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Under Cleander’s dominance, consulships and governorships are sold as Dio and later lives print it

Dio’s narrative of Cleander stresses sale of offices and a flood of suffect consulships. In the causal graph this event strengthens Institutional Corruption, a driver that strengthens Political corruption index — a worsening welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

Context

Selling the consulship is institutional corruption. Shared buyers (including future emperors in the tradition) remain.

Commodus’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below.

Dio’s narrative of Cleander stresses sale of offices and a flood of suffect consulships. Livius notes the 190 consul year beside Cleander’s fall. Historia Augusta is an unreliable late compilation and is used only as a labelled secondary carrier, not as tape. Cleander’s death row remains separate.

Why it matters

Office-sale under Cleander is a corruption path of high confidence on the literary charge, medium on every named purchaser.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Commodus

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.4 · verified

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactUnder Cleander’s dominance, consulships and governorships are sold as Dio and later lives print it
    2. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
    3. strengthensIndicators (3)Political corruption index
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.5 · Effect from 1 January 189 · verified

    Office-sale under Cleander is a corruption path of high confidence on the literary charge, medium on every named purchaser.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Livius — CommodusLivius.org · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Cassius Dio Book 73 (Loeb English) — CommodusLacusCurtius / University of Chicago · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Dio describes Cleander’s sale of offices and enrichment. Livius independently frames Cleander’s dominance before the 190 grain crisis.

Commodus did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. Label HA where used as unreliable. Split from Cleander’s beheading.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorCommodus
  2. contributed toFactUnder Cleander’s dominance, consulships and governorships are sold as Dio and later lives print it
  3. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
  4. strengthensIndicatorPolitical corruption index

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Under Cleander’s dominance, consulships and governorships are sold as Dio and later lives print it. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/com-cleander-sale-offices

https://factrail.ai/facts/com-cleander-sale-offices

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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