Marcus Aurelius Cleander (fl.182-190)
Perennis was deeply unpopular with the troops in Britain, both because of his policy of financial austerity (he had not allowed them a donative) and because he had ‘insulted the army’ by replacing senatorial legates with equestrian commanders. In 184 the troops acclaimed the legionary legate Priscus as emperor, but he wisely declined the offer. The troops now petitioned Commodus to allow a delegation to come to Rome to put before him their grievances against Perennis. Commodus, prepared to sacrifice Perennis to prevent another uprising in Britain, gave his consent.
In 185 the ‘delegation’ of fifteen hundred armed men was allowed to proceed unhindered through the Empire to Rome, setting a dangerous precedent. On arrival the soldiers accused Perennis of plotting to become emperor. Cleander, having the ear of the emperor, produced circumstantial evidence of a plot by Perennis’ son, the army commander in Pannonia. Commodus, fearing that his adviser had become too powerful, ordered the execution of Perennis and his entire family.
By 186 at the latest, Commodus bestowed the command of his bodyguard on Cleander, and gave him the title pugione (‘dagger bearer’). Little more than a year later Cleander rose to the rank of praetorian prefect.
Cleander’s influence remained unchecked until a famine occurred in 190. He had been hoarding much of the grain supply for use by Rome’s citizens and army in times of famine, but in doing so earned the enmity of the mob. 11Aurelius Papirius, prefect of the grain supply, held back the grain on hand, thus worsening the situation, and the mob took to the streets. Commodus ordered Cleander’s execution. Effective government now devolved to Commodus’ mistress Marcia Aurelia (2) (fl.182-193); an Egyptian freedman Eclectus, the new cubicularius, with whom she had a romantic relationship; and (from 191) the praetorian prefect Aemilius (20) Laetus.
Megalomania
Commodus now appeared to become dangerously deranged, demanding that he be deified and be called Hercules, son of Jupiter, and was often seen wearing a lion-skin mantle and carrying a club. In 191 when a fire destroyed the Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Peace, he initiated major rebuilding in the centre of Rome, called himself the second founder of Rome and renamed the city Colonia Commodiana. He also took great pleasure in participating in the arena and in the slaying of beasts.
His attempts to buy popularity exacerbated the fiscal crisis evident since his father’s wars. Forcing him to debase the coinage and inflation was the unhappy result. During his last few years his need for more money as well as fear of conspiracy fuelled an alarming increase in the number of executions of prominent persons and the confiscation of their property.
When Laetus and Eclectus tried to restrain him, they themselves were threatened. They persuaded Marcia to serve him poisonedSeptimius Severusfood. On the day the effects of too much wine cause him to vomit most of the poison. While he was recovering in his bath, his wrestling partner, Narcissus, another freedman who had joined the plot, went in and strangled him. It was New Year’s Eve, 192.
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