

Series featuring Commodus (5 series)

Praetorian in Order

by Simon Turney 8 books 4.5

The Praetorian series centres on Gnaeus Marcius Rustius Rufinus, a legionary drawn into the Praetorian Guard and the lethal politics of Commodus’s court. Investigations, covert missions and frontier commands expose him to conspiracies involving imperial relatives, prefects, freedmen, senators and rival claimants to the throne. As Commodus’s reign…

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Empire in Order

by Anthony Riches 16 books 4.5

The Empire series follows Marcus Valerius Aquila, a Roman aristocrat forced into hiding after his family is destroyed under Commodus. Serving under an assumed name with the Tungrian auxiliaries, he moves from Hadrian’s Wall and the Rhine to Rome, Egypt and the eastern civil wars that follow the…

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The Damned Emperors in Order

by Simon Turney 4 books 4.3

The Damned Emperors series retells the reigns of Caligula, Commodus, Domitian and Caracalla through people close enough to witness their private fears and public violence. Each novel sets later hostile traditions against the personal, dynastic and political pressures that shaped an emperor condemned by Roman memory. Rather than…

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Roma Trilogy in Order

by Steven Saylor 3 books 4.0

The Roma Trilogy follows generations of the fictional Pinarius family across the long history of Rome. Roma begins with the city’s legendary foundation and continues through the Republic and the rise of Augustus; Empire carries the family through the Julio-Claudian, Flavian and adoptive-emperor periods; Dominus follows the later…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Commodus (3 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.