Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius. In 180, the Picts crossed Hadrian's Wall and invaded Britain. Commodus named Ulpius Marcellus as governor of Britain to defeat the Picts. Commodus made peace with the Marcomanni and Quadi and accepted their independence. Between 180 and 182, war was fought against the Iazyges, Buri and free Dacians by generals Marcus Valerius Maximianus, Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus. In 183, there was war in Dacia, where Roman troops were commanded by Niger and Albinus. After four years of fighting, the war with the Picts in Britain ended with a Roman victory.
In 184, the Roman armies in Britain mutineed against the harsh discipline and wanted Caerellius Priscus as emperor, but Priscus refused. Tigidius Perennis, who ruled the Roman Empire in name of Commodus, used the rebellious Romans in Britain in his conspiracy to kill Commodus and become emperor himself. But, in 185, Perennis was executed at the request of Commodus. The Roman soldiers in Britain remained disatisfied and the unrest spread to Dacia, Gaul and Roman Germania, where a lot of soldiers deserted from the Roman army. Niger defeated the deserters and made an end to a rebellion in Armorica.
There was less unrest in the army after 187, though the conspiracies against Commodus continued. Commodus was killed in 192, during a conspiracy which brought Pertinax to the throne.
In 191, king Vologases V of the Parthian Empire put his own son, Khosrov I, on the Armenian throne.