Commodus as Hercules
(Musei Capitolini, Roma)
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1.14: Fire destroys Rome
[191]  In that time of crisis a number of
divine portents occurred. Stars remained visible during the day; other
stars, extending to an enormous length, seemed to be hanging in the
middle of the sky. Abnormal animals were born, strange in shape and
deformed of limb.
 But the worst portent
of all, which aggravated the present crisis and disturbed those who
employ auguries and omens to predict the future, was this. Although no
massing of dark clouds and no thunderstorm preceded it, and only a
slight earthquake occurred beforehand, either as a
result of a lightning bolt at night or a fire which broke out after the
earthquake, the temple of Peace, the largest and most beautiful building in the city, was totally destroyed by fire.
 It was the richest of
all the temples, and, because it was a safe place, was adorned with
offerings of gold and silver; every man deposited his possessions
there. But this fire, in a single night, made paupers of many rich men.
All Rome joined in mourning the public loss, and each man lamented his
own personal loss.[1]
 After consuming the
temple and the entire sacred precinct, the fire swept on to destroy a
large part of the city, including its most beautiful buildings. When
the temple of Vesta went up in flames, the image of Pallas Athena was
exposed to public view - that statue which the Romans worship and keep
hidden, the one brought from Troy, as the story goes. Now, for the first time since its journey from Troy to Italy, the statue was seen by men of our time.
 For the Vestal Virgins
snatched up the image and carried it along the Sacred Way to the
imperial palace. Many other beautiful sections of the city were
destroyed in this fire, which continued to burn for days, spreading in
all directions. It was not finally extinguished until falling showers
put an end to its raging.
 For this reason the
disaster was held to be of divine origin; in that critical period, men
believed that the fire was started and stopped by the will and power of
the gods. Some conjectured from these events that the destruction of
the temple of Peace was a prophecy of war. And subsequent events, as we
shall relate in the books to follow,[2] confirmed this prophecy by actual
events.
 With so many
disasters befalling the city in rapid succession, the Roman people no
longer looked with favor upon Commodus; they attributed their
misfortunes to his illegal murders and the other mistakes he had made
in his lifetime. He no longer concealed his activities, nor did he have
any desire to keep them secret. What they objected to his doing in
private he now had the effrontery to do in public. He fell
into a state of drunken madness.
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Hercules (sarcophagus from Perge, Museum of Antalya)
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 First
he discarded his family name and issued orders that he was to be called
not Commodus, son of Marcus, but Hercules, son of Zeus. Abandoning the
Roman and imperial mode of dress, he donned the lion skin, and carried
the club of Hercules. He wore purple robes embroidered with gold,
making himself an object of ridicule by combining in one set of
garments the frailty of
a woman and the might of a superman.
 This
was the way he looked in his public appearances. He assigned new names
to the months of the year; abolishing the old ones, he called the
months after his own list of names and titles, most of which actually
referred to Hercules as the manliest of men. He
erected statues of himself throughout the city, but opposite the senate
house he set up a special statue representing the emperor as an archer
poised to shoot, for he wished even his statues to inspire fear of him.
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