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Today in AD 325, the Emperor Constantine formally opened the First Council of Nicea.

Forget Nero. Forget Caligula. The worst Roman emperor in history was a 19 year old who thought he was the reincarnation of Hercules. If you saw the movie Gladiator, you know him as Joaquin Phoenix's character. His real name was Commodus, and the reason his story is so dark is that his father was Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher king who wrote the Meditations. When Marcus died in 180 AD, Commodus inherited the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. He immediately abandoned his father's wars on the German frontier, made a humiliating peace, and rode back to Rome to play. He fought in the Colosseum 735 times. He won every match, because his opponents fought him with wooden swords while he used a real one. The Senate was forced to pay him a million sesterces every time he stepped into the arena. He once gathered men who had lost their feet to accident or disease, dressed them from the knees down as serpentine giants, handed them sponges to throw at him as "rocks," and clubbed them to death in front of the Roman public for sport. On another day, he decapitated an ostrich in the arena, walked up to the senators in the front row, and held the bloody head up at them with a smile. The historian Cassius Dio was sitting there that day. He writes that the senators chewed on the laurel leaves from their crowns to hide their hysterical, terrified laughter, because they understood the head was a promise. He renamed the city of Rome itself "Colonia Commodiana." Colony of Commodus. He renamed all twelve months of the year after his own twelve titles. He declared himself a living god, dressed publicly in a lion skin, carried a wooden club, and demanded to be addressed as Hercules, son of Zeus. His own sister Lucilla tried to have him assassinated. He survived and had her executed. His wife Crispina was exiled to an island and quietly killed. His chamberlain Cleander began openly selling senate seats and consulships for cash. In one year, twenty five different men were appointed consul. On New Year's Eve, 192 AD, his mistress Marcia found her own name on his execution list for the next morning. She poisoned his wine. He vomited it up. So she sent in his personal wrestling coach, a man named Narcissus, who strangled him to death in his bath. The very next year, the imperial throne of Rome was literally auctioned off to the highest bidder by the Praetorian Guard. Five different men claimed the title of emperor in twelve months. Civil war never really stopped after that. Edward Gibbon, who wrote the definitive history of Rome's collapse, opens his entire 3000 page book with the death of Marcus Aurelius and the rise of his son. The Roman Empire would limp on for another 284 years in the west before it finally fell. But the Pax Romana, the longest stretch of peace and prosperity the ancient world had ever known, died on the German frontier with Marcus Aurelius. His son made sure of it.

The magnificent bronze doors now adorning the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome have a rich history dating back to 81-96 AD, when they were first crafted for the Curia Julia, the Roman Senate House. Were moved to their current location in the 17th century, these doors are considered the oldest functioning doors in Italy.