While researching my time travel caper novel Splinter Effect, I came upon a curious line in Marcus Aurelius which opened a whole new field of inquiry for me about my setting.
“…be neither a green nor a blue at the games…”
Greens? Blues? I had no idea what the famously philosophical emperor was talking about, nor could I have imagined the hours of research that simple quote would inspire.
While Romans loved their entertainments from theater to gladiatorial fights, the most popular sport of the empire was undoubtedly chariot racing. Seating estimates for the Circus Maximus in Rome range from 150,000 to 400,000 fans, and that was in a city that, by the highest estimates, housed a million residents. If you plan to seat 40% of your population at an event, that’s a popular event! For another data point, consider that the highest paid athlete in history was a chariot racer: Gaius Appuleius Diocles (104-146-ish AD), a chariot racer from Lusitania (modern Portugal) is frequently cited as the best paid athlete of all time. And before you point out that today’s superstar athletes make much of their income from advertising, so did the Romans. The faces of Rome charioteer idols have been found in wall-sized murals hawking brands of olive oil.
Like any popular sport, chariot racing inspired a wildly loyal fanbase who divided their support among four racing teams, named for the color of their livery: The Reds, Whites, Blues and Greens. These fan clubs or “Demes,” as they were called, morphed over time into social organization of such unity and size that they became political powers in their own right.
At their height, Demes numbered in the millions of members, with chapters in every major city in the Empire. They were courted by Roman politicians as voting blocks. When Marcus Aurelius talked about being neither a Green nor a Blue, what he really meant was think for yourself. Don’t let your allegiance to a group shut down your ability and willingness to think critically about the issues of the day (a message we all might do well to remember). Such was the power of the Demes in late 2nd century Rome – their names were shorthand for partisan thinking.
While Rabbit Ward, the swashbuckling, time traveling archaeologist from Splinter Effect, doesn’t meet Marcus Aurelius in the first book of this series, the Demes play a role in the book’s 6th century Constantinople setting, too.
By 532 CE, the Reds and Whites had waned in significance, leaving the Blues and Greens as the power brokers of the Byzantine masses. Emperor Justinian I was a known supporter of the Blues, but that didn’t protect him from their displeasure with his government when they implemented crippling tax reform and routinely punished debtors and other wrongdoers with public mutilation.
In 531 CE, a violent, post-race riot between the two teams resulted in the deaths of several race fans which earned a death sentence for some rioters. In a mid-point twist, two of the condemned men (a Blue and a Green) were spared by the collapse of the scaffold from which they were to be strung up. The Demes clamored for their pardon, based on this obviously divine intervention, but Justinian refused, instead commuting their sentence to life in prison.
Outraged by what they saw as a travesty of justice, the Blues and Greens united into a single, very destructive, mob. Shouting “Nika” (conquer) as they marched through the streets looting and burning, the united Demes eventually settled into the spacious confines of Constantinople’s hippodrome (racetrack) where they issued their demands to the emperor.
Alas for the Demes, their aquamarine union was fragile. Unbeknownst to the hapless Greens, the Blues secretly cut a deal with Justinian’s garrison and withdrew from the hippodrome with a full pardon. Their numbers halved, the Greens were easy pickings for General Belisarius and his army, who shut up the racetrack and massacred the lot of them.
Half the city was in ashes by the end of the conflict, which left Justinian more powerful than ever. It also cleared the way for his monumental construction program that earned him the nickname Justinian the Builder.
Researching the Nika Riots and the history of the Demes opened my eyes to a whole new angle on Roman life I had never read about before. The real coup, however, came when I was researching a mid-book scene that took place in the hippodrome. I stumbled upon an article titled “Jews and Blues in Late Antiquity” by Dr. Pieter W. van der Horst which outlined the relationship between the Jewish community in Constantinople and the Blue Deme, down to the fact that the Jewish seating section was embedded in the Blues section of the racetrack stands. It was an instrumental piece of research for the book, and I am so grateful to Dr. van der Horst for sending me an English translation.
Roman historians are well aware of the history of the Demes, but few casual readers will be aware of their significant role in the Roman world. It was a pleasure to incorporate that bit of history into Splinter Effect.
Article by:Source: Sara Eslami
