Works and Other Worthy Writings (Aldine Edition)

As his ministers urged him ever more insistently, he no longer deferred to his friends. But having dispatched letters to Rome, and having appointed those whom he deemed suitable for guarding the bank of the Hister and for curbing the insults of the barbarians, he immediately announced his departure. They, therefore, undertaking the duties assigned to them, in not too long a time subdued many barbarians by arms, while others they joined to themselves in friendship with great rewards. This was indeed not a difficult thing to do, for the barbarians, greedy for money by their very nature and indifferent to dangers, either secure their livelihood through raids and pillaging, or accept peace when a price is proposed. Commodus, realizing this, sought to redeem security with the money in which he especially abounded, and he denied nothing to those who sought it. But when the news of the departure was spread throughout the army, a huge commotion suddenly arose in the entire camp, with everyone desiring to return to Rome, leaving the hostile soil and aspiring to urban delights. After it was announced by rumor and messengers that the prince was returning to the city, an incredible joy spread through the entire populace, with each one hoping for the best from the presence of the young emperor, and all believing that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. But he, making the journey in haste and crossing all the cities in his path with a certain youthful ardor, and received by royal attire and the joyous celebrations of the people, arrived as one truly welcome and desired by all. But when he approached Rome, the entire Senate and the Roman people immediately poured forth, each with great zeal to be the first to meet him, wearing laurel wreaths and carrying flowers of every kind that the season provided; they met him as far from the city as they could, wishing to see a prince conspicuous for his age and nobility. Indeed, they loved him, born and raised among them, and already in the third generation embracing the Roman empire and nobility. For his paternal lineage came from the leaders of the senatorial order, while his mother was Faustina, the wife of the prince Antoninus Pius, and through his mother, he was the grandson of Hadrian, tracing the very line of his ancestry back to his great-grandfather Trajan. Commodus was born of this stock, and in his case, beyond the flower of youth, there was also the support of a dignity of form, a fair and manly face, serene eyes that were yet sparkling, and golden, curly hair, such that as he walked in the sun it shone as if with a certain fire, so that some thought he was sprinkled with gold dust as he went, while others took it as a proof of divinity, opining that those were rays emanating around his head. In addition to this, a downy beard crept over his cheeks, clothing them as if with flowers. Such was the emperor, therefore, whom they received with all favorable acclamations and the scattering of crowns and flowers.