Commodo e il potere delle immagini. Il titulus gladiatorius et effeminatus in Hist. Aug. Comm. 17.9-10

Latin and Greek historical sources report that emperor Commodus had the Neronian Colossus transformed into a ‘Commodian Hercules’. Particularly, according to the Historia Augusta (Comm. 17.9-10) a titulus gladiatorius et effeminatus celebrating the princeps was engraved on the base of the statue. Such a Herculean makeover is not astonishing: the propaganda of selfdivinization which came to fully identify Commodus with this demigod is well witnessed. Much controversial, however, has been the meaning of the above Latin phrase, which critics have always translated as «title of gladiator and effeminate», as if gladiatorius and effeminatus were two noun adjectives standing as actual epithets of the emperor. Nonetheless, it will be shown how gladiatorius and effeminatus should be understood as two qualifying adjectives. Both, in fact, acquire a precise meaning within the complex official nomenclature largely modified by Commodus to enhance his personal image.