The Nika Riots, Part 2

Let's look at how Emperor Justinian managed to stop the Nika Riots and save Constantinople. We saw yesterday how the Blue and Green factions were angered over the treatment of some of their own people, and how, during an attempt by Justinian to placate them with a chariot race erupted into rioting.

Now, previous emperors had sometimes canceled chariot races to avoid bringing people together and getting their adrenalin and testosterone built up, but Justinian took a different approach. He thought another chariot race would appease the crowd and give them something to focus on besides rioting.

How bad had the rioting become? They demanded that Justinian get rid of a prefect, John the Cappadocian, and one other legal administrator. Justinian agreed, and appeared in public from his balcony over the Hippodrome to apologize for the problems of his administration. He carried a Bible, and declared amnesty for all the rioters if they would cease the riots.

They were not appeased, however. some wanted to declare a new emperor, and picked Hypatius,  a nephew of former emperor Anastasius I who was a favorite of the working-class Greens. Hypatius, uncertain of having popular support and not wishing to go against Justinian, took refuge from the crowd in the imperial palace with Justinian. Hypatius had a brother, Pompeius, who joined him. A cousin, Probus, another nephew of Anastasius, also wanted nothing to do with a potential hostile change in succession and fled the city.

the riots showed no sign of winding down, and Justinian considered fleeing Constantinople himself. The sea was open to him. His wife, Theodora, stopped him, saying (according to Procopius, who may, of course, have been embellishing) "Those who have worn the crown should never survive its loss. Never will I see the day when I am not saluted as empress." (Sounds like she didn't like the thought of exile, no matter how lavish it might be.)

A plan was crafted to quell the danger by bribing some of the rioters and overwhelming others. The plan started with Narses, a eunuch who had no connections or loyalties outside of the royal family that he served, and could therefore be trusted to carry out the first phase. (Narses would later be known as a military strategist during the Gothic Wars.)

Tomorrow I'll tell you how the plan worked.