Special Guest Blogger: Emperor Commodus

One of the neat things about power is that people almost never go sane with it. Quite the opposite, in fact and once i got a taste of power i went stark raving cuckoo but continually trying to be assasinated will do that to a guy.
I became the co-Emperor with my father Aurelius aged just 15 years old and then when he died when i was 18 and made Emporer of all the Roman Empire, i did what any 18 year old would do and went nuts with hunting, drinking, parties, chariot racing, fights but i did like a good gladiator wrestling match and an orgy.
To me, nothing beats a great gladiatorial battle in a packed Coliseum. As the fun starts, a simple diversion for one becomes a shared pleasure for all, kind of like an orgy, except it’s less gross when the floor gets sticky. But when it’s a bad fight, everyone shuffles out both angry at those responsible and ashamed to admit that they were there. Actually, that’s sort of like an orgy too come to think of it.
I even took part in some of the gladiator battles but being Emperor i made sure that the gladiators legs were tied together first, would be cheating otherwise and anyway the common people adored me, i gave them their regular fix of blood-and-guts-and-intestines.
Something else i loved was my hunny-bunny Marcia, it was her who found out about most of the assassination attempts on me, one from my own sister who i had killed and a handful of my advisors.
Marcia didn't like one rich guy who had been selling off public offices and making himself a very rich man and she demanded i execute him and not wanting to disappoint my sugarbun, i not only had him beheaded but killed his son also just to be sure.
Obviously people trying to kill you left, right, and center makes you a bit paranoid and i started spending most of his days locked up in my estates to avoid potential assassinations but i went a bit stir crazy and started to think i was Hercules reincarnated and made my subjects call me 'Pacifier of the World' or 'Our Lord', i was fine with either and renamed all twelve months of the year after myself and renamed Rome Commodiana.
By this point, even Marcia had had enough of me and she tried to poison me but i survived and was actually killed by my friend Narcissus who strangled me in the bath one morning.
All in all i did go mad with power but people would shout 'What an Emperor the ruler is' when the Roman Empire was successfully run by Emperors. They said 'What a King the ruler is' when it joined the Kingdom of Italy, now it's a county they just shout 'The leader is a...' fill in your own blank there.