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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Before we get started, we have a very

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Speaker 1: exciting announcement, which is two plus years into the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: we're finally doing a live stream. Uh, taking us a

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Speaker 1: little bit to plan. One of these were that's gonna

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Speaker 1: happen on March tenth is when we are having our

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Speaker 1: live stream, and we are calling it stuff you miss

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Speaker 1: in history class. Feuds. Yeah, we're gonna talk about some

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Speaker 1: rivalries throughout history, and you're going to get to weigh

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Speaker 1: in on who you think really should win the favor

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Speaker 1: of the crowd and and all of us in terms

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Speaker 1: of who really was correct in any of those given feuds. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: We are doing this on a platform called Looped, and

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Speaker 1: Looped allows us to do some pretty cool stuff, including

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Speaker 1: having people from the audience ask us questions live on

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Speaker 1: video you're not really wanting to ask a question on video.

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Speaker 1: There's also a chat room and we can do a

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Speaker 1: post show meet and greet. The way this works is

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Speaker 1: there's an app where Holly and I will each call you.

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Speaker 1: We got to do that separately because we're still having

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Speaker 1: a pandemic and Holly and I will not be in

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Speaker 1: the same place. Yes, so it's kind of a two

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Speaker 1: for one, you'll get to talk to each of us individually.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of fun. You will have a little one

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Speaker 1: on one video chat and you'll get to take a

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Speaker 1: self eat during the call. That's a little extra you

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Speaker 1: can add on if you wish. Uh, And it's a

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Speaker 1: fun way for us to get to chat with you

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Speaker 1: and reach out and do the kinds of things we

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Speaker 1: would do at a live show in person, but with

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Speaker 1: the safety of the internet between us. Yeah. So you

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Speaker 1: can find tickets to this at looped live dot com.

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Speaker 1: Click on Upcoming Experiences and it'll take you over. You

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Speaker 1: can you can click on our show and you can

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Speaker 1: get your tickets. You can get the Q and A tickets.

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Speaker 1: We will have early bird pricing for the first ten

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Speaker 1: days that tickets are on sale, so that is all

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Speaker 1: the way until March third, and at early bird pricing,

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Speaker 1: tickets or twelve seventy five and tickets plus of meat

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Speaker 1: and greet is and then the price we'll go up

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Speaker 1: for the last week, but the tickets are on sale.

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Speaker 1: So again that is at looped live dot com, l

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Speaker 1: O O p E D l i v E dot

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Speaker 1: com for some live stream tickets. We'd hope it will

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Speaker 1: be a grand time. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in

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Speaker 1: History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm

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Speaker 1: Holly Fry. Way back when I was hosting a show

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Speaker 1: called This Day in History Class, which is a show

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Speaker 1: that still exists, I'm just not on it anymore. I

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Speaker 1: did a five minute episode on the Nika riots and

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Speaker 1: immediately put it on my to do list for a

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Speaker 1: full length episode over here on Stuff you Missed in

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Speaker 1: History Class. Uh, that means it's taken me more than

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Speaker 1: three years to get to that item on my to

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Speaker 1: do list. Also, somehow, my time on This Day in

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Speaker 1: History Class feels like it happened way longer ago than

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Speaker 1: three years. Yeah, if you had asked me, I would

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Speaker 1: have said five. Yeah, five feels more correct, but apparently not. Uh.

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Speaker 1: This was a riot and then a massacre in Constantinople

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Speaker 1: and the year five thirty two, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: what happened is pretty horrifying, particularly the way this ended,

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Speaker 1: and yet it wasn't really entirely unprecedented. Large scale rioting

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Speaker 1: and mass violence were pretty common in Constantinople and in

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Speaker 1: the Eastern Roman Empire. More broadly. Around this time, we've

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Speaker 1: just got a lot more documentation of the Nika riots

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Speaker 1: than a lot of those other incidents, so they've gotten

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Speaker 1: more historical attention. So for a little bit of background.

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Speaker 1: The Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire,

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Speaker 1: was established when Emperor Diocletian divided the Roman Empire or

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Speaker 1: into its Eastern and western portions in the fourth century.

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Speaker 1: The name Byzantine Empire was actually coined in the sixteenth century.

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Speaker 1: It references the ancient city of Byzantium, which became the

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Speaker 1: empire's capital city of Constantinople. Today that's Istanbul, Turkey. The

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Speaker 1: people who lived in the Eastern Roman Empire generally thought

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Speaker 1: of themselves as Roman, while people living in what had

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Speaker 1: been the Western Roman Empire generally described those people as Greek.

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Speaker 1: There is some debate over the term Byzantine Empire. It

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Speaker 1: has an established meaning within the field of history, but

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Speaker 1: that's also something of a misnomer that's picked up some

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Speaker 1: inaccurate connotations. By the time Justinian the First became emperor

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Speaker 1: of the Eastern Roman Empire, a primary form of entertainment

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Speaker 1: in Constantinople was chariot racing, at the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome

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Speaker 1: was a race track that Emperor Constantine the First had

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Speaker 1: expanded and refurbished, making it into a massive public entertainment venue.

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Speaker 1: It could hold as many as eighty thousand spectators, although

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Speaker 1: while doing research for this, I saw estimates UH that

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Speaker 1: were as low as thirty thousand and as high as

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Speaker 1: a hundred thousand, So there's that's a little big span,

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Speaker 1: which though I could hold a lot of people because

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Speaker 1: had a U shaped track that was about four hundred

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Speaker 1: meters long, and charioteers would race around a central island

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Speaker 1: of monuments that ran down the middle of it that

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Speaker 1: was called the Spina. They usually made seven laps each event.

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Speaker 1: These events were, as you might anticipate, extremely dangerous. Teams

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Speaker 1: of four horses pulled each chariot, making tight turns at

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Speaker 1: speeds of up to forty miles per hour. The chariots

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Speaker 1: themselves were built for speeds, so they did not offer

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Speaker 1: a lot of protection in a crash. The track itself

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Speaker 1: was crowded with horses and chariots, and accidents and deaths

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Speaker 1: were frequent. At the same time, people who managed to

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Speaker 1: win these races had the potential to become itch and famous.

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Speaker 1: Successful charioteers were basically celebrities. But in most cases, charioteers

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Speaker 1: started racing while enslaved, so starting out they didn't have

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Speaker 1: any choice about whether to race or which faction they raced, for.

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Speaker 1: Only the ones who managed to survive ultimately one enough

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Speaker 1: money to buy their own freedom. Beyond being an intense

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Speaker 1: and violent public spectacle, chariot races in Constantinople were also

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Speaker 1: political events. The emperor had a private box that was

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Speaker 1: connected directly to the palace by a tunnel. The hippodrome

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Speaker 1: was really the only place that the emperor saw the

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Speaker 1: common people and vice versa, and it was essentially the

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Speaker 1: only venue for public demonstrations. The emperor heard petitions at

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Speaker 1: these events, and people shouted out coordinated chance. That was

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Speaker 1: something that had originally been part of the experience at

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Speaker 1: the theater and had kind of carried over into the

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Speaker 1: chariot races. And then there were the factions, the Blues,

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Speaker 1: the Greens, the Whites, and the reds. These may have

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Speaker 1: started out as groups that rented things like horses and

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Speaker 1: equipment for the chariot races, but over time they had

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Speaker 1: evolved into competing teams with intensely devoted fans. Over the decades,

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Speaker 1: historians have put forth various different ideas about whether these

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Speaker 1: factions had a greater meaning beyond the chariot races, like

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Speaker 1: whether they were basically political parties, with people choosing which

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Speaker 1: faction to support based on their own political beliefs and

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Speaker 1: objectives and their socioeconomic position. Another idea has been that

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Speaker 1: there was a religious element, like that the Blues were

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Speaker 1: Orthodox Christians while the Greens held beliefs that could have

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Speaker 1: been considered heretical. But some argued that it really was

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Speaker 1: just straightforwardly about the chariot races, with the teams having

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Speaker 1: really vehemently enthusiastic and even zealous fans. Regardless, disputes between

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Speaker 1: these factions could be astoundingly island. For example, in the

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Speaker 1: year five one, the Greens attacked the Blues in the

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Speaker 1: Amphitheater in Constantinople, killing as many as three thousand people.

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Speaker 1: But even if these factions really were just about chariot

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Speaker 1: racing with no greater political or religious or economic meaning,

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Speaker 1: they still had a political impact. The two most powerful

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Speaker 1: factions were the Greens and the Blues, and if the

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Speaker 1: Emperor publicly backed one of them, supporters of the other

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Speaker 1: were likely to claim that they were being placed at

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Speaker 1: a disadvantage. A lot of emperors tried to be very

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Speaker 1: strategic in which faction they were backing. A few emperors

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Speaker 1: tried to remain neutral, while others, like Anastasius, tried to

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Speaker 1: stay out of the way of the Greens and the

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Speaker 1: Blues by backing one of the more minor factions. In

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Speaker 1: his case, he backed the Reds. Anastasias ruled from four

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Speaker 1: to five eighteen. His successor was just In the First,

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Speaker 1: who had been born to a peasant family but had

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Speaker 1: gone to Constantinople looking for work at about the age twenty.

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Speaker 1: He had joined the Palace Guard, where he rose through

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Speaker 1: the ranks, and he also gained a lot of military experience.

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Speaker 1: But Justin didn't have a formal education or any children,

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Speaker 1: so he brought his nephews to Constantinople to be educated

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Speaker 1: and introduced into political life. One of those nephews was

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Speaker 1: Petrus Sobatius, later known as Flavius Justinianus. Like his uncle,

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Speaker 1: he's described as having humble beginnings, coming from a family

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Speaker 1: of peasants or swineherds, but he was gifted. He learned

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Speaker 1: really quickly. His uncle Justin eventually adopted him, naming him

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Speaker 1: Caesar and and then Augustus and co emperor in April

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Speaker 1: of five. When Justin the First died, on August the first,

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Speaker 1: Flavius Justinianus became Emperor Justinian the First. He was influential

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Speaker 1: all through his uncle's Some accounts describe him as basically

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Speaker 1: running the empire himself while he was Caesar and when

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Speaker 1: he was Augustus. Justinian's wife was the Empress Theodora, who

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Speaker 1: was deeply unpopular. Justin's wife, Euphemia, disliked her so intensely

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Speaker 1: that Justinian put off marrying her until after Euphemia died.

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Speaker 1: That was in about five twenty four. Like Justinian, Theodora

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Speaker 1: was from a working class family, but that was not

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Speaker 1: really the issue. She had been an actress, which was

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Speaker 1: seen as essentially the same as a sex worker. It

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Speaker 1: was actually illegal for actresses to marry aristocrats, a law

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Speaker 1: Justinian had changed so he could marry Theodora. In some accounts,

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Speaker 1: people's objections to Theodora weren't just because acting was like

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Speaker 1: sex work. It was because she really was a sex worker.

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Speaker 1: Theodora was also about fourteen years younger than Justinian, and

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Speaker 1: people didn't think she acted like a proper empress at all.

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Speaker 1: Justinian and Theodora both seemed to have put a lot

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Speaker 1: of value in all the pomp and ceremonial trappings that

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Speaker 1: were associated with being emperor and empress, possibly because of

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Speaker 1: both of their non aristocratic backgrounds. But beyond that, Theodora

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Speaker 1: took an active role in leadership. She had her own goals,

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Speaker 1: she had her own agenda. She became one of Justinian's

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Speaker 1: primary advisors. She influenced his decisions rather than just trying

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Speaker 1: to support her husband as she was expected to do.

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Speaker 1: She met and corresponded with foreign dignitaries directly herself, rather

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Speaker 1: than deferring to Justinian on that, and she directly influenced

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Speaker 1: newly written laws. This included working to pass laws that

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Speaker 1: would protect women's rights. She also tried to temper some

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Speaker 1: of his religious views. Justinian was an Orthodox Catholic and

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Speaker 1: envisioned the Empire as one unified Orthodox Christian entity, but

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Speaker 1: Theodorea's own beliefs were unorthodox. She was a meaphysite, meaning

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Speaker 1: that she believed that Jesus Christ was being whose humanity

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Speaker 1: and divinity were united as one nature. The Orthodox belief,

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Speaker 1: on the other hand, was that Christ was one being

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Speaker 1: with two natures, human and divine, and Orthodox Christians saw

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Speaker 1: me aphasticism as heresy. Theodora was not entirely successful with this.

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Speaker 1: She did convince Justinian to end the empire's persecution of

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Speaker 1: me Aphysites, but not to fully welcome them into the Empire.

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Speaker 1: To circle back to those chariot factions, Theodora was also

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Speaker 1: passionately for the Blues. Her father had been an animal

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Speaker 1: handler for the Greens. He was nicknamed the bear Keeper,

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Speaker 1: but he died unexpectedly when Theodora and her two sisters

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Speaker 1: were still children. A lot of like modern accounts, random

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Speaker 1: articles kind of imply that his unexpected death was the

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Speaker 1: inevitable side effect of being a bear keeper. But according

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Speaker 1: to the historian Procopious, we will talk more about it

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Speaker 1: a bit, he died of an illness, not because a

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Speaker 1: bear attacked him. Hardy Hart Harror, which is how the

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Speaker 1: articles that bring this up seemed to imply. Theodore's mother

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Speaker 1: had gone to the Greens for help and they had

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Speaker 1: ignored her, but the Blues offered her a job, and

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Speaker 1: that earned Theodore's loyalty before ascending to the throne. Justinian

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Speaker 1: had also passionately followed the Blues, but he seems to

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Speaker 1: have tempered this somewhat after his uncle's death. And we'll

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Speaker 1: get to the role that all of these factions played

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Speaker 1: in the Nika riots after we pause for a sponsor break.

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Speaker 1: We mentioned earlier that the Nica riots are better documented

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Speaker 1: than several other similar, but maybe smaller, outbreaks of mass

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Speaker 1: violence in the early Eastern Roman Empire. This is really

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Speaker 1: the case with Justinian's rule. Overall. We have multiple accounts

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Speaker 1: written by people who lived through these events. Most of

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Speaker 1: them were written not too long after they happened, so

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Speaker 1: it's not a case of like, we have two accounts

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Speaker 1: of this and they were written two hundred years later.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes these accounts disagree with one another, but other times

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Speaker 1: they more fill in the gaps than each other's perspectives.

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Speaker 1: A quick rundown of the most cited accounts of the

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Speaker 1: Nika riots. First is the Chronicle of Marcellinus. Marcellinus was

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Speaker 1: a retired public official who had been in service to

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Speaker 1: Justinian while his uncle Justin was still the emperor. Marcellinus

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Speaker 1: died around two years after the riots took place. Another

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Speaker 1: account is by John Malalis who died around five seventy eight.

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Speaker 1: He was originally from Syria, and he compiled an eighteen

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Speaker 1: volume history of the empire that spanned from creation to

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Speaker 1: about five sixty five. Another John, this is John the Lydian,

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Speaker 1: was an administrator and he described the riots in his

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Speaker 1: writing the Magistratibus, which he wrote sometimes time after five

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Speaker 1: He died in about five sixty five. And then Victor

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Speaker 1: of Tununa also wrote a brief account before he died

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Speaker 1: in five seventy. And then there's Procopius, who died sometime

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Speaker 1: after five sixty five. Procopius wrote a lots about the

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Speaker 1: Eastern Roman Empire during Justinian's reign, and his work is

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Speaker 1: really a key source of information about the empire and

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Speaker 1: these years of its history. This included the history of

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Speaker 1: the wars and eight volumes, Buildings which took six volumes,

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Speaker 1: and the Secret History, and Procopius was uniquely placed in

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Speaker 1: terms of being able to document this history. He was

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Speaker 1: an advisor and secretary to the general Belsarius and was

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Speaker 1: with Belsarius during multiple military campaigns. This included some work

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Speaker 1: before the Nakar riots. Also, it's possible that Procopius was

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Speaker 1: sheltering in the Imperial Palace during the actual riots, but

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Speaker 1: Procopius descriptions of Justinian and Theodora vary from one work

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Speaker 1: to another. Buildings, which documents Justinian's public works projects, was

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Speaker 1: probably a commissioned work, and it doesn't really mention Theodora much.

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Speaker 1: But it's generally favorable towards Justinian. But his History of

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Speaker 1: the Wars and Secret History, which include his accounts of

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Speaker 1: the Nika riots, are far more critical. Secret History in particular,

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Speaker 1: was framed as kind of a tell all, as you

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Speaker 1: might guess from the name, containing all the scandals and

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Speaker 1: secrets that were too damning to be revealed when anyone

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Speaker 1: involved was alive. That work was published posthumously. Secret History

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Speaker 1: is one of the big sources for the most scandalous

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Speaker 1: things anyone has ever said about Theodora. He describes Theodora

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Speaker 1: as a courtisan quote and such as the ancient Greeks

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Speaker 1: used to call a common one at that for she

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Speaker 1: was not a flute or a heart player, nor was

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Speaker 1: she even trained to dance, but only gave her youth

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Speaker 1: to anyone she met in utter abandonment. He describes her

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Speaker 1: as shameless and promiscuous and performing stage acts that involved

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Speaker 1: beast reality. Secret history even argues that Justinian and Theodore

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Speaker 1: were demons in human form. Sure Sure, Even with all

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Speaker 1: of that in mind, procopius work is seen as a

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Speaker 1: major source of information about Justinian's reign and about the

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Speaker 1: events of five thirty two, specifically, Sometimes it's approached in

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Speaker 1: conjunction with the writing of John Mallalis, since Procopius wrote

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Speaker 1: about the riots from the side of the emperor and

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Speaker 1: his administration, and John Mallalis's account represents more of what

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Speaker 1: was happening with the common people. So when Justinian came

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Speaker 1: to power in five seven, he wanted to restore the

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Speaker 1: empire to what he saw as its former glory. As

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Speaker 1: we said earlier, he envisioned the empire as one orthodox

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Speaker 1: Christian entity, which meant cracking down on other religions and

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Speaker 1: on unorthodox were so called heretical teachings. He forbade pagans

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Speaker 1: and heretics from teaching, and he outlawed homosexuality. Starting in

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Speaker 1: five twenty eight, he embarked on a project to massively

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Speaker 1: revise the law and to reform how the courts operated.

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Speaker 1: And this was to make the courts more efficient and

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Speaker 1: to make litigation more affordable. This legal reform and the

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Speaker 1: laws associated with it collectively became known as the Code

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Speaker 1: of Justinian. This fed into Justinian's effort to root out

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Speaker 1: corruption and curb waste. Although he conceived of all of

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Speaker 1: this as being for the public good, some of these

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Speaker 1: measures were unpopular and alienated both the aristocracy and the

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Speaker 1: common people, and that was complicated by Justinian's military campaigns.

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Speaker 1: In addition to fighting a series of border disputes with Persia,

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Speaker 1: Justinian tried to reconquer areas that had previously been part

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Speaker 1: of the Roman Empire. These wars were expensive, and the

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Speaker 1: Praetorian Prefect, John of Cappadocci, levied new taxes to pay

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Speaker 1: for them. These taxes were, of course, also unpopular, as

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Speaker 1: were cost cutting measures meant to help pay for all

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Speaker 1: of this, so John of Cappadoccia was deeply reviled. On

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Speaker 1: January tenth, five thirty two, a fight broke out between

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Speaker 1: the Greens and the Blues. I don't really know exactly

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Speaker 1: what prompted this fight, but it was happening in the

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Speaker 1: context of all of that stuff that we just said.

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Speaker 1: Seven men were arrested and the city prefect, you demon

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Speaker 1: found them guilty of murder and sentenced them to death.

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Speaker 1: This was an attempt to try to deter future violence.

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Speaker 1: The men were supposed to be executed on the other

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Speaker 1: side of a body of water known as the Golden Horn.

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Speaker 1: Five of the convicted men were executed, but as the

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Speaker 1: last two were about to be hanged, the scaffold collapsed.

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Speaker 1: It's not clear exactly why this happened, but spectators interpreted

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Speaker 1: it as a sign that God had spared those men.

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Speaker 1: Mong took them back across the Golden Horn and gave

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Speaker 1: them sanctuary at the Church of St. Lawrence. Udeman's troops

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Speaker 1: stood guard outside, effectively turning this sanctuary into a prison.

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Speaker 1: One of these men was a Green and the other

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Speaker 1: was a blue. So, as we said, this was not

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Speaker 1: remotely the first time that there had been violence between

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Speaker 1: these factions, and since outbreaks of violence were also common

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Speaker 1: during events at the Hippodrome, it might have made sense

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Speaker 1: to cancel the upcoming chariot races that were scheduled for January,

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Speaker 1: but Justinian allowed them to go on, and the crowd

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Speaker 1: did what it always did during the chariot races, which

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Speaker 1: is to shout a bunch of demands at the Emperor.

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Speaker 1: In this case, the crowd was demanding that the Emperor

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Speaker 1: pardoned these two men. Justinian ignored these demands. There were

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Speaker 1: twenty four races scheduled that day, and as they went on,

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Speaker 1: the crowd became increasingly angry and agitated, and after the

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Speaker 1: twenty second race, the Blues and the Means dropped their

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Speaker 1: rivalry and started chanting things like quote long live the

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Speaker 1: merciful Blues and Greens, as well as Nika nika. Nika

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Speaker 1: nika was a common cheer during these races, and it's

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Speaker 1: usually translated as win or victory or conquer. Usually this

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Speaker 1: was something that each faction would chant at its own charioteers,

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Speaker 1: but at this point the two factions joined up and

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Speaker 1: they started shouting it at the emperor. This was at

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Speaker 1: least the third time that the Blues and the Greens

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Speaker 1: had joined forces. The same thing had happened in five

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Speaker 1: fifteen or five sixteen when the two factions had fought

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Speaker 1: back against soldiers. They had destroyed a number of buildings

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Speaker 1: in Constantinople in the process, and five twenty the factions

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Speaker 1: had come together to demand that the Emperor Justin appear

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Speaker 1: in the hippodrome to answer their demands, and that's something

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Speaker 1: that he ultimately did, so teaming up together could sometimes

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Speaker 1: be effective. In this case, though, Justinian continued to refuse

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Speaker 1: the crowds demands, and he and Theodora left the hippodrome

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Speaker 1: through the tunnel back to the Imperial Palace. This, of course,

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Speaker 1: did not help to calm the situation. Members of the

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Speaker 1: crowd went to the Praetorium, where the Prefect Damon lived,

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Speaker 1: and demanded the two men be freed. When you demon

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Speaker 1: refused to free them, the crowd set the Praetorium on fire.

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Speaker 1: This was also not unprecedented, as one example, the Praetorium

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Speaker 1: had previously been burned down in four D eight during

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Speaker 1: a protest against a grain shortage. The crowd liberated some

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Speaker 1: prisoners who were being held at the Praetorium, and it

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Speaker 1: is possible that they liberated the two convicted partisans at

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Speaker 1: this point, but their fate is a little unclear. Get it.

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Speaker 1: They're stopped being references to their demanding that the men

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Speaker 1: be freed at these at this point, but there's vagueness

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Speaker 1: in that aspect of it. This kicked off days of

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Speaker 1: rioting and arson, and the words of procopious quote, fire

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Speaker 1: was applied to the city as if it had fallen

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Speaker 1: under the hand of an enemy. Justinian tried to return

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Speaker 1: to the Hippodrome on the four and when he got there,

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Speaker 1: the United Greens and Blues issued new demands. These demands

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Speaker 1: included firing you Deemon, along with John of Capitoccia, who

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Speaker 1: was hated because of all those taxes, and a man

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Speaker 1: named Trimonian who was a senior legal official. Although Justinian

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Speaker 1: did fire all three of these men, he still didn't

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Speaker 1: pardon the two convicted men. They may have been released

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Speaker 1: at this point if people still wanted a formal pardon,

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Speaker 1: so this did not diffuse the situation. Violence continued all

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Speaker 1: over Constantinople, and on the fifteen the crowd decided to

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Speaker 1: elevate a new emperor. At least some of this was

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Speaker 1: instigated by more powerful people who saw this whole thing

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Speaker 1: as an opportunity to get rid of Justinian and his

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Speaker 1: anti corruption campaigns. They looked to the nephews of the

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Speaker 1: late Emperor Anastasias for a successor. The older two, who

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Speaker 1: would have had the strongest claimed to the throne, were

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Speaker 1: capacious and Pompeii, but they were both in the Imperial

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Speaker 1: Palace with Justinian, so the crowd went to the home

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Speaker 1: of Anastasius's youngest nephew, ProBiS. ProBiS was not home. It

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Speaker 1: is possible that he had heard about this and he

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Speaker 1: wanted no part of it, and he just booked it.

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Speaker 1: He fled, but when the mob found that he wasn't home,

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Speaker 1: they burned his house down. So by this point, in

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Speaker 1: addition to ProBiS His house, rioters had burned down the Praetorium,

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Speaker 1: part of the Hippodrome, the Senate House, and various churches

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Speaker 1: and ceremonial buildings. Justinian didn't really have a police force

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Speaker 1: that he could call to try to deal with this descent.

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Speaker 1: He was basically trying to cobble together a fighting force

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Speaker 1: from members of the military who had no clear allegiance

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Speaker 1: to the Greens or the Blues or any of the

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Speaker 1: Rioters or any of the aristocrats who were now trying

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Speaker 1: to work this situation to their own ends. As part

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Speaker 1: of this, Justinian summoned troops from Thrace, who arrived on

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Speaker 1: the night of the sevent He also dismissed Hippacious and

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Speaker 1: Pompeii from the Imperial Palace. It's not clear why he

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Speaker 1: did this. He may have felt that their presence was

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Speaker 1: a threat, but as long as they were in the palace,

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Speaker 1: the mob couldn't publicly try to raise one of them

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Speaker 1: as emperor. So there are some conflicting things going on there. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: On the eighteenth, Justinian made one more appearance at the Hippodrome.

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Speaker 1: He told the assembled people that he should have considered

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Speaker 1: their demands, and he offered to pardon the rioters. And

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Speaker 1: while some people thought this was enough, others still refused

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Speaker 1: to back down. On January two, the crowd, who were

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Speaker 1: still dissatisfied with what Justinine was doing, declared that Hypacious

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Speaker 1: would be the new emperor. They did that in the Hippodrome.

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Speaker 1: At that point, Justinian prepared to flee the city and

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Speaker 1: will resolve this mini cliffhanger after we have a little

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Speaker 1: sponsor break. According to Procopious, it was Theodora who convinced

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Speaker 1: Justinian not to flee from Constantinople when the rioters tried

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Speaker 1: to raise another man as emperor. He reported that she

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Speaker 1: told him quote, the present time, above all others, is

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Speaker 1: in opportune for flight, even though it brings safety. For

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Speaker 1: while it is impossible for a man who has seen

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Speaker 1: the light not also to die, for one who has

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Speaker 1: been an emperor, it is unendurable to be a fugitive.

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Speaker 1: May I never be separated from this purple, and may

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Speaker 1: I not live that day on which those who meet

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Speaker 1: me shall not address me as mistress. If now it

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Speaker 1: is your wish to save yourself, oh Emperor, there is

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Speaker 1: no difficulty, for we have much money, and there is

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Speaker 1: the sea and hear the boats. However, consider whether it

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00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: will not come about, after you have been saved, that

428
00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:59,400
Speaker 1: you would gladly exchange that safety for death. As for myself,

429
00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 1: I have a certain ancient saying that royalty is a

430
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 1: good burial shoud This is usually framed as Theodora persuading

431
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 1: Justinian because she was convincing and astute, or Justinian being

432
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 1: shamed into it because he was weak and indecisive. Either way,

433
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,879
Speaker 1: Justinian dispatched Belisarius and an Illyrian general named Mundas to

434
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: the Hippodrome to put down the uprising. They split up

435
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:29,679
Speaker 1: and they entered from opposite sides, essentially trapping the Greens

436
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: and the Blues in the hippodrome. Justinian's fighting force then

437
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: massacred roughly thirty thousand people that would have been about

438
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,120
Speaker 1: ten percent of the population. Justinian did not stop there.

439
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 1: He had both Hypacious and POMPEII executed, along with aristocrats

440
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 1: who had backed Hypatious as emperor. A number of high

441
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: ranking senators had been somewhat involved in all of this,

442
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,199
Speaker 1: and Justinian exiled all of them and seized all of

443
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: their estates in the process that wound up stripping the

444
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: Senate of a lot of its power and authority. Once

445
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: Justinian and Theodore Are regained control of the city, Justinian

446
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: reinstated all the officials that he had previously fired From there,

447
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: Justinian started on a massive rebuilding project. One of his

448
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:19,200
Speaker 1: most notable elements was the Hodgia Sophia. This church had

449
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 1: originally been ordered by the Emperor Constantine the First, and

450
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,120
Speaker 1: it had been through several cycles of construction, damaged during

451
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: unrest and rebuilding. Justinian envisioned the rebuilt Hadgia Sophia as

452
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:36,639
Speaker 1: massive and architecturally groundbreaking. It was the Empire's largest church,

453
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: with a domed basilica, marble columns, and elaborate mosaics. This

454
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: is one of the earliest and largest uses of pendentives

455
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 1: to support a dome. Pendentives are a little bit tricky

456
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 1: to describe, but imagine a triangular piece of the surface

457
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: of a sphere. If you connect the corners of four

458
00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: of these at the tops of four walls, they create

459
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: a circular support for a dome to above them. This

460
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: church took six years to build and it was hugely

461
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 1: influential in the architecture of the Eastern Room and Empire

462
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: after this point. Although most of the mosaics have not

463
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:15,040
Speaker 1: survived until today, most of the structure does still stand,

464
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 1: although part of the dome had to be rebuilt after

465
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 1: an earthquake in The building became a mosque in the

466
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: fifteenth century, and then it was turned into a museum

467
00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century, and the Turkish government converted it

468
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: back into a mosque after the Nika riots. Justinian also

469
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: resumed his efforts to try to reunify the Roman Empire

470
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: and restore its former territory. This included invasions into Africa

471
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 1: in five thirty three and five thirty four, and into

472
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 1: Italy and parts of Spain starting in five thirty five.

473
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:52,040
Speaker 1: This was not only about the expansion or reclamation of territory,

474
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: It was also about coming to the aid of Orthodox

475
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: Christians who were being persecuted. His other projects included establishing

476
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: a silk industry in Constantinople using silkworms that had been

477
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 1: smuggled out of China. The Empire was fighting on multiple

478
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 1: fronts when a plague epidemic struck in five forty one.

479
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: This is known today as Justinian's Plague or the Justiniac plague.

480
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: This plague has come up on so many installments of

481
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:24,479
Speaker 1: Unearthed as researchers have explored just how destructive the epidemic was,

482
00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 1: how far it spread, and exactly what strain of plague

483
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: was involved. The Empress Theodora died on June. She was

484
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: in her late fifties. After her death, Justinian seems to

485
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: have turned his focus more towards theological matters and away

486
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 1: from governance. He died on November sixty five at the

487
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 1: age of eighty three. Chariot racing eventually fell out of favor,

488
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: and the Niger Riots seemed to be the last time

489
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: that the Greens and the Blues united together against the Emperor.

490
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: I have so many feelings about this um. Do you

491
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 1: have listener mail that involves hopefully less massacring. You know

492
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,239
Speaker 1: there's no massacre in this email. It's from Brita, and

493
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 1: Brita says Hi, Holly and Tracy. I love your show,

494
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:17,720
Speaker 1: and I really loved your recent episode on unicorns. My

495
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: dog is actually named after one of the many mythical

496
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: beasts whose name is sometimes translated as unicorn. I got

497
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: really excited in the episode when you mentioned the Chilean

498
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: because I thought you might mention the creature my dog

499
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,840
Speaker 1: is named after. If you've ever been to an East

500
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 1: Asian temple or palace, you may have seen a pair

501
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 1: of lion or dog like statues stationed on either side

502
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:44,600
Speaker 1: of the entrance. In Korea, this guardian statue is called

503
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,760
Speaker 1: a hit A or a Hitchi, and is described as

504
00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 1: a lion with a horn on its forehead or a

505
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 1: unicorn lion. When I first moved to South Korea over

506
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 1: a decade ago, the city of Seoul had a cartoon

507
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,720
Speaker 1: Hitchi as its mascot. I thought it was cute and

508
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 1: that hitch would make a good dog name. Now, many

509
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:05,280
Speaker 1: years later, I'm back living in the US and I

510
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 1: have my own little Hitchi. He doesn't have a horn,

511
00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:10,960
Speaker 1: but he does take his job of guarding the door

512
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 1: very seriously. Here are a few pictures so you can

513
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 1: see how much my dog Hitchy resembles or not his namesake.

514
00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 1: And there is a picture from a Buddhist temple and soul,

515
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: and then one with the mascot that was referenced, and

516
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 1: then of course a dog cut just puppy. I'm just

517
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:32,160
Speaker 1: saying he could have a horn at Halloween if you

518
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 1: celebrate it and wish or maybe he has a horn,

519
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: he's just very shy about showing it to any There

520
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: you go, it's it's covered up hidden. So thank you

521
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 1: so much for this email and these pictures. If you

522
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: would like to write to us about this or any

523
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 1: other podcast or history podcast that I heart radio dot com.

524
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 1: And then we're all over social media miss in history,

525
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 1: So we'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, and

526
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 1: you can subscribe to our on the I heart radio

527
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:09,479
Speaker 1: app or wherever you like to get your podcasts. Stuff

528
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:11,440
Speaker 1: you missed in History Class is a production of I

529
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

530
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

531
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. H