354 



COMMODORE COMMODUS. 



nbsented Limsclf for a time from the committee, on 

 account of the influence of Robespierre, declared 

 himself against the system of bloodshed ; and Robe- 

 ^pierre himself acquiesced in the condemnation of 

 Hie ringleaders of the Paris mob (March 24, 1794), 

 among whom was Hebert (q. v.); but, soon after 

 (April 5), Danton, with He'rault de Sechelles, was 

 himself overthrown by Robespierre. Till July 28, 

 1794, he now remained master of the lives of thirty 

 millions of men. 1 1 e appointed Fouquier-Tinville pub- 

 lic accuser. Prisons were multiplied and crowded ; 

 the prisoners were cruelly treated, betrayed by spies, 

 and condemned without being allowed the privi- 

 lege of defence ; the property of all imprisoned on 

 suspicion, was confiscated, and the guillotine remain- 

 ed en permanence. The same violence was practised 

 in the provinces by some of the delegates of the com- 

 mittee of safety, especially Collot d Herbois, Carrier 

 (q. v.) and Jos. le Bon. Among the numberless vic- 

 tims of the system were the noble Malesherbes and 

 the celebrated Lavoisier. The members of the com- 

 mittee of public safety, and of the comite de surete 

 generate, at last disagreed among themselves. Each 

 committee contained three parties. These, and not 

 Tallien, were the real causes of the 9th Thermidor. 

 In Uie committee of public safety, Robespierre, 

 C outturn, and St Just ("gens de la haute main") 

 formed one party ; Barrdre, Billaud, and Collet d'Her- 

 bois (" les gens revolutionnaires"), another ; and Car- 

 not, Prieur, and Lindel (" les gens d'examen"), a 

 third. In the comite de surete generate, one party 

 comprised Vadier, Amor, Jagot, Louis (du bos Rhin), 

 and Voulland (the " gens d 'expedition") ; to a second 

 belonged Danton and Lebas (" ecouteurs") ; to the 

 third, Moise Bayle, Lavicomterie, Elie Lacoste, Du- 

 barran (" les gens de contrepoids"). Robespierre at- 

 tempted to remove the unyielding Carnot from the 

 committee of safety. On the other hand, Billaud de 

 Varennes laboured to effect Robespierre's downfall. 

 Couthon, St Just, the Jacobins, and the commune of 

 Paris, alone adhered to Robespierre. But when St 

 Just actually proposed, in the committee, a dictator- 

 ship for the safety of the state, an opposition was 

 raised against Robespierre, in the national conven- 

 tion, by Vadier, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud de Varen- 

 nes, and especially by Tallien (q. v.) and Freron ; 

 the dictator and his faction were proscribed, and the 

 victory of Barras (q. v.), on the 9th Thermidor, (July 

 21), brought Robespierre, his brother, St Just, Cou- 

 thon, &c., 105 in all, to the scaffold, July 28. The 

 convention now recovered its authority ; the Jacobins 

 and the partisans of terrorism (la queue de Robespierre) 

 were completely overthrown ; at the same time the 

 convention gave the committee of safety and the re- 

 volutionary tribunal a more limited power and juris- 

 diction. The bloody despotism ceased ; and when a 

 new constitution introduced (Oct. 28, 1794) a direc- 

 torial government, (see Directory) the convention was 

 dissolved, and with it sank into its accursed grave 

 the revolutionary government, the reign of terror, 

 and the committee of public safety. 



See Memoir -es inedits deSenar (secretary-general of 

 the committee, who died in 1796), or Revelations 

 puisees dans les Cartons des Comites de Salut Public 

 et de Surete Generate (2d ed., Paris, 1824). The 

 Mem. Historiques de M. de la Bussiere (Legendre's 

 private secretary) narrate how ingeniously this em- 

 ploye au comite de salut public preserved a number of 

 the arrested from condemnation. 



COMMODORE (corrupted from the Spanish com- 

 mendador) ; a general officer in the British marine, 

 invested with the command of a detachment of ships 

 of war destined for any particular enterprise. He 

 retains this title only during the continuance of the 

 expedition during which he has the rank of a briga- 



dier-general in the army, and his ship is distinguished 

 from others in his squadron by a broad, red pendant. 

 The eldest capUiin of three or more vessels cruising 

 in company is often called commodore by courtesy. 

 In die United States, the title commodore is only 

 given by courtesy, not officially. 



Commodore ship, in a fleet of merchantmen, is the 

 convoy and principal ship, which leads the other 

 vessels, and keeps them together, bearing a light in 

 her top. 



COMMODUS ANTONINUS (L. JEuvs AUHE- 

 LICS), son of Marcus Aurelius and of Anna Faustina, 

 daughter of Antoninus Pius, was born A.D. 161, and 

 gave early proofs of his cruel and voluptuous charac- 

 ter. When a boy of twelve years old, he ordered 

 the overseer of his bath to be thrown into the fur- 

 nace, because his bath was too hot. His father, who 

 hoped to correct him by mildness and his own exam- 

 ple, permitted him early to partake in the govern- 

 ment, conferred on him the office of tribune, and, in 

 his sixteenth year, the office of consul, and soon after- 

 wards the titles of Augustus and father of the country. 

 He married him to Crispina, daughter of Bruttius 

 Praesens. On the death of Marcus Aurelius, A. D. 

 180, Commodus ascended the throne, and showed 

 himself a more execrable monster than even Caligula, 

 Domitian, or Nero. For his amusement, he cut 

 asunder persons whom he met, put out their eyes, 

 mutilated their noses, ears, &c. He was endowed 

 with extraordinary strength, and often appeared, in 

 imitation of Hercules, dressed in a lion's skin, and 

 armed with a club. Three hundred concubines, and 

 as many boys, even the lowest prostitutes of Rome, 

 were not sufficient to satisfy his infamous lusts. He 

 had even an incestuous intercourse with his sisters, 

 and killed one of them (Lucilla), who had refused to 

 submit to his wishes, and had concerted a conspiracy 

 against him. To fill the treasury, exhausted by his 

 extravagances, he imposed unusual taxes upon the 

 people, sold governments and offices to the highest 

 bidder, and pardoned criminals for money. To dis- 

 play his strength and skill in arms, be appeared pub- 

 licly on the amphitheatre. He is said to have fought 

 in this way 735 times, and always to have been vic- 

 torious. Immediately after ascending the throne, 

 Commodus concluded an inglorious peace with the 

 Quadi and with other German nations. In Britain, 

 his valiant general Ulpius Marcellus gained impor- 

 tant victories over the Caledonians ; on account ot 

 which Commodus took the titles of imperator and 

 Britannicus. The administration of affairs had been> 

 at first, left to his freedman Anterus, who was ac- 

 cused of having seduced the emperor, and was killed 

 by the commanders of the body guard. Commodus, 

 after taking a bloody revenge for the death of his fa- 

 vourite, placed another freedman, Cleander, at the 

 helm of state. A part of the city having been con- 

 sumed by fire, and the people having been reduced to 

 despair by famine, disturbances broke out, and the em- 

 peror was obliged to consent to the death of his minis- 

 ter, who was charged with being the author of these 

 calamities. On the 1st of January, A. D. 193, he in 

 tended to appear at the same time as consul and gla- 

 diator, after having put to death the two consuls elect. 

 He was so much enraged by the opposition of his 

 friends to tin's design, that he resolved on their death. 

 The tablets upon which he had written their names 

 were found by accident, and given to one of his con- 

 cubines (Marcia), who, with surprise, found herself 

 among the number. She conspired, with the rest, 

 against the life of the emperor. They administered 

 poison to him, and, as the poison operated too slowly, 

 he was strangled by the hands of his favourite gladi- 

 ator, Narcissus (Dec. 31, 192). On the news of Iiis 

 death, which was reported to be the consequence of 



