Chariot racing factions, Roman

Domitian acquits himself of the task of censor dutifully, and with care.

He renews the Lex Iulia de Adulteriis Coercendis, under which adultery is punishable by exile.

From the list of jurors he strikes an equestrian who had divorced his wife and taken her back, while an ex-quaestor is expelled from the Senate for acting and dancing.

Domitian also heavily prosecutes corruption among public officials, removing jurors if they accepted bribes and rescinding legislation when a conflict of interest is suspected.

He ensures that libelous writings, especially those directed against himself, are punishable by exile or death.

Actors are likewise regarded with suspicion, as their performances provide an opportunity for satire at the expense of the government.

Consequently, he forbids mimes from appearing on stage in public.

In order to appease the people of Rome, an estimated one hundred and thirty-five million sestertii will be spent on donatives, or congiaria, throughout Domitian's reign.

The Emperor also revives the practice of public banquets, which had been reduced to a simple distribution of food under Nero, while he invests large sums on entertainment and games.

In 86, he founds the Capitoline Games, a quadrennial contest comprising athletic displays, chariot racing, and competitions for oratory, music and acting.

Domitian himself supports the travel of competitors from all corners of the Empire to Rome and distributes the prizes.

Innovations are also introduced into the regular gladiatorial games such as naval contests, nighttime battles, and female and dwarf gladiator fights.

Lastly, he adds two new factions to the chariot races, Gold and Purple, to race against the existing White, Red, Green and Blue factions.

The most significant threat the Roman Empire faces during the reign of Domitian arises from the northern provinces of Illyricum, where the Suebi, the Sarmatians and the Dacians continuously harass Roman settlements along the Danube river.

Of these, the Sarmatians and the Dacians pose the most formidable threat.

In approximately 85 or 86 the Dacians, led by Diurpaneus (the later king Decebalus), cross the Danube into the province of Moesia, wreaking havoc and killing the Moesian governor Oppius Sabinus.

Domitian quickly launches a counteroffensive, personally traveling to the region accompanied by a large force commanded by his praetorian prefect Cornelius Fuscus.

Verus’ journey continues by ship through the Aegean and the southern coasts of Asia Minor, lingering in the famed pleasure resorts of Pamphylia and Cilicia, before arriving in Antioch.

It is not known how long Verus' journey east took; he might not have arrived in Antioch until after 162.

Statius Priscus, meanwhile, must have already arrived in Cappadocia; he will earn fame in 163 for successful generalship.

Lucius spends most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at Laodicea and summers at Daphne, a resort just outside Antioch.

He takes up a mistress named Panthea, from Smyrna.

The biographer calls her a "lowborn girlfriend", but she is probably closer to Lucian's "woman of perfect beauty", more beautiful than any of Phidias and Praxiteles' statues.

Polite, caring, humble, she sings to the lyre perfectly and speaks clear Ionic Greek, spiced with Attic wit.

Panthea reads Lucian's first draft, and criticizes him for flattery.

He had compared her to a goddess, which frightens her—she does not want to become the next Cassiopeia.

She has power, too: she makes Lucius shave his beard for her.

Critics declaim Lucius' luxurious lifestyle.

He has taken to gambling and enjoys the company of actors.

He makes a special request for dispatches from Rome, to keep him updated on how his chariot teams are doing.

He brings a golden statue of the Greens' horse Volucer around with him, as a token of his team spirit.

Fronto defends his pupil against some of these claims: the Roman people need Lucius' bread and circuses to keep them in check.

This, at least, is how the biographer has it.

The whole section of the vita dealing with Lucius' debaucheries (HA Verus 4.4–6.6) is an insertion into a narrative otherwise entirely cribbed from an earlier source.

Some few passages seem genuine; others take and elaborate something from the original.

The rest is by the biographer himself, relying on nothing better than his own imagination.

Lucius faces a heavy task.

Fronto describes the scene in terms recalling Corbulo's arrival one hundred years before.

The Syrian soldiers, having turned soft during the east's long peace, spend more time at the city's open-air bars than in their quarters.

Under Lucius, training is stepped up.

Pontius Laelianus orders that their saddles be stripped of their padding.

Gambling and drinking are sternly policed.

Fronto writes that Lucius was on foot at the head of his army as often as on horseback.

He personally inspects soldiers in the field and at camp, including the sick bay.

Lucius sends Fronto few messages at the beginning of the war, but does send Fronto a letter apologizing for his silence.

He will not detail plans that could change within a day, he writes.

Moreover, there is little thus far to show for his work.

Lucius does not want Fronto to suffer the anxieties that have kept him up day and night.

One reason for Lucius' reticence may have been the collapse of Parthian negotiations after the Roman conquest of Armenia.

Lucius' presentation of terms is seen as cowardice.

The Parthians are not in the mood for peace.

Lucius needs to make extensive imports into Antioch, so he opens a sailing route up the Orontes.

Because the river breaks across a cliff before reaching the city, Lucius orders that a new canal be dug.

After the project is completed, the Orontes' old riverbed dries up, exposing massive bones—the bones of a giant.

Pausanias says they were from a beast "more than eleven cubits" tall; Philostratus says the it was "thirty cubits" tall.

The oracle at Claros declares that they are the bones of the river's spirit.

The Ambrosian Iliad or Ilia Picta (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Cod. F. 205 Inf.) is a fifth-century illuminated manuscript on vellum of the Iliad of Homer.

It is thought to have been produced in Constantinople during the late fifth or early sixth century CE, specifically between 493 and 508.

This time frame was developed by Ranuccio Bandinelli and is based on the abundance of green in the pictures, which happened to be the color of the faction in power at the time.

It has since been reduced to a series of miniatures cut out of the manuscript.

It is one of the oldest surviving illustrated manuscripts.

In addition, it is the only surviving portion of an illustrated copy of Homer from antiquity and, along with the Vergilius Vaticanus and the Vergilius Romanus, one of only three illustrated manuscripts of classical literature to survive from antiquity.

A sporting event is held on July 9, 507 at Daphne, near Antioch, in the form of a chariot race between two parties, the Greens and the Whites.

The supporters of the Greens attack the local synagogue for no apparent reason, killing the Jews inside.

Anastasius dies in his late eighties on July 19, 518, leaving the imperial treasury richer by twenty-three million solidi or three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of gold.

He having died childless, without designating an heir, and without a reigning Augusta to supervise the election of a successor, the throne is up for grabs.

According to John Malalas, a Greek chronicler from Antioch, the powerful praepositus sacri cubiculi Amantius intends to elect to the throne a comes domesticorum, commander of an elite guard unit of the late Roman Empire, by the name of Theocritus.

Theocritus is an obscure individual, primarily mentioned by two authors: John Malalas and Marcellinus Comes.

Amantius hopes to secure the election for Theocritus by bribing Justin, the influential comes excubitorum (head of the imperial guards).

Justin is supposed to share the money with his troops.

Justin, born of Thraco-Roman peasant stock n a hamlet near Bederiana in Naissus (modern Niš, South Serbia), had been a swineherd in his youth.

Like his companions and members of his family (Zimarchus, Dityvistus, Boraides, Bigleniza, Sabatius, etc.), he bears a Thracian name.

As a teenager, he and two companions had fled from a barbaric invasion, taking refuge in Constantinople possessing nothing more than the ragged clothes on their backs and a sack of bread between them.

Justin soon joined the army, entered the palace guard and, because of his ability, had risen through the ranks to become a general and a patrician under Anastasius I, becoming the emperor's close confidant and acting possibly as regent.

He remains illiterate and has never learned to speak more than rudimentary Greek.

The events of the election are described in detail by Peter the Patrician, extracts of whose work survive in the tenth-century De Ceremoniis.

On the morning of the election, the Excubitors at first put forward the tribune John as a candidate.

He is raised on the shield in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.

But the Blues, an influential chariot racing faction, riot against this candidate.

The guardsmen of the Scholae Palatinae then attempt to proclaim their own candidate, but the Excubitors almost kill that unnamed man.

The Excubitors then allegedly put forward Flavius Petrus Sabbatius (later Justinian I), nephew of Justin, as their second candidate for the day, but he refuses the crown.

The Senate supposedly settled the matter by electing Justin himself.

Both Amantius and Theocritus are soon executed on a pretext, obviously eliminated by Justin for their role in the conspiracy.

Procopius briefly mentions: "Indeed, his power [Justin's] was not ten days old, before he slew Amantius, chief of the palace eunuchs, and several others, on no graver charge than that Amantius had made some rash remark about John, Archbishop of the city.

After this, he was the most feared of men."

Based on the account of Marcellinus, Amantius and his supporters were accused of being adherents of Manichaeism.

A combination of sources imply that Amantius and Theocritus had attempted to overthrow Justin, following his election.

If so, they were met with swift executions.

Attempts by the imperial government to root out abuses and its attacks on vested interests, whether of rich or poor, have created public discontent, voiced most dramatically in Constantinople by the Nika revolt of January, 532, named for the cry of rival factions at the races in the hippodrome: “Nika” (“Conquer,” or “Win”).

The city parties known as the Greens and the Blues, angered at the severity with which the urban prefect has suppressed a riot, unite and attack and set fire to the city prefect's office and public buildings, as well as to part of the imperial palace and the Church of the Holy Wisdom adjoining it.

Gathering in the hippodrome, they call for the dismissal of the city prefect and of two imperial ministers, John the Cappadocian and the advocate Tribonian.

Emperor Justinian agrees, but the mob is by now out of control and perhaps exploited by interested parties.

Certain senators support Hypatius, nephew of the late emperor Anastasius, who is proclaimed emperor the next day.

The crowd and the usurper assemble in the hippodrome.

Justinian looks to be dethroned, but his wife Theodora persuades him to stand his ground, and the generals in the city, Belisarius and Mundus, muster what troops they can and resolutely turn on the mob in the hippodrome.

Helped by the grand chamberlain, Narses, who dispenses skillful and lavish political bribes, the generals gain the upper hand at the cost of a wholesale massacre of some thirty thousand rebellious citizens.

Hypatius is executed, together with the leaders, and their estates pass, at least temporarily, into the Emperor's hands.

One of the architectural casualties of the great Nika riot and fire is the cathedral of Constantine, destroyed by fire.

Following the suppression of the rioters, Justinian immediately begins the erection of an even grander and more beautiful cathedral, which will become known as the Church of Hagia Sophia (“Blessed Wisdom”).

The Eastern Roman Empire, like the Ancient Roman Empire, has well-developed associations, known as demes, which support the different factions (or teams) under which competitors in certain sporting events compete; this is particularly true of chariot racing.

There are four major factional teams of chariot racing, differentiated by the color of the uniform in which they compete; the colors are also worn by their supporters.

These are the Blues, the Reds, the Greens, and the Whites, although by the Eastern Roman era the only teams with any influence are the Blues and Greens.

Emperor Justinian I is a supporter of the Blues.

The team associations have become a focus for various social and political issues for which the Empire’s general population lacks other forms of outlet.

They combine aspects of street gangs and political parties, taking positions on current issues, notably theological problems (a cause of massive, often violent argument in the fifth and sixth centuries) or claimants to the throne.

They frequently try to affect the policy of the emperors by shouting political demands between the races.

The imperial forces and guards in the city cannot keep order without the cooperation of the circus factions, which are in turn backed by the aristocratic families of the city; this includes some families who believe they have a more legitimate claim to the throne than Justinian.

Some members of the Blues and Greens had been arrested in 531 for murder in connection with deaths that occurred during rioting after a recent chariot race.

Relatively limited riots are not unknown at chariot races, similar to the football hooliganism that occasionally erupts after an association football championship in modern times.

The murderers are to be hanged, and most of them are.

But on January 10, 532, two of them, a Blue and a Green, escape and take refuge in the sanctuary of a church surrounded by an angry mob.

Justinian is nervous: he is in the middle of negotiating with the Persians over peace in the east, there is enormous resentment over high taxes, and now he faces a potential crisis in his city.

He declares that a chariot race will be held on January 13 and commutes the sentences to imprisonment.

The Blues and Greens respond by demanding that the two men be pardoned entirely.

A tense and angry populace arrives at the Hippodrome for the races on January 13, 532.

The Hippodrome is next to the palace complex, so Justinian can watch from the safety of his box in the palace and preside over the races.

From the start, the crowd hurls insults at Justinian.

By the end of the day, at race 22, the partisan chants have changed from "Blue" or "Green" to a unified Nίκα ("Nika", meaning "Win!" or "Conquer!"), and the crowds break out and begin to assault the palace.

For the next five days, the palace will be under virtual siege.

The fires that start during the tumult result in the destruction of much of the city, including the city's foremost church, the Hagia Sophia (which Justinian will later rebuild).

The slightly built eunuch, carrying a bag of gold given to him by Justinian, enters the Hippodrome alone and unarmed, against a murderous mob that has already killed hundreds.

Narses goes directly to the Blues' section, where he approaches the important Blues and reminds them that Emperor Justinian supports them over the Greens.

He also reminds them that the man they are crowning, Hypatius, is a Green.

He then distributes the gold.

The Blue leaders speak quietly with each other, then speak to their followers.

In the middle of Hypatius's coronation, the Blues march out of the Hippodrome.

The Greens sit, stunned, as Imperial troops led by Belisarius and Mundus storm into the Hippodrome, killing the remaining rebels.

About thirty thousand rioters are reportedly killed.

Priscus, for reasons unknown, does not pursue the Avars and aid Comentiolus.

The latter is forced to evade to Iatrus, where his troops are nonetheless routed and have to fight their way south over the Haemus range.

The Avars, after ravaging many cities in the Balkan peninsula, utilize this victory and advance to Drizipera near Arkadiopolis, between Adrianople and Constantinople, where a large part of their army and seven sons of the Avar Khagan are killed by the plague.

Comentiolus is temporarily relieved of his command and replaced by Philippicus, whereas …