The Roman Emperor Who Fought as a Gladiator In the long history of Rome, no emperor shocked the empire quite like Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius. Unlike the philosopher-emperor who preceded him, Commodus reveled not in statecraft but in spectacle—and nowhere was this more notorious than in the arena. Beginning in the 180s CE, Commodus began appearing publicly as a gladiator, an act considered scandalous and unthinkable for a Roman ruler. Gladiators were slaves or criminals; for an emperor