Narcissus
a celebrated athlete, with whom Commodus was in the habit of practising his gymnastic exercises, was employed by Marcia to strangle the emperor, when the poison that had been administered to him proved too slow in its operation, A. D. 192. (D. C. 72.22; Lamprid. Commod. 17; Aur. Vict. de Caes. 18, Epit. 17.) Narcissus appears to have had great influence with this emperor, for we are told that it was at his suggestion that Pescennius Niger was placed by Commodus in the command of the Syrian armies. (Spartian. Pescen. Nig. I.) Narcissus was afterwards exposed to the lions by the emperor Severus on account of his having strangled Commodus. (D. C. 73.16; Spartian. Sever. 14.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.