Commodus: The Gladiator Emperor
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2024
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Known as one of Rome's worst emperors, Commodus is famed for both his infamy and bravado. Ascending the throne as a teenager, he dressed up as Hercules, fought as a gladiator in the Colosseum, and renamed Rome after himself. But who was the real Commodus? And was he really as bad and megalomaniacal as some have claimed?
In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Alex Imrie to dive into the conspiracies, controversy and assassinations that made the reign of Commodus so chillingly captivating and inspired the performance of Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 sword and sandal epic ‘Gladiator’.
Presented by Tristan Hughes. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. The producer is Joseph Knight, the senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Spexavers have asked me to tell you something important, so I've gone creative and dug out my |
| 0:05.9 | old jack-in-the-box. It's about prices and how they jump up when you least expect them. |
| 0:16.0 | I said jump up when you least expect them. I said jump up when you least expect them. Oh, that Spexaver's glasses still start from 15 pounds. |
| 0:19.0 | Not now, Jack, including standard single vision lenses only. He's going to jump up now isn't he? |
| 0:24.3 | Oh well you're better off with spec savers. Oh I knew it. Ask in store for details. |
| 0:32.3 | Hi Tristan here and I have an exciting announcement. The ancients has been invited to open the London |
| 0:39.1 | podcast festival. We will be recording our very first live show on Thursday the 5th of September at 7 p.m. |
| 0:46.8 | at King's Place and being the first live show where we want it to be extra special. |
| 0:52.1 | So I've invited a friend of the podcast, Professor |
| 0:54.2 | Lloyd Luellen Jones, to join me on stage where we will be diving into the captivating story |
| 0:59.7 | of the Tower of Babel. From its first mention in the book of Genesis to the real life great ancient |
| 1:06.2 | Babylonian structure that it was based on. |
| 1:09.4 | Of course the ancient is nothing without you, so we want you to be there in the audience taking part and asking |
| 1:15.9 | us your burning questions. Tickets for the festival always sell fast, so book yourself a seat now at |
| 1:22.3 | W.W. dot Kingsplace.co. UK |
| 1:26.0 | forward slash what's on, |
| 1:28.0 | or click the link in the show notes of this episode. |
| 1:30.0 | I really hope to see you there. It's the ancients on history hit. |
| 1:46.0 | I'm Tristan Hughes your host and today we are exploring the life of the Roman Emperor |
| 1:51.3 | Commodus, the son of the famous philosopher |
| 1:54.0 | Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Commodus's predecessors are often portrayed as |
| 1:58.1 | some of Rome's greatest ever emperors, the so-called five good emperors. However, this all came crashing down with |
... |
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