Marcus Aurelius Cleander

Marcus Aurelius Cleander (; died 19 April 190), commonly known as Cleander, was a Roman freedman who gained extraordinary power as chamberlain and favourite of the emperor Commodus, rising to command the Praetorian Guard and bringing the principal offices of the Roman state into disrepute by selling them to the highest bidder. His career is narrated by Dio Cassius, Herodian and the Historia Augusta.

Career Cleander's date of birth is unknown but according to Herodian he was a Phrygian and "one of the slaves offered for sale by the public auctioneer for the benefit of the state"; according to Dio Cassius he was sold in Rome as one of a consignment of slaves to be a pack-carrier. By 182 however he had risen high enough to be an official of the Imperial household, and had married the Emperor's mistress Damostratia.

In 184 he enabled a detachment of soldiers from Britain brought to Italy to suppress banditry, to denounce Perennis to the Emperor. Commodus gave them permission to execute the Prefect. Now at the zenith of his power, he continued to sell public offices to the highest bidder as his private business. The climax came in the year 190 which had 25 suffect consuls—a record in the 1,000-year history of the Roman consulship—all appointed by Cleander (they included the future Emperor Septimius Severus). During the seventh horse-race of the ludi Ceriales in the Circus Maximus, a group of children incited the audience to riot against Cleander.

As Edward Gibbon relates it,

This mirrored the previous incident in which the legions of Britain had demanded and received the death of Perennis, because of which the mob realized that it had every chance of success.

Modern interpretations Cleander figures as a character in the 1964 film epic The Fall of the Roman Empire, where he is played by Mel Ferrer. He is depicted as a sinister blind man who poisons Commodus's father, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He thereafter remains a background presence throughout the film and is shown in one scene at the occasion of Commodus's death, by which time the historical Cleander had been dead for two years. In the 2016 six-part docu-series Roman Empire: Reign of Blood, Cleander was played by Jared Turner.