The Nika Riots & Massacre

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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Before we get started, we have a very exciting announcement, which is two plus years into the pandemic, we're finally doing a live stream. Uh, taking us a little bit to plan. One of these were that's gonna happen on March tenth is when we are having our live stream, and we are calling it stuff you miss in history class. Feuds. Yeah, we're gonna talk about some rivalries throughout history, and you're going to get to weigh in on who you think really should win the favor of the crowd and and all of us in terms of who really was correct in any of those given feuds. Yeah. We are doing this on a platform called Looped, and Looped allows us to do some pretty cool stuff, including having people from the audience ask us questions live on video you're not really wanting to ask a question on video. There's also a chat room and we can do a post show meet and greet. The way this works is there's an app where Holly and I will each call you. We got to do that separately because we're still having a pandemic and Holly and I will not be in the same place. Yes, so it's kind of a two for one, you'll get to talk to each of us individually. It's kind of fun. You will have a little one on one video chat and you'll get to take a self eat during the call. That's a little extra you can add on if you wish. Uh, And it's a fun way for us to get to chat with you and reach out and do the kinds of things we would do at a live show in person, but with the safety of the internet between us. Yeah. So you can find tickets to this at looped live dot com. Click on Upcoming Experiences and it'll take you over. You can you can click on our show and you can get your tickets. You can get the Q and A tickets. We will have early bird pricing for the first ten days that tickets are on sale, so that is all the way until March third, and at early bird pricing, tickets or twelve seventy five and tickets plus of meat and greet is and then the price we'll go up for the last week, but the tickets are on sale. So again that is at looped live dot com, l O O p E D l i v E dot com for some live stream tickets. We'd hope it will be a grand time. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Way back when I was hosting a show called This Day in History Class, which is a show that still exists, I'm just not on it anymore. I did a five minute episode on the Nika riots and immediately put it on my to do list for a full length episode over here on Stuff you Missed in History Class. Uh, that means it's taken me more than three years to get to that item on my to do list. Also, somehow, my time on This Day in History Class feels like it happened way longer ago than three years. Yeah, if you had asked me, I would have said five. Yeah, five feels more correct, but apparently not. Uh. This was a riot and then a massacre in Constantinople and the year five thirty two, and a lot of what happened is pretty horrifying, particularly the way this ended, and yet it wasn't really entirely unprecedented. Large scale rioting and mass violence were pretty common in Constantinople and in the Eastern Roman Empire. More broadly. Around this time, we've just got a lot more documentation of the Nika riots than a lot of those other incidents, so they've gotten more historical attention. So for a little bit of background. The Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, was established when Emperor Diocletian divided the Roman Empire or into its Eastern and western portions in the fourth century. The name Byzantine Empire was actually coined in the sixteenth century. It references the ancient city of Byzantium, which became the empire's capital city of Constantinople. Today that's Istanbul, Turkey. The people who lived in the Eastern Roman Empire generally thought of themselves as Roman, while people living in what had been the Western Roman Empire generally described those people as Greek. There is some debate over the term Byzantine Empire. It has an established meaning within the field of history, but that's also something of a misnomer that's picked up some inaccurate connotations. By the time Justinian the First became emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, a primary form of entertainment in Constantinople was chariot racing, at the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome was a race track that Emperor Constantine the First had expanded and refurbished, making it into a massive public entertainment venue. It could hold as many as eighty thousand spectators, although while doing research for this, I saw estimates UH that were as low as thirty thousand and as high as a hundred thousand, So there's that's a little big span, which though I could hold a lot of people because had a U shaped track that was about four hundred meters long, and charioteers would race around a central island of monuments that ran down the middle of it that was called the Spina. They usually made seven laps each event. These events were, as you might anticipate, extremely dangerous. Teams of four horses pulled each chariot, making tight turns at speeds of up to forty miles per hour. The chariots themselves were built for speeds, so they did not offer a lot of protection in a crash. The track itself was crowded with horses and chariots, and accidents and deaths were frequent. At the same time, people who managed to win these races had the potential to become itch and famous. Successful charioteers were basically celebrities. But in most cases, charioteers started racing while enslaved, so starting out they didn't have any choice about whether to race or which faction they raced, for. Only the ones who managed to survive ultimately one enough money to buy their own freedom. Beyond being an intense and violent public spectacle, chariot races in Constantinople were also political events. The emperor had a private box that was connected directly to the palace by a tunnel. The hippodrome was really the only place that the emperor saw the common people and vice versa, and it was essentially the only venue for public demonstrations. The emperor heard petitions at these events, and people shouted out coordinated chance. That was something that had originally been part of the experience at the theater and had kind of carried over into the chariot races. And then there were the factions, the Blues, the Greens, the Whites, and the reds. These may have started out as groups that rented things like horses and equipment for the chariot races, but over time they had evolved into competing teams with intensely devoted fans. Over the decades, historians have put forth various different ideas about whether these factions had a greater meaning beyond the chariot races, like whether they were basically political parties, with people choosing which faction to support based on their own political beliefs and objectives and their socioeconomic position. Another idea has been that there was a religious element, like that the Blues were Orthodox Christians while the Greens held beliefs that could have been considered heretical. But some argued that it really was just straightforwardly about the chariot races, with the teams having really vehemently enthusiastic and even zealous fans. Regardless, disputes between these factions could be astoundingly island. For example, in the year five one, the Greens attacked the Blues in the Amphitheater in Constantinople, killing as many as three thousand people. But even if these factions really were just about chariot racing with no greater political or religious or economic meaning, they still had a political impact. The two most powerful factions were the Greens and the Blues, and if the Emperor publicly backed one of them, supporters of the other were likely to claim that they were being placed at a disadvantage. A lot of emperors tried to be very strategic in which faction they were backing. A few emperors tried to remain neutral, while others, like Anastasius, tried to stay out of the way of the Greens and the Blues by backing one of the more minor factions. In his case, he backed the Reds. Anastasias ruled from four to five eighteen. His successor was just In the First, who had been born to a peasant family but had gone to Constantinople looking for work at about the age twenty. He had joined the Palace Guard, where he rose through the ranks, and he also gained a lot of military experience. But Justin didn't have a formal education or any children, so he brought his nephews to Constantinople to be educated and introduced into political life. One of those nephews was Petrus Sobatius, later known as Flavius Justinianus. Like his uncle, he's described as having humble beginnings, coming from a family of peasants or swineherds, but he was gifted. He learned really quickly. His uncle Justin eventually adopted him, naming him Caesar and and then Augustus and co emperor in April of five. When Justin the First died, on August the first, Flavius Justinianus became Emperor Justinian the First. He was influential all through his uncle's Some accounts describe him as basically running the empire himself while he was Caesar and when he was Augustus. Justinian's wife was the Empress Theodora, who was deeply unpopular. Justin's wife, Euphemia, disliked her so intensely that Justinian put off marrying her until after Euphemia died. That was in about five twenty four. Like Justinian, Theodora was from a working class family, but that was not really the issue. She had been an actress, which was seen as essentially the same as a sex worker. It was actually illegal for actresses to marry aristocrats, a law Justinian had changed so he could marry Theodora. In some accounts, people's objections to Theodora weren't just because acting was like sex work. It was because she really was a sex worker. Theodora was also about fourteen years younger than Justinian, and people didn't think she acted like a proper empress at all. Justinian and Theodora both seemed to have put a lot of value in all the pomp and ceremonial trappings that were associated with being emperor and empress, possibly because of both of their non aristocratic backgrounds. But beyond that, Theodora took an active role in leadership. She had her own goals, she had her own agenda. She became one of Justinian's primary advisors. She influenced his decisions rather than just trying to support her husband as she was expected to do. She met and corresponded with foreign dignitaries directly herself, rather than deferring to Justinian on that, and she directly influenced newly written laws. This included working to pass laws that would protect women's rights. She also tried to temper some of his religious views. Justinian was an Orthodox Catholic and envisioned the Empire as one unified Orthodox Christian entity, but Theodorea's own beliefs were unorthodox. She was a meaphysite, meaning that she believed that Jesus Christ was being whose humanity and divinity were united as one nature. The Orthodox belief, on the other hand, was that Christ was one being with two natures, human and divine, and Orthodox Christians saw me aphasticism as heresy. Theodora was not entirely successful with this. She did convince Justinian to end the empire's persecution of me Aphysites, but not to fully welcome them into the Empire. To circle back to those chariot factions, Theodora was also passionately for the Blues. Her father had been an animal handler for the Greens. He was nicknamed the bear Keeper, but he died unexpectedly when Theodora and her two sisters were still children. A lot of like modern accounts, random articles kind of imply that his unexpected death was the inevitable side effect of being a bear keeper. But according to the historian Procopious, we will talk more about it a bit, he died of an illness, not because a bear attacked him. Hardy Hart Harror, which is how the articles that bring this up seemed to imply. Theodore's mother had gone to the Greens for help and they had ignored her, but the Blues offered her a job, and that earned Theodore's loyalty before ascending to the throne. Justinian had also passionately followed the Blues, but he seems to have tempered this somewhat after his uncle's death. And we'll get to the role that all of these factions played in the Nika riots after we pause for a sponsor break. We mentioned earlier that the Nica riots are better documented than several other similar, but maybe smaller, outbreaks of mass violence in the early Eastern Roman Empire. This is really the case with Justinian's rule. Overall. We have multiple accounts written by people who lived through these events. Most of them were written not too long after they happened, so it's not a case of like, we have two accounts of this and they were written two hundred years later. Sometimes these accounts disagree with one another, but other times they more fill in the gaps than each other's perspectives. A quick rundown of the most cited accounts of the Nika riots. First is the Chronicle of Marcellinus. Marcellinus was a retired public official who had been in service to Justinian while his uncle Justin was still the emperor. Marcellinus died around two years after the riots took place. Another account is by John Malalis who died around five seventy eight. He was originally from Syria, and he compiled an eighteen volume history of the empire that spanned from creation to about five sixty five. Another John, this is John the Lydian, was an administrator and he described the riots in his writing the Magistratibus, which he wrote sometimes time after five He died in about five sixty five. And then Victor of Tununa also wrote a brief account before he died in five seventy. And then there's Procopius, who died sometime after five sixty five. Procopius wrote a lots about the Eastern Roman Empire during Justinian's reign, and his work is really a key source of information about the empire and these years of its history. This included the history of the wars and eight volumes, Buildings which took six volumes, and the Secret History, and Procopius was uniquely placed in terms of being able to document this history. He was an advisor and secretary to the general Belsarius and was with Belsarius during multiple military campaigns. This included some work before the Nakar riots. Also, it's possible that Procopius was sheltering in the Imperial Palace during the actual riots, but Procopius descriptions of Justinian and Theodora vary from one work to another. Buildings, which documents Justinian's public works projects, was probably a commissioned work, and it doesn't really mention Theodora much. But it's generally favorable towards Justinian. But his History of the Wars and Secret History, which include his accounts of the Nika riots, are far more critical. Secret History in particular, was framed as kind of a tell all, as you might guess from the name, containing all the scandals and secrets that were too damning to be revealed when anyone involved was alive. That work was published posthumously. Secret History is one of the big sources for the most scandalous things anyone has ever said about Theodora. He describes Theodora as a courtisan quote and such as the ancient Greeks used to call a common one at that for she was not a flute or a heart player, nor was she even trained to dance, but only gave her youth to anyone she met in utter abandonment. He describes her as shameless and promiscuous and performing stage acts that involved beast reality. Secret history even argues that Justinian and Theodore were demons in human form. Sure Sure, Even with all of that in mind, procopius work is seen as a major source of information about Justinian's reign and about the events of five thirty two, specifically, Sometimes it's approached in conjunction with the writing of John Mallalis, since Procopius wrote about the riots from the side of the emperor and his administration, and John Mallalis's account represents more of what was happening with the common people. So when Justinian came to power in five seven, he wanted to restore the empire to what he saw as its former glory. As we said earlier, he envisioned the empire as one orthodox Christian entity, which meant cracking down on other religions and on unorthodox were so called heretical teachings. He forbade pagans and heretics from teaching, and he outlawed homosexuality. Starting in five twenty eight, he embarked on a project to massively revise the law and to reform how the courts operated. And this was to make the courts more efficient and to make litigation more affordable. This legal reform and the laws associated with it collectively became known as the Code of Justinian. This fed into Justinian's effort to root out corruption and curb waste. Although he conceived of all of this as being for the public good, some of these measures were unpopular and alienated both the aristocracy and the common people, and that was complicated by Justinian's military campaigns. In addition to fighting a series of border disputes with Persia, Justinian tried to reconquer areas that had previously been part of the Roman Empire. These wars were expensive, and the Praetorian Prefect, John of Cappadocci, levied new taxes to pay for them. These taxes were, of course, also unpopular, as were cost cutting measures meant to help pay for all of this, so John of Cappadoccia was deeply reviled. On January tenth, five thirty two, a fight broke out between the Greens and the Blues. I don't really know exactly what prompted this fight, but it was happening in the context of all of that stuff that we just said. Seven men were arrested and the city prefect, you demon found them guilty of murder and sentenced them to death. This was an attempt to try to deter future violence. The men were supposed to be executed on the other side of a body of water known as the Golden Horn. Five of the convicted men were executed, but as the last two were about to be hanged, the scaffold collapsed. It's not clear exactly why this happened, but spectators interpreted it as a sign that God had spared those men. Mong took them back across the Golden Horn and gave them sanctuary at the Church of St. Lawrence. Udeman's troops stood guard outside, effectively turning this sanctuary into a prison. One of these men was a Green and the other was a blue. So, as we said, this was not remotely the first time that there had been violence between these factions, and since outbreaks of violence were also common during events at the Hippodrome, it might have made sense to cancel the upcoming chariot races that were scheduled for January, but Justinian allowed them to go on, and the crowd did what it always did during the chariot races, which is to shout a bunch of demands at the Emperor. In this case, the crowd was demanding that the Emperor pardoned these two men. Justinian ignored these demands. There were twenty four races scheduled that day, and as they went on, the crowd became increasingly angry and agitated, and after the twenty second race, the Blues and the Means dropped their rivalry and started chanting things like quote long live the merciful Blues and Greens, as well as Nika nika. Nika nika was a common cheer during these races, and it's usually translated as win or victory or conquer. Usually this was something that each faction would chant at its own charioteers, but at this point the two factions joined up and they started shouting it at the emperor. This was at least the third time that the Blues and the Greens had joined forces. The same thing had happened in five fifteen or five sixteen when the two factions had fought back against soldiers. They had destroyed a number of buildings in Constantinople in the process, and five twenty the factions had come together to demand that the Emperor Justin appear in the hippodrome to answer their demands, and that's something that he ultimately did, so teaming up together could sometimes be effective. In this case, though, Justinian continued to refuse the crowds demands, and he and Theodora left the hippodrome through the tunnel back to the Imperial Palace. This, of course, did not help to calm the situation. Members of the crowd went to the Praetorium, where the Prefect Damon lived, and demanded the two men be freed. When you demon refused to free them, the crowd set the Praetorium on fire. This was also not unprecedented, as one example, the Praetorium had previously been burned down in four D eight during a protest against a grain shortage. The crowd liberated some prisoners who were being held at the Praetorium, and it is possible that they liberated the two convicted partisans at this point, but their fate is a little unclear. Get it. They're stopped being references to their demanding that the men be freed at these at this point, but there's vagueness in that aspect of it. This kicked off days of rioting and arson, and the words of procopious quote, fire was applied to the city as if it had fallen under the hand of an enemy. Justinian tried to return to the Hippodrome on the four and when he got there, the United Greens and Blues issued new demands. These demands included firing you Deemon, along with John of Capitoccia, who was hated because of all those taxes, and a man named Trimonian who was a senior legal official. Although Justinian did fire all three of these men, he still didn't pardon the two convicted men. They may have been released at this point if people still wanted a formal pardon, so this did not diffuse the situation. Violence continued all over Constantinople, and on the fifteen the crowd decided to elevate a new emperor. At least some of this was instigated by more powerful people who saw this whole thing as an opportunity to get rid of Justinian and his anti corruption campaigns. They looked to the nephews of the late Emperor Anastasias for a successor. The older two, who would have had the strongest claimed to the throne, were capacious and Pompeii, but they were both in the Imperial Palace with Justinian, so the crowd went to the home of Anastasius's youngest nephew, ProBiS. ProBiS was not home. It is possible that he had heard about this and he wanted no part of it, and he just booked it. He fled, but when the mob found that he wasn't home, they burned his house down. So by this point, in addition to ProBiS His house, rioters had burned down the Praetorium, part of the Hippodrome, the Senate House, and various churches and ceremonial buildings. Justinian didn't really have a police force that he could call to try to deal with this descent. He was basically trying to cobble together a fighting force from members of the military who had no clear allegiance to the Greens or the Blues or any of the Rioters or any of the aristocrats who were now trying to work this situation to their own ends. As part of this, Justinian summoned troops from Thrace, who arrived on the night of the sevent He also dismissed Hippacious and Pompeii from the Imperial Palace. It's not clear why he did this. He may have felt that their presence was a threat, but as long as they were in the palace, the mob couldn't publicly try to raise one of them as emperor. So there are some conflicting things going on there. Yeah. On the eighteenth, Justinian made one more appearance at the Hippodrome. He told the assembled people that he should have considered their demands, and he offered to pardon the rioters. And while some people thought this was enough, others still refused to back down. On January two, the crowd, who were still dissatisfied with what Justinine was doing, declared that Hypacious would be the new emperor. They did that in the Hippodrome. At that point, Justinian prepared to flee the city and will resolve this mini cliffhanger after we have a little sponsor break. According to Procopious, it was Theodora who convinced Justinian not to flee from Constantinople when the rioters tried to raise another man as emperor. He reported that she told him quote, the present time, above all others, is in opportune for flight, even though it brings safety. For while it is impossible for a man who has seen the light not also to die, for one who has been an emperor, it is unendurable to be a fugitive. May I never be separated from this purple, and may I not live that day on which those who meet me shall not address me as mistress. If now it is your wish to save yourself, oh Emperor, there is no difficulty, for we have much money, and there is the sea and hear the boats. However, consider whether it will not come about, after you have been saved, that you would gladly exchange that safety for death. As for myself, I have a certain ancient saying that royalty is a good burial shoud This is usually framed as Theodora persuading Justinian because she was convincing and astute, or Justinian being shamed into it because he was weak and indecisive. Either way, Justinian dispatched Belisarius and an Illyrian general named Mundas to the Hippodrome to put down the uprising. They split up and they entered from opposite sides, essentially trapping the Greens and the Blues in the hippodrome. Justinian's fighting force then massacred roughly thirty thousand people that would have been about ten percent of the population. Justinian did not stop there. He had both Hypacious and POMPEII executed, along with aristocrats who had backed Hypatious as emperor. A number of high ranking senators had been somewhat involved in all of this, and Justinian exiled all of them and seized all of their estates in the process that wound up stripping the Senate of a lot of its power and authority. Once Justinian and Theodore Are regained control of the city, Justinian reinstated all the officials that he had previously fired From there, Justinian started on a massive rebuilding project. One of his most notable elements was the Hodgia Sophia. This church had originally been ordered by the Emperor Constantine the First, and it had been through several cycles of construction, damaged during unrest and rebuilding. Justinian envisioned the rebuilt Hadgia Sophia as massive and architecturally groundbreaking. It was the Empire's largest church, with a domed basilica, marble columns, and elaborate mosaics. This is one of the earliest and largest uses of pendentives to support a dome. Pendentives are a little bit tricky to describe, but imagine a triangular piece of the surface of a sphere. If you connect the corners of four of these at the tops of four walls, they create a circular support for a dome to above them. This church took six years to build and it was hugely influential in the architecture of the Eastern Room and Empire after this point. Although most of the mosaics have not survived until today, most of the structure does still stand, although part of the dome had to be rebuilt after an earthquake in The building became a mosque in the fifteenth century, and then it was turned into a museum in the twentieth century, and the Turkish government converted it back into a mosque after the Nika riots. Justinian also resumed his efforts to try to reunify the Roman Empire and restore its former territory. This included invasions into Africa in five thirty three and five thirty four, and into Italy and parts of Spain starting in five thirty five. This was not only about the expansion or reclamation of territory, It was also about coming to the aid of Orthodox Christians who were being persecuted. His other projects included establishing a silk industry in Constantinople using silkworms that had been smuggled out of China. The Empire was fighting on multiple fronts when a plague epidemic struck in five forty one. This is known today as Justinian's Plague or the Justiniac plague. This plague has come up on so many installments of Unearthed as researchers have explored just how destructive the epidemic was, how far it spread, and exactly what strain of plague was involved. The Empress Theodora died on June. She was in her late fifties. After her death, Justinian seems to have turned his focus more towards theological matters and away from governance. He died on November sixty five at the age of eighty three. Chariot racing eventually fell out of favor, and the Niger Riots seemed to be the last time that the Greens and the Blues united together against the Emperor. I have so many feelings about this um. Do you have listener mail that involves hopefully less massacring. You know there's no massacre in this email. It's from Brita, and Brita says Hi, Holly and Tracy. I love your show, and I really loved your recent episode on unicorns. My dog is actually named after one of the many mythical beasts whose name is sometimes translated as unicorn. I got really excited in the episode when you mentioned the Chilean because I thought you might mention the creature my dog is named after. If you've ever been to an East Asian temple or palace, you may have seen a pair of lion or dog like statues stationed on either side of the entrance. In Korea, this guardian statue is called a hit A or a Hitchi, and is described as a lion with a horn on its forehead or a unicorn lion. When I first moved to South Korea over a decade ago, the city of Seoul had a cartoon Hitchi as its mascot. I thought it was cute and that hitch would make a good dog name. Now, many years later, I'm back living in the US and I have my own little Hitchi. He doesn't have a horn, but he does take his job of guarding the door very seriously. Here are a few pictures so you can see how much my dog Hitchy resembles or not his namesake. And there is a picture from a Buddhist temple and soul, and then one with the mascot that was referenced, and then of course a dog cut just puppy. I'm just saying he could have a horn at Halloween if you celebrate it and wish or maybe he has a horn, he's just very shy about showing it to any There you go, it's it's covered up hidden. So thank you so much for this email and these pictures. If you would like to write to us about this or any other podcast or history podcast that I heart radio dot com. And then we're all over social media miss in history, So we'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, and you can subscribe to our on the I heart radio app or wherever you like to get your podcasts. Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H