After the death of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Arealius,180 AD, his son, Cammodus, inherited the throne. Commodus was not a stable person. One good thing he did was he temporarily halted Christian persecution. While his father never ordered a direct persecution of Christians, he did allow it to happen– usually by local rulers. Commodus’ leniency resulted in the release of Christians from the mines in Sardinia, among whom was a future pope.
Cassius Dio, a first-hand witness, describes Emperor Commodus as: "not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guileless as any man that ever lived. His great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions, and it was through them that he at first, out of ignorance, missed the better [virtuous] life and then was led on into lustful and cruel habits, which soon became second nature."