How Did The Emperor Commodus Pretending To Be A Gladiator

During the first centuries CE of Roman art history a new art style emerges that illustrates a dense form of realism and naturalism. Realism in Roman art represented everyday activities of the era and historical events. Roman artists still relied upon and borrowed from ancient Greek Classical style, but unlike the Greeks artist's work which the central theme was focused on mythology, the Romans primary subject of art was civic leaders and military triumphs. Roman were practical people and far less dreamy or idealistic than the Greeks. However, not all Romans were as practical when it came taste in art, so was the case of the controversial emperor Commodus who reigned from CE 180-192.
My focus in this text is to try to understand the meaning …show more content…
He enjoyed blood spectacles and took part in killing defenseless wild animals. Commodus would cheat whenever he confronted lions or other big beasts, the animals were speared well in advanced, and he would finish killing them with a sword. In one recorded event it is said that he killed one hundred bears with bow and arrow from his balcony above the ring. A more bizarre example of his cruelty is when he gathered a large group of amputees from Rome, and they were forced to wear serpent costumes on their stumps and clubbed to death by emperor Commodus pretending to be …show more content…
The Romans maintained their enthusiasm for Greek art into Early Christian and Byzantine times. Commodus like other emperors before him had a strong urge to emulate the work of great Greek artists, mainly sculptures. Roman Emperors knew that art was a great propaganda tool to communicate with the masses regardless of their literacy (Stokstad & Cothren, 2013). The surviving sculpture of Commodus as infant Hercules (image 1) is a typical Greco-Roman sculpture what makes it interesting is the missing limbs and what was left intact. The emotion and pose give the observed just enough information to imagine and capture the theme being portrayed ("Commodus as the infant Hercules killing the snakes,"