Marcus Aurelius Cleander Marcus Aurelius Cleander ( died 190 ) , commonly known as Cleander , was a Roman freedman who gained extraordinary power as 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 Dio Cassius he was born in Phrygia and 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 . Cleander was instrumental in the death of Commodus ' s favourite , the chamberlain Saoterus , attaining his position and soon enjoying the emperor ' s full confidence . He began to plot against the Praetorian Prefect Tigidius Perennis , who exercised the chief responsibilities of government since the indolent Commodus preferred not to concern himself with administration . In 184 he enabled a detachment of soldiers from Britain to denounce Perennis to the Emperor and Commodus gave them permission to execute the Prefect . Cleander proceeded to concentrate power in his own hands and to enrich himself by becoming responsible for all public offices : he sold and bestowed entry to the Roman Senate , army commands , governorships and , increasingly , even the suffect consul ships . Early in 188 Cleander disposed of the current praetorian prefect , Atilius Aebutianus , and himself took over supreme command of the Praetorians with the rank of " a pugione " ( dagger - bearer ) with two praetorian prefects subordinate to him . 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 ) . Cleander shared the proceeds with the Emperor , but also used some of it for buildings and other public works . In June 190 Rome was afflicted by a food shortage , which the praefectus annonae Papirius Dionysius , in charge of the grain supply , contrived to make worse than it actually was and laid the blame on Cleander . As the contemporary senator and historian Cassius Dio narrates , at the end of June a mob demonstrated against Cleander during a horse - race in the Circus Maximus . In response , he sent the praetorian guard to put down the disturbances but Pertinax , the Praefectus urbi ( city prefect of Rome ) , despatched the Vigiles Urbani to oppose them . Cleander fled to Commodus for protection , but the mob followed him calling for his head . At the urging of his mistress Marcia , Commodus had Cleander beheaded and his son killed . As Edward Gibbon relates it , Ironically , 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 . Cleander in popular culture . 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 .