Nika riots
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The Nika riots (Greek: Στάση του Νίκα), or Nika revolt, took place over the course of a week in Constantinople in 532. It was the most violence that Constantinople had ever seen to that point, with nearly half the city being burned or destroyed and tens of thousands of people killed.
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[edit] Background
The ancient Roman and Byzantine Empires had well-developed associations which supported the different factions (or teams) under which competitors in certain sporting events competed; this was particularly true of chariot racing. There were four major factional teams of chariot racing, differentiated by the colour of the uniform in which they competed; the colours were also worn by their supporters. These were the Blues, the Reds, the Greens, and the Whites, although by the Byzantine era the only teams with any influence were the Blues and Greens. The emperor Justinian I was a supporter of the Blues.
The team associations had become a focus for various social and political issues for which the general Byzantine population lacked other forms of outlet. They combined aspects of street gangs and political parties, taking positions on current issues, notably religion and disputes between claimants to the throne. They frequently tried to affect the policy of the Emperors by shouting political demands between the races. The imperial forces and guards in the city could not keep order without the cooperation of the circus factions which were in turn backed by the powerful aristocratic families of the city: this included some families who believed they had a more rightful claim to the throne than Justinian.
Setting the stage for the revolt, in 531 some members of the Blues and Greens had been arrested for murder in connection with deaths that occurred during rioting after a recent chariot race. Relatively limited riots were not unknown at chariot races, similar to the mayhem that erupts after a soccer championship in modern times. The murderers were to be hanged, and most of them were. But on January 10, 532, two of them, a Blue and a Green, escaped and were taking refuge in the sanctuary of a church surrounded by an angry mob.
Justinian was nervous: he was in the midst of negotiating with the Persians over peace in the east, there was enormous resentment over high taxes, and now he faced a potential crisis in his city. Facing this, he declared that a chariot race would be held on January 13 and commuted the sentences to imprisonment. The Blues and Greens responded by demanding that the two men be pardoned entirely.
[edit] The riots
On January 13 a tense and angry populace arrived at the Hippodrome for the races. The Hippodrome was next to the palace complex and thus Justinian could watch from the safety of his box in the palace and preside over the races. From the start the crowd had been hurling insults at Justinian. By the end of the day, at race 22, the partisan chants had changed from "Blue" or "Green" to a unified Nίκα ("Nika", meaning "Win!" or "Conquer!"), and the crowds broke out and began to assault the palace. For the next five days the palace was under virtual siege. The fire that started during the tumult resulted in the destruction of the (second) Hagia Sophia on 13 January 532.
Some of the senators saw this as an opportunity to overthrow Justinian, as they were opposed to his new taxes and his lack of support for the nobility. The rioters, now armed and probably controlled by their allies in the Senate, also demanded that Justinian dismiss the prefect John the Cappadocian, who was responsible for tax collecting, and the quaestor Tribonian, who was responsible for rewriting the legal code. They then declared a new emperor, Hypatius, who was a nephew of former Emperor Anastasius I.
Justinian, in despair, considered fleeing, but his wife Theodora is said to have dissuaded him with the words, "Those who have worn the crown should never survive its loss. Never will I see the day when I am not saluted as empress."[1] She stated that, although an escape route across the sea lay open for the emperor, she herself would stay in the city, thereby quoting an ancient saying that "Royalty is a fine burial shroud" (some say that she said "Purple makes a fine winding sheet," purple being the color of royalty.).[2]
Justinian did not wish to flee, either. He created a plan that involved Narses, a popular eunuch as well as the generals Belisarius and Mundus. Justinian gave Narses a bag of gold. The skinny, little eunuch entered the Hippodrome alone and unarmed, against a murderous mob that had already killed hundreds. Narses went directly to the Blues' section. He approached the important Blues and reminded them that the Emperor Justinian supported them over the Greens. He also reminded them that the man they were crowning, Hypatius, was a Green. Then, he distributed the gold. The Blue leaders spoke quietly with each other and then they spoke to their followers. Then, in the middle of Hypatius' coronation, the Blues stormed out of the Hippodrome. The Greens sat, stunned. Then, Imperial troops led by Belisarius and Mundus stormed into the Hippodrome, killing the remaining rebels.
About thirty thousand rioters were reportedly killed. [3] Justinian also had Hypatius executed and exiled the senators who had supported the riot. He then rebuilt Constantinople and the Hagia Sophia, and was free to establish his rule of law.
[edit] Sources
- Weir, William. 50 Battles That Changed the World: The Conflicts That Most Influenced the Course of History. Savage, Md: Barnes and Noble Books. ISBN 0-7607-6609-6.
- Diehl, Charles. Theodora, Empress of Byzantium ((c) 1972 by Frederick Ungar Publishing, Inc., transl. by S.R. Rosenbaum from the original French Theodora, Imperatice de Byzance). Popular account based on the author's extensive scholarly research.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Diehl, Charles. Theodora, Empress of Byzantium ((c) 1972 by Frederick Ungar Publishing, Inc., transl. by S.R. Rosenbaum from the original French Theodora, Imperatice de Byzance), p.87.
- ^ Procopius, Wars 1.24.32-37. For the possibility of Theodora's stirring speech being an invention by Procopius (otherwise an extraordinarily unflattering chronicler of Theodora's life), see John Moorhead, Justinian (London/NY 1994), pp. 46-47, with a reference to J. Evans, "The 'Nika' rebellion and the empress Theodora", in: Byzantion 54 (1984), pp. 380-82.
- ^ This is the number given by Procopius, Wars (Internet Medieval Sourcebook)
[edit] The riots in fiction
- Count Belisarius (1938) by Robert Graves follows the career of the general Belisarius and recounts the build-up of tension and the riots in some detail.
- Theodora and the Emperor (1952) by Harold Lamb is a historical fiction novel that follows the events of the Nika riots closely, using timelines and characters based on historical documents.
- In the Heart of Darkness (1998), the second book of the alternate history Belisarius series by Eric Flint and David Drake, gives a significantly different outcome of the Nika riots because of the influence of Malwa as the financiers of the revolt and the introduction of a grenadier company led by Belisarius' wife, Antonina.
- In 1974, the ITV science fiction television series The Tomorrow People ran a serial entitled The Blue and the Green, citing the role of the D'henagali, an alien energy-based species that fed on human emotions, as the cause of the Blue and Green factions, and the Nika riots, as similar factions re-emerge in the United Kingdom in the early seventies.
- The Sarantine Mosaic (1998, 2000) by Guy Gavriel Kay is a two-novel series set in this era of the Byzantine Empire.
[edit] External links
- Procopius, "Justinian Suppresses the Nika Revolt, 532", from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
- J. B. Bury, "The Nika Revolt", chapter XV part 5 from History of the Later Roman Empire (1923).
- James Grout: "The Nika Riot", part of the Encyclopædia Romana
