Commodus Antoninus

1. Concerning the parents of Commodus Antoninus enough has been said in the Life of Marcus Antoninus. He himself was born at Lanuvium, together with his twin brother Antoninus, on the day before the Kalends of September, when his father and uncle were consuls — where his maternal grandfather too is said to have been born. Faustina, when she was pregnant with Commodus and his brother, seemed in her sleep to give birth to serpents, but one of these the fiercer. And when she had borne Commodus and Antoninus, Antoninus died at the age of four, whom the astrologers had promised would be equal to Commodus in the course of the stars. So, when his brother was dead, Marcus tried to educate Commodus both by his own precepts and by those of great and excellent men. He had as his teacher of Greek letters Onesicrates, of Latin Capella Antistius; his teacher of oratory was Ateius Sanctus.

But teachers of so many disciplines profited him nothing. So great is the power either of natural disposition or of those who are reckoned the instructors in a palace. For from his very earliest boyhood he was base, shameless, cruel, lustful, defiled too in mouth and debauched. Already he was skilled in those arts which did not belong to the imperial station: to shape cups, to dance, to sing, to whistle, in short to play the buffoon and the perfect gladiator. He gave an omen of his cruelty at Centumcellae in the twelfth year of his age; for when his bath had by chance been drawn too lukewarm, he ordered the bath-keeper to be cast into the furnace; whereupon the slave who had been given this command, in order to fulfil the appearance of the punishment by the stench of the smoke, burned a sheepskin in the furnace.

He was hailed Caesar as a boy along with his brother Verus. In the fourteenth year of his age he was admitted into the college of priests.

2. He was co-opted among the young nobles, the leaders of the youth, when he assumed the toga; while still in the boy's purple-bordered gown he gave a largesse and himself presided in the Basilica of Trajan. He was clad in the toga on the day of the Nones of July, the day on which Romulus disappeared from the earth, and at the very time when Cassius revolted from Marcus. He set out, commended to the soldiers, with his father into Syria and Egypt, and returned with him to Rome. After this, indulgence of the annual law having been obtained, he was made consul, and with his father was hailed emperor on the fifth day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Pollio and Aper, and triumphed with his father — for this too the fathers had decreed. He set out with his father to the German war as well.

He could not endure the more honourable men appointed as guardians of his life; he kept the worst of them by him, and, when these were removed, missed them even to the point of sickness. When, through his father's softness, they were restored to him, he set up cook-shops and taverns in the Palatine buildings, and never spared either decency or expense. In his house he played at dice; he gathered together, in the guise of brothels and in mockery of chastity, women of more comely form, as slaves for hire, like common prostitutes. He imitated the hawkers who go about the markets. He bought himself racing horses; in the dress of a charioteer he drove chariots; he feasted with gladiators, and bore himself like the servant of pimps, so that you would believe him born rather for disgrace than for the station to which fortune had advanced him.

3. He removed the older servants of his father, cast off his aged friends, and made vain attempts upon the son of Salvius Julianus, who commanded the armies, for an unchaste purpose, and from then on laid plots against Julianus. The most honourable men he cast off either by insult or by an unworthy honour. He was hailed by the actors as one debauched, and these he straightway deported in such a way that they did not appear again. The war too, which his father had almost finished, he gave up, bound by the terms of the enemy, and returned to Rome.

When he had returned to Rome, with his catamite Saoterus placed behind him in his chariot, he so triumphed that, turning his head back, he often kissed him in public. He did this same thing too in the theatre; and when he drank until daybreak and squandered the resources of the Roman empire, he flitted in the evening through taverns and brothels. He sent men to govern the provinces who were either partners in his crimes or recommended by criminals. He came into such hatred of the senate that he himself raged cruelly to the ruin of so great an order, and from being despised became cruel.

4. The life of Commodus drove Quadratus and Lucilla to take counsel for his killing, not without the advice of Tarrutenius Paternus, the praetorian prefect. The task of carrying out the murder was given to Claudius Pompeianus, a kinsman; who, having entered the presence of Commodus with drawn sword, when he had the opportunity of doing the deed, broke out into these words, "This dagger the senate sends you" — and, fool that he was, disclosed the crime and did not accomplish it, though many shared with him in the design. After this Pompeianus first and Quadratus were killed, then Norbana and Norbanus and Paralius; and his mother and Lucilla were driven into exile.

Then the praetorian prefects, when they saw that Commodus had fallen into such hatred on account of Saoterus, whose power the Roman people could not endure, cleverly, when Saoterus had been led out of the Palatium for the sake of sacred rites and was returning to his own gardens, killed him by means of the secret agents. This was indeed more grievous to Commodus than if it had concerned himself. But Paternus, both the author of this murder and, as it seemed, privy to the plotted killing of Commodus and a hindrance to it, lest the conspiracy should be punished more widely, at the instigation of Tigidius was removed from the administration of the prefecture by the honour of the broad stripe. After a few days he charged him with conspiracy, saying that for this reason the daughter of Paternus had been promised to the son of Julianus, that the empire might pass to Julianus; wherefore he killed both Paternus and Julianus, and Vitruvius Secundus, the most intimate friend of Paternus, who had had charge of the imperial correspondence. The whole house of the Quintilii besides was extinguished, because Sextus, the son of Condianus, was said to have escaped to revolt by feigning death. Vitrasia Faustina too was killed, and Velius Rufus, and Egnatius Capito, a consular; and into exile were driven Aemilius Juncus and Atilius Severus, the consuls; and against many others cruelty was variously exercised.

5. After this Commodus never readily came out into public, nor would he suffer anything to be announced to him unless Perennis had first handled it. But Perennis, well knowing the character of Commodus, found out how he himself might become powerful; for he persuaded Commodus to devote himself to pleasures, while Perennis himself should attend to the cares. This Commodus received gladly. Living, therefore, by this arrangement, he himself revelled in the Palatium amid banquets and baths with three hundred concubines, whom he gathered for the comeliness of their form from a choice of matrons and harlots, and with three hundred other grown catamites, whom he had likewise collected, from both the plebs and the nobility, by force and by bribes, with comeliness as the arbiter. Meanwhile, in the dress of a sacrificing priest, he slew the victims; in the arena he fought with wooden swords, and among his chamberlains as a gladiator with blades sometimes gleaming sharp. Then, however, Perennis claimed everything for himself; he slew whom he would, despoiled very many, overturned all rights, and gathered all the plunder into his own lap. But Commodus himself, having sent his sister Lucilla to Capri, killed her; then, having debauched, as is said, his other sisters too, having forced a cousin of his father into his own embraces, he gave to one even of his mother's concubines the name of his mother. His wife, whom he had divorced when caught in adultery, after divorcing her he banished and afterwards killed. He bade his very concubines be debauched before his eyes; nor was he free from the infamy of young men rushing upon him, being defiled in every part of his body and in his mouth, towards both sexes.

At that time Claudius too was killed, as though by brigands, whose son once entered the presence of Commodus with a dagger; and many other senators were put to death without trial, rich women also, and several throughout the provinces, falsely accused by Perennis on account of their wealth, were despoiled or even put to death. But against those to whom there was lacking the imputation of a fabricated charge it was alleged that they had refused to write down Commodus as their heir.

6. At that time Perennis ascribed to his own son the successes achieved in Sarmatia by other generals. Yet this Perennis, who had such great power, suddenly — because in the British war he had set men of equestrian rank over the soldiers, the senators being removed — the matter being betrayed through the legates of the army, was declared a public enemy and given over to the soldiers to be torn to pieces. In his place of power he substituted Cleander, one of the chamberlains.

After Perennis and his son had been killed, Commodus indeed rescinded many things, as though they had not been done by himself, restoring them as it were to their former state; but this repentance for his crimes he could not maintain beyond thirty days, doing graver things through Cleander than he had done through the aforesaid Perennis. And in power indeed Cleander had succeeded Perennis, but in the prefecture Niger, who is reported to have been praetorian prefect for only six hours. For the praetorian prefects were changed by hours and days, Commodus doing everything worse than he had done before. Marcius Quartus was praetorian prefect for five days; their successors, at the will of Cleander, were either retained or killed; at whose nod even freedmen were chosen into the senate and among the patricians; and then for the first time there were twenty-five consuls in one year, and all the provinces were sold. Cleander put everything up for sale for money; he adorned with dignities men recalled from exile; he rescinded judgments given. He had so much power, through the folly of Commodus, that he drew Burrus, the husband of the sister of Commodus, who reproved him and reported to Commodus the things that were being done, into a suspicion of aspiring to the throne and killed him, with many others who were defending Burrus likewise put to death. The prefect Aebutianus too was killed among these; in whose place Cleander himself, with two others whom he himself had chosen, was made prefect; and then for the first time there were three praetorian prefects, among them a freedman, who was named "from the dagger."

7. But upon Cleander too a fitting end of life was at last imposed. For when, by his plots, Arrius Antoninus had been killed on false charges, to the gratification of Attalus, whom he had condemned in his proconsulship of Asia, and Commodus could not then, the people raging, bear that unpopularity, he was given over to the plebs for punishment, while Apolaustus and other freedmen of the court were likewise put to death. Cleander, among other things, had also debauched his concubines, by whom he had sons, who after his destruction were killed along with their mothers.

In his place Julianus and Regillus were substituted, whom too he afterwards subjected to punishment. After these were killed, he put to death Servilius and Dulius Silanus with their kin; then Antius Lupus and the Petronii, Mamertinus and Sura, and Antoninus the son of Mamertinus, born of his own sister; and after these, six men at once from among the consulars: Allius Fuscus, Caelius Felix, Lucceius Torquatus, Larcius Eurupianus, Valerius Bassianus, Pactumeius Magnus, with their kin; and in Asia Sulpicius Crassus the proconsul, and Julius Proculus with his kin, and Claudius Lucanus the consular, and his father's cousin Faustina Annia in Achaia, and countless others. He had marked out fourteen others too for death, since his expenditures the resources of the Roman empire could not sustain.

8. Meanwhile Commodus, the senate mocking him, since he had designated his mother's adulterer consul, was hailed as Pius; when he had killed Perennis, he was hailed as Felix — amid very many murders of many citizens, like some new Sulla, the same Commodus, he the Pius, he the Felix. He is said even to have feigned a certain conspiracy against himself, in order to kill many; nor was there any other revolt save that of Alexander, who afterwards killed himself and his kin, and that of his sister Lucilla. Commodus was hailed also as Britannicus by his flatterers, although the Britons even wished to choose an emperor against him. He was called also the Roman Hercules, because he had killed wild beasts at Lanuvium in the amphitheatre; for it was his custom to slay beasts at home. There was, moreover, this madness, that he wished the city of Rome to be called the Commodian Colony; which frenzy is said to have been instilled in him amid the blandishments of Marcia. He wished too to drive four-horse chariots in the Circus; he came forth in public in a Dalmatian tunic and thus gave the signal for sending out the chariots. And at the very time when he referred the matter to the senate concerning the making of Rome Commodian, not only did the senate accept this gladly in mockery, as is understood, but it even called itself Commodian, hailing Commodus as Hercules and as a god.

9. He pretended that he would go to Africa as well, in order to exact a travelling allowance, and he exacted it and turned it to banquets and dice. Motilenus, the praetorian prefect, he killed by poison administered through figs. He received statues in the dress of Hercules, and sacrifice was offered to him as to a god. He had besides prepared to kill many; which was betrayed by a certain little boy, who threw out of the bedchamber a tablet on which were written the names of those to be killed.

He cultivated the rites of Isis, so that he both shaved his head and carried the Anubis. In his zeal for cruelty, he bade the servants of Bellona truly cut off an arm. The worshippers of Isis he forced to beat their breasts with pine cones even to destruction; when he carried the Anubis, he heavily battered the heads of the worshippers of Isis with the face of the image. With a club he struck not only lions, in woman's clothing and a lion's skin, but many men besides. Men weak in their feet, and those who could not walk, he shaped into the likeness of giants, so that from the knees down they were covered with rags and linens, like serpents, and finished them off with arrows. He polluted the rites of Mithras with a real murder, although there something is wont to be either said or done for the appearance of fear.

10. Even as a boy he was both gluttonous and shameless. As a young man he disgraced every kind of person that was with him, and was disgraced by all. Those who mocked him he cast to the beasts. He even ordered to be cast to the beasts a man who had read the book of Tranquillus containing the life of Caligula, because he had had the same birthday as Caligula. If indeed anyone had declared that he wished to die, this man he ordered to be hurled down against his will. In his jests too he was deadly. For a man whom he had seen to have, among black hairs, whitening ones like little worms, he reduced, by setting upon him a starling which believed it was hunting worms, to a suppurated head by the pecking of its beak. A fat man he split open down the middle of the belly, so that his intestines suddenly poured out. He called "one-footed" and "one-eyed" those from whom he had either put out single eyes or broken single feet. Many besides he destroyed here and there: some because they had met him in barbarian dress, others because they were noble and comely. He had among his minions men called by the names of the private parts of either sex, whom he applied the more gladly to his own kisses. He had also a man with a member projecting beyond the measure of animals, whom he called Onos, most dear to him, whom he both enriched and set over the priesthood of the rustic Hercules.

11. He is said often to have mixed human excrement with the most costly foods, and not to have refrained from tasting them, while the others, as he thought, were mocked. Two hunchbacks with twisted backs he displayed to himself on a silver dish, drenched with mustard, and at once promoted and enriched them. His praetorian prefect Julianus, in his toga, he pushed into the fish-pond in the presence of his retinue; he ordered him too to dance naked before his concubines, shaking cymbals with his face distorted. Kinds of cooked vegetables he rarely summoned to the banquet, because of his continual luxury. He bathed seven and eight times a day, and ate in the baths themselves. He entered the temples of the gods polluted with debaucheries and with human blood. He imitated a physician too, so as to let men's blood with deadly lancets.

The months also his flatterers called, in his honour, instead of Augustus, Commodus; instead of September, Hercules; instead of October, Invictus; instead of November, Exsuperatorius; instead of December, Amazonius, from his own surname. And he was called Amazonius from his love for his concubine Marcia, whom he loved depicted as an Amazon, on whose account he wished himself too to come forth into the Roman arena in the Amazonian dress.

He took part too in gladiatorial combat and received the names of gladiators with such joy as though he were receiving triumphal honours. He always entered the gladiatorial school, and ordered it to be entered in the public records as often as he entered. He is said to have fought seven hundred and thirty-five times.

He was named among the Caesars on the fourth day before the Ides of October — which he afterwards named the Herculean — in the consulship of Pudens and Pollio; he was hailed Germanicus on the Herculean Ides,

12. in the consulship of Maximus and Orfitus; he was admitted into all the priestly colleges as a priest on the thirteenth day before the Invincible Kalends, in the consulship of Piso and Julianus; he set out for Germany on the fourteenth day before the Aelian Kalends, as he afterwards named them, in the same consulship; he received the toga of manhood and was hailed emperor with his father on the fifth day before the Exsuperatorian Kalends, in the second consulship of Pollio and Aper; he triumphed on the tenth day before the Kalends of January, in the same consulship; he set out again on the third day before the Commodian Nones, in the consulship of Orfitus and Rufus; he was given by the army and the senate to be preserved in perpetuity in the Commodian Palatine house on the eleventh day before the Roman Kalends, in the second consulship of Praesens. Meditating a third departure, he was held back by the senate and his people. Vows were made for him on the Pius Nones, in the second consulship of Fuscianus. Meanwhile it is recorded in writing that he fought, under his father, three hundred and sixty-five times; and likewise afterwards he completed so many gladiatorial palms, the net-fighters being either vanquished or slain, that they reached a thousand. Of various wild beasts he killed many thousands with his own hand, so that he slew even elephants. And these things he did with the Roman people often looking on.

13. He was indeed vigorous for these things, but otherwise feeble and infirm, with a defect too in a swelling between his groins, so that the Roman people recognized its tumour through his silken garments. Many verses were written about him, on which Marius Maximus too plumes himself in his work. His strength for despatching wild beasts was so great that he transfixed an elephant with a pole, and pierced through the horn of an oryx with a spear, and with single blows despatched many thousands of huge beasts. He was of such shamelessness that, sitting in woman's clothing in the amphitheatre or theatre, he very often drank in public.

Under him, however, while he lived thus, the Moors were conquered by his legates, the Dacians conquered, the Pannonian regions also settled; in Britain, in Germany, and in Dacia the provincials refused his rule — all of which was quelled by his generals. Commodus himself was slow and careless in subscribing, so that he subscribed to many petitions with one form of words, and in most letters wrote only "Farewell"; and everything was managed by others, who are said even to have turned the condemnations into their own profit.

14. And through this carelessness, when those who then administered the commonwealth were laying waste the grain-supply too, a great famine even arose at Rome, though there was no lack of crops; and those indeed who were laying everything waste Commodus afterwards killed and proscribed. He himself, however, pretending a golden age in the name "Commodian," set up a low price, from which he made a greater scarcity.

Many under him redeemed both another's punishment and their own safety with money. He sold even varieties of punishments, and burials, and lessenings of penalties, and killed some men in place of others. He sold provinces too, and administrations, those through whom he sold them receiving a part, and Commodus a part. He sold to some even the slaughter of their enemies. Under him his freedmen sold even the outcomes of lawsuits. The prefects Paternus and Perennis he did not long endure, in such a way that even of those prefects whom he himself had made none completed three years; most of them he killed either by poison or by the sword; and the prefects of the city he changed with the same readiness.

15. His chamberlains he gladly killed, although he had always done everything at their nod. Eclectus the chamberlain, when he saw him kill chamberlains so easily, forestalled him and took part in the faction that brought about his death. As a spectator he took up gladiatorial arms, veiling his naked shoulders with a purple cloth. He had besides the habit of ordering all that he did basely, impurely, cruelly, in gladiatorial or pander's fashion, to be entered in the city's records, as the writings of Marius Maximus attest. He called the Roman people too "Commodian," in whose presence very often he fought as a gladiator. Indeed, when the people had often, as he fought, applauded him as a god, believing himself mocked, he had ordered the Roman people to be killed in the amphitheatre by the marines of the fleet who managed the awnings; he had ordered the city to be set on fire, as being his own colony — which would have been done, had not Laetus the praetorian prefect deterred Commodus. He was hailed, indeed, among his other triumphal titles, six hundred and twenty times "First Stake of the Pursuers."

16. The portents of his reign, both public and private, were these: a long-haired star appeared. Footprints of the gods were seen going out of the Forum. And before the war of the deserters the sky was on fire. And a sudden murkiness and darkness arose in the Circus on the Kalends of January; and before daylight there had been birds of fire and ill omen too. He himself migrated from the Palatium to the Caelian Hill, to the Vectilian house, declaring that he could not sleep in the Palatium. The twin gates of Janus opened of their own accord, and the marble image of Anubis seemed to move. The bronze statue of Hercules in the Minucian portico sweated for several days. An owl too was caught above his bedchamber both at Rome and at Lanuvium. He himself made for himself no light portent; for when he had put his hand into the wound of a slain gladiator, he wiped it on his own head; and contrary to custom he ordered the spectators to come to the show in cloaks, not togas — which was customary at funerals — himself presiding in dark garments. His helmet was twice carried out through the Libitinensian gate.

He gave a largesse to the people of seven hundred and twenty-five denarii apiece; towards all others he was most sparing, because by the expenditures of his luxury he had diminished the treasury. He added many games of the circus, from lust rather than religion, and in order to enrich the masters of the factions.

17. Stirred by these things, though too late, Quintus Aemilius Laetus the prefect and Marcia his concubine entered into a conspiracy to kill him. And first they gave him poison; which, when it worked but feebly, by means of an athlete with whom he was wont to exercise, they strangled him.

He was indeed of a well-proportioned body, with a dull countenance, as drunkards have, and disordered speech, his hair always dyed and lit up with gold filings, singeing his hair and beard from fear of the barber.

The senate and people demanded that his body be dragged with a hook and thrown into the Tiber; but afterwards, by order of Pertinax, it was transferred to the monument of Hadrian.

Of his works, apart from the bath which Cleander had built in his name, none remain; but his name, cut on the works of others, the senate erased. He did not complete even his father's works. He established the African fleet, which was to be a help if by chance the Alexandrian grain-supplies should fail. He ridiculously called Carthage too "Alexandria Commodiana Togata," when he had also called the African fleet "Commodian Herculean." He added indeed certain ornaments to the Colossus, all of which were afterwards removed. He took off the head of the Colossus, because it was Nero's, and set on his own, and added a title in the customary manner, so as not to omit those of "Gladiator" and "Effeminate." Yet Severus, a stern emperor and a man worthy of his name, out of hatred, as it seems, of the senate, enrolled him among the gods, adding a flamen, the Herculean Commodian, which he himself, while living, had prepared for himself.

He left three sisters surviving; that his birthday should be celebrated, Severus ordained.

18. The acclamations of the senate after the death of Commodus were grave; and that it may be known what the senate's judgment of Commodus was, I have inserted the very acclamations from Marius Maximus, and the sentence of the senatorial decree: "From the enemy of his country let his honours be stripped. From the parricide let his honours be stripped. Let the parricide be dragged. Let the enemy of his country, the parricide, the gladiator, be mangled in the despoiling-pit. Enemy of the gods, butcher of the senate, enemy of the gods, parricide of the senate; enemy of the gods, enemy of the senate, the gladiator into the despoiling-pit. He who slew the senate, let him be put into the despoiling-pit; he who slew the senate, let him be dragged with the hook; he who slew the innocent, let him be dragged with the hook. Enemy, parricide, truly, truly. He who spared not his own blood, let him be dragged with the hook. He who would have killed you, let him be dragged with the hook. With us you feared, with us you were in peril. That we may be safe, Jupiter Best and Greatest, preserve Pertinax for us. To the loyalty of the praetorians good fortune, to the praetorian cohorts good fortune, to the Roman armies good fortune, to the piety of the senate good fortune. Let the parricide be dragged. We beg, Augustus, let the parricide be dragged. This we beg, let the parricide be dragged. Hear us, Caesar: the informers to the lion. Hear us, Caesar: Speratus to the lion. To the victory of the Roman people good fortune, to the loyalty of the soldiers good fortune, to the loyalty of the praetorians good fortune, to the praetorian cohorts good fortune. The statues of the enemy everywhere, the statues of the parricide everywhere, the statues of the gladiator everywhere — let the statues of the gladiator and parricide be torn down. Let the slayer of citizens be dragged. Let the parricide of citizens be dragged. Let the statues of the gladiator be torn down. While you are safe, we are safe and secure, truly, truly; only truly, only worthily, only truly, only freely. Now we are secure; fear for the informers, that we may be secure; fear for the informers, that we may be safe; the informers from the senate; the cudgel for the informers. While you are safe, the informers to the lion; while you rule, the cudgel for the informers.

19. Let the memory of the parricide gladiator be abolished, let the statues of the parricide gladiator be torn down. Let the memory of the impure gladiator be abolished. The gladiator into the despoiling-pit. Hear us, Caesar: let the butcher be dragged with the hook. Let the butcher of the senate, after the manner of our ancestors, be dragged with the hook. Fiercer than Domitian, more impure than Nero; as he did, so let him suffer. Let the memorials of the innocent be preserved. Restore the honours of the innocent, we beg. Let the corpse of the parricide be dragged with the hook. Let the corpse of the gladiator be dragged with the hook. Let the corpse of the gladiator be put into the despoiling-pit. Put it to the vote, put it to the vote: we all judge that he should be dragged with the hook. He who killed all, let him be dragged with the hook. He who killed every age, let him be dragged with the hook. He who killed both sexes, let him be dragged with the hook. He who spared not his own blood, let him be dragged with the hook. He who despoiled the temples, let him be dragged with the hook. He who destroyed wills, let him be dragged with the hook. He who despoiled the living, let him be dragged with the hook. We have been slaves to slaves. He who exacted prices for life, let him be dragged with the hook. He who exacted prices for life and kept not faith, let him be dragged with the hook. He who sold the senate, let him be dragged with the hook. He who took their inheritance from sons, let him be dragged with the hook. The spies out of the senate, the informers out of the senate, the suborners of slaves out of the senate. You too feared with us; you know everything, and you know both the good and the bad; you know everything, set everything right; we feared for you. O happy we, with you truly ruling! Concerning the parricide, refer the matter, refer it, put it to the vote. Your presence we ask; the innocent have not been buried. Let the corpse of the parricide be dragged; the parricide dug up the buried; let the corpse of the parricide be dragged."

20. And when, by order of Pertinax, Livius Laurensis, procurator of the imperial estate, had given it to Fabius Cilo, the consul designate, the corpse of Commodus was buried by night. The senate acclaimed: "On whose authority did they bury him? Let the buried parricide be dug up, let him be dragged."

Cincius Severus said: "He has been buried unjustly. As a pontiff I declare, this college of pontiffs declares — since I have reviewed the joyful matters, I will now turn to what is necessary: I propose that the statues which he, who lived only for the destruction of citizens and for his own disgrace, compelled to be decreed for his own honour, are to be abolished — statues which are everywhere to be abolished — and that his name is to be erased from all monuments, private and public; and that the months are to be called by those names by which they were called when first that evil settled upon the commonwealth."