Editing Commodus (section)

===Conspiracies of 182===

{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2024}}

[[File:Commodus, Hermitage Museum.JPG|thumb|left|Commodus with attributes of [[Helios]], [[Apollo]] and [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], late 2nd century AD, [[sardonyx]] [[Cameo (carving)|cameo relief]], [[Hermitage Museum]], St. Petersburg]]

At the outset of his reign, Commodus, aged 18, inherited many of his father's senior advisers, notably [[Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus]] (the second husband of Commodus' eldest sister [[Lucilla]]), his father-in-law [[Gaius Bruttius Praesens (consul 153)|Gaius Bruttius Praesens]], Titus Fundanius Vitrasius Pollio, and [[Gaius Aufidius Victorinus|Aufidius Victorinus]] the [[Praefectus urbi|Prefect of the City of Rome]]. He also had four surviving sisters, all of them with husbands who were potential rivals. Lucilla was over ten years his senior and held the rank of [[Augustus (honorific)|Augusta]] as the widow of her first husband, [[Lucius Verus]].

The first crisis of the reign came in 182, when Lucilla engineered a conspiracy against her brother. Her motive is alleged to have been the envy of the [[Roman Empress|Empress]] [[Bruttia Crispina|Crispina]]. Lucilla's husband, Pompeianus, was not involved, but two men alleged to have been her lovers, [[Marcus Ummidius Quadratus Annianus]] (the consul of 167, also her first cousin) and Appius Claudius Quintianus, attempted to murder Commodus as he entered a theater. They bungled the job and were seized by the emperor's bodyguard.

Quadratus and Quintianus were executed. Lucilla was exiled to [[Capri]] and later killed. Pompeianus retired from public life. One of the two [[praetorian prefect]]s, [[Publius Tarrutenius Paternus]], had actually been involved in the conspiracy but his involvement was not discovered until later. In the meantime, he and his colleague, [[Tigidius Perennis|Sextus Tigidius Perennis]], were able to arrange for the murder of Saoterus, the hated chamberlain.

Commodus took the loss of Saoterus badly, and Perennis now seized the chance to advance himself by implicating Paternus in a second conspiracy, one apparently led by Publius Salvius Julianus, the son of the jurist [[Salvius Julianus]] and betrothed to Paternus' daughter. Salvius and Paternus were executed along with a number of other prominent consulars and senators. [[Didius Julianus]], the future emperor and a relative of Salvius Julianus, was dismissed from the governorship of [[Germania Inferior]].

====Cleander====
After the murder of the powerful [[Saoterus]], Perennis took over the reins of government and Commodus found a new chamberlain and favourite in [[Marcus Aurelius Cleander|Cleander]], a [[Phrygia]]n [[freedman]] who had married one of the emperor's mistresses, Demostratia. Cleander was in fact the person who had murdered Saoterus. After these attempts on his life, Commodus spent much of his time outside Rome, mostly on the family estates at Lanuvium. As he was physically strong, his chief interest was sport: he took part in [[horse racing]], [[chariot racing]], and combat with beasts and men, mostly in private but occasionally in public.