Maximus is a name formed from the Latin term for "greatest" or "largest." Therefore, it is both a proper noun and common noun, both in the ancient, medieval, and modern world.
Maximus Decimus Meridius is the fictional character of ancient Rome who is the hero of the 2000 movie Gladiator played by Russell Crowe. In 2003 Maximus was on the American Film Institute list of 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains ranked at #50 on the heroes list.
Throughout the movie, he is called "Maximus," even by strangers; the correct way ancient Romans would have addressed him would be either as "Decimus Meridius" or as "Maximus Meridius." The name should have been Decimus Meridius Maximus, meaning that he is Decimus (either the tenth son or born in the tenth month) of the Meridii, and he is Great.
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Maximus Decimus Meridius was a general of the Roman army, and a close friend of the ailing Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius appointed him legatus of the Emperor's Legion, which he led against the Marcomanni in Germania. He was away for three years, 264 days, and that morning until the final victory against the barbarians near the river Danube.
After Marcus Aurelius's death in the camp at Vindobona, Maximus was arrested by the guards of the new Emperor Commodus. Suspecting Commodus of having smothered his own father, the general had refused to give allegiance to the new Emperor. Commodus then had Maximus arrested and ordered his family murdered. As he was about to be executed, Maximus overwhelmed his guards and escaped.
Maximus returned home after much travel and found his loved ones burned and crucified. He fainted from sorrow and his wounds, and was captured by slavers while asleep.
He was sold to the old gladiator Proximo, and trained at his school, taking the name of "The Spaniard"(in earlier screenplays he was going to be named Narcissus, who was the sparring partner of Commodus and is widely believed to have strangled him). Vowing revenge against Commodus, he fought in many gladiatorial battles in stadia—his fame gaining all the while—finally coming to the Colosseum in Rome.
Proximo's gladiators first battle in the Colosseum was a historical recreation of the fall of Carthage. Leading the gladiators, Maximus is able to win against the 'superior Roman legions', and comes to the attention of Commodus. Forced to reveal his identity to Commodus, Maximus is put through more challenges in an attempt to kill him
An attempt to escape Rome to re-unite with his army fails, and Maximus pitted against Commodus in a final match in the Colosseum. Both died during this battle (He had been secretly stabbed with a poisoned-tipped needle by Commodus beforehand while still tied as a prisoner.) The Roman mob cheered his victory and hailed him as a hero.
Marcus Aurelius
Roman imperial dynasties
Antonine Dynasty
Antoninus Pius
Children
Natural - Faustina the Younger, also one other daughter and two sons, all died before 138
Adoptive - Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus
Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus
Marcus Aurelius alone
Children
Natural - 13, including Commodus and Lucilla
Commodus
Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (April 26, 121 – March 17, 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to his death. He was born Marcus Annius Catilius Severus, and at marriage took the name Marcus Annius Verus. When he was named Emperor, he was given the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors.
Adoption by Antoninus
He was Antoninus Pius' nephew and the son of Hadrian's brother-in-law. Therefore, on the death of Hadrian's first adopted son Aelius Verus, Hadrian made it a precondition of making Antoninus his successor that Antoninus would adopt Marcus (then called Marcus Annius Verus) and Lucius Verus (Aelius Verus' son), and arrange for them to be next in the line.
This Antoninus did, adopting and designating them as his successors on February 25, 138, when Marcus was only seventeen years of age.
Roman emperor
Marcus Aurelius sculpture on Capitoline Hill.
Joint emperorship
When Antoninus died on March 7, 161, Marcus accepted the throne on the condition that he and Verus were made joint emperors (Augusti), with Verus partly subordinate. This was partly because the two were Antoninus' joint heirs.
The joint succession may have also been motivated by military exigences, since, during his reign, Marcus Aurelius was almost constantly at war with various peoples outside the empire. A highly authoritative figure was needed to command the troops, yet the emperor himself could not defend both the German and Parthian fronts at the same time. Neither could he simply appoint a general to lead the legions; earlier popular military leaders like Julius Caesar and Vespasian had used the military to overthrow the existing government and install themselves as supreme leaders. Marcus Aurelius solved the problem by sending Verus to command the legions in the east. He was authoritative enough to command the full loyalty of the troops, but already powerful enough that he had little incentive to overthrow Marcus. The plan succeeded—Verus remained loyal until his death on campaign in 169.
This joint emperorship was faintly reminiscent of the political system of the Roman Republic, which functioned according to the principle of collegiality and did not allow a single person to hold supreme power. Joint rule was revived by Diocletian's establishment of the Tetrarchy in the late 3rd century.
Aurelius' wars
Germany and the Danube
Germanic tribes and many people had launched many raids along the Northern border, particularly into Gaul and across the Danube— Germans, in turn, may have been under attack from more warlike tribes farther east. His campaigns against them are commemorated on the Column of Marcus Aurelius.
Parthia
In Asia, a revitalized Parthian Empire renewed its assault. Marcus Aurelius sent his joint emperor Verus to command the legions in the east to face this threat. On the return from the victorious campaign, Verus was awarded with a triumph; the parade was unusual because it included Verus, Marcus Aurelius, their sons and unmarried daughters as a big family celebration.
Writings
While on campaign between 170 and 180, Aurelius wrote his Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. He had been a priest at the sacrificial altars of Roman service and was an eager patriot. He had a logical mind though his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality. Meditations is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. It has been praised for its "exquisite accent and its infinite tenderness" and "saintliness" being called the "gospel of his life." They have been compared by John Stuart Mill in his Utility of Religion to the Sermon on the Mount.
The book itself was first published in 1558 in Zurich, from a manuscript copy that is now lost. The only other surviving complete copy of the manuscript is in the Vatican library.
Contacts with China
Death
Marcus Aurelius died on March 17, 180 during the expedition against the Marcomanni and Quadi in the city of Vindobona (modern Vienna). His ashes were returned to Rome and rest in Hadrian's mausoleum (modern Castel Sant'Angelo). He was also commemorated by a column in Rome.
Succession and historical legacy
He was able to secure the succession for his son Commodus, whom he made co-emperor in his own lifetime (in 177), though the choice may have been unknowingly unfortunate. Commodus was a political and military outsider, as well as an extreme egotist. Many historians believe that the decline of Rome began under Commodus. For this reason, Aurelius' death is often held to have been the end of the Pax Romana.
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Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus (originally Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus) (August 31, 161 - December 31, 192) was a Roman Emperor who ruled from 180 to 192. He is often considered to have been one of the worst Roman Emperors, in the mold of Nero and Caligula, and his reign brought to a close the era of the "five good emperors".
Life
Commodus was the son of the popular and successful Marcus Aurelius. He had a twin brother, Antoninus, who died when he was about four years old, and a sister, Lucilla, who was implicated in plots to overthrow him. He was made co-emperor in 177, during his father's lifetime; when he became sole emperor upon the death of his father in 180, it was at first seen as a hopeful sign by the people of the Roman Empire.
Nevertheless, as generous and magnanimous as his father was, Commodus turned out to be just the opposite, with the sole exception being that he stopped the persecution of Christians started by his father. Commodus, being the son of Marcus Aurelius was one of the most well prepared Roman emperors in history. Unfortunately his intent was not to rule, but to bask in a life of wealth and luxury. Commodus is often thought to have been insane, and he was certainly given to excess. He began his reign by making an unfavourable peace treaty with the Germanic tribe of the Marcomanni, who had been at war with Marcus Aurelius. Later, Commodus would wage wars of his own against the Germans, often winning partial victories yet claiming the honours for a full victory in the Roman Senate.
Commodus was extremely proud of his physical prowess, disdaining the more philosophic inclinations of his father. He ordered many statues to be made showing him dressed as Hercules with a lion's hide and a club. He thought of himself as the reincarnation of Hercules, frequently emulating the legendary hero's feats by appearing in the arena to fight a variety of wild animals. Dion Cassius and the writers of the Augustan History say that Commodus was a skilled archer, who could shoot the heads off ostriches in full gallop, and kill a panther as it attacked a victim in the arena.
The emperor also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. This was considered scandalous by the people of Rome, who regarded gladiators as occupying the lowest rungs of society. Commodus naturally always won, although, since his opponents always submitted to the emperor, these public fights would not end in a death. For each appearance in the arena, he charged the city of Rome a million sesterces, straining the Roman economy.
Commodus demanded to be worshipped as a god. Commodus was the most prepared for the succession of emperor. However, being born in luxury, work was foreign to him, and subsequently neglected matters of state while dallying with a harem of some 300 men and women. He appointed his underlings to administer the Empire, and shared in the money these men stole. Numerous ancient authorities also record rumours of an incestuous relationship with his sister. Commodus sold his duties as emperor to an advisor named Cleander, which led to widespread corruption at the highest levels and drained the Roman treasury.
In 190, part of the city of Rome burned, and Commodus took the opportunity to "re-found" the city of Rome in his own honour, as Colonia Commodiana. The months of the calendar were all renamed in his honour (Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius, Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius [1]), and the Senate was renamed as the Commodian Fortunate Senate. The army became known as the Commodian Army.
A year later, Commodus was strangled in his bath by the wrestler Narcissus, ordered by Commodus' mistress Marcia, a day before he planned to march into the Senate dressed as a gladiator to take office as consul. Upon his death the Senate passed a damnatio memoriae on him and restored the proper name to the city of Rome and its institutions. However, in 195, the emperor Septimius Severus, trying to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius, rehabilitated the memory of Commodus and had the Senate deify him.
Legacy
Commodus' rule is considered the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. Commodus' selling of high offices to incompetent people, leading to massive corruption and his paid exploits in the gladiatorial arena, which amounted to for one million sesterces paid by the city of Rome for every appearance severely ruined the Roman economy. The Roman economy never recovered from the rule of Commodus and may have eventually contributed to its collapse.
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