This fear was shared by all, by us senators as well as by the rest. And here is another thing that he did to us senators which gave us every reason to look for our death. Having killed an ostrich and cut off his head, he came up to where we were sitting, holding the head in his left hand and in  p115 his right hand raising aloft his bloody sword; 2 and though he spoke not a word, yet he wagged his head with a grin, indicating that he would treat us in the same way. And many would indeed have perished by the sword on the spot, for laughing at him (for it was laughter rather than indignation that overcame us), if I had not chewed some laurel leaves, which I got from my garland, myself, and persuaded the others who were sitting near me to do the same, so that in the steady movement of our armies we might conceal the fact that we were laughing

he had once got together all the men in the city who had lost their feet as the result of disease or some accident, and then, after fastening about their knees some likenesses of serpents' bodies, and giving them sponges to throw instead of stones, had killed them with blows of a club, pretending that they were giants.

Only Claudius Pompeianus the elder never appeared, but sent his sons, while remaining away himself; for he preferred even to be killed for this

Aemilius Laetus, the prefect

and indeed took great pride in the fact that he was left-handed

3 And let no one feel that I am sullying the dignity of history by recording such occurrences

At this both the populace and we senators all immediately shouted out the words so familiar at drinking-bouts, "Long life to you!"

and taking from a woman  p109 some chilled sweet wine in a cup shaped like a club, he drank it at one gulp.

. 4 As for the lion-skin and club, in the street they were carried before him, and in the amphitheatres they were placed on a gilded chair, whether he was present or not

but when he was about to go inside, he put on a robe of pure purple with gold spangles, donning also after the Greek fashion a chlamys of the same colour, and a crown made of gems from India and of gold, and he carried a herald's staff like that of Mercury.

In public he nowhere drove chariots except sometimes on a moonless night, for, though he was eager to play the charioteer in public, too, he was ashamed to be seen doing so; but in private he was constantly  p107 doing it, adopting the Green uniform

but spent it all disgracefully on his wild beasts and his gladiators.

he ordered us, our wives, and our children each to contribute two gold pieces14 every year on his birthday as a kind of first-fruits

And it was voted that his age should be named the  p105 "Golden Age,"

Rome he styled the "Immortal, Fortunate Colony of the Whole Earth"; for he wished it to be regarded as a settlement of his own.

 He actually ordered that Rome itself should be called Commodiana, the legions Commodian, and the day on which these measures were voted Commodiana.

Now the death of these victims passed unheeded for Commodus was a greater curse to the Romans than any pestilence or any crime.

perished at the hands of criminals who smeared some deadly drugs on tiny needles and for pay infected people with the poison by means of these instruments.

3 but he could not bring himself to desert the lad, who had become wearied, and so, when he was being overtaken, he killed both the boy and himself.

(he was ever the greatest coward)

They were already drawing near to Commodus, whom no one had kept informed of what was going on

A famine occurred