The Heraclian Dynasty

For a century (610 - 711), Heraclius and his descendants were emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire, ruling over the Byzantines from Constantinople. To get these descendants, he had two marriages.

The first was to Fabia Eudokia, betrothed to him before he became emperor. She and her mother were kidnapped by the previous emperor, Phocas, to try to prevent Heraclius from attacking Constantinople. They were released by members of the Greens, who favored Heraclius in his revolt. Once they were safely with Heraclius, he was able to enter Constantinople. Heraclius and Fabia married on the same day he was crowned emperor, 5 October 610, and she was given the title Augusta. Their son was Constantine III, who would succeed Heraclius.

Fabia died on 13 August 612. Heraclius then married Martina in 613. Her mother was Maria, Heraclius' sister, making him her uncle.

There have been several times in history when laws of consanguinity were proposed, suggesting various degrees of relatedness that were prohibited. Marriage to your niece was certainly one of these prohibited unions, whichever set of rules you chose to apply. The crime of incest, and the respect for the deceased Fabia Eudokia, led to disapproval by the population of this new marriage. Heraclius' own family rejected this choice; his brother Theodore frequently condemned it.

Heraclius kept Martina with him on campaigns, but military failures were attributed to her and the inappropriate marriage. The couple had several children:

• Constantine, who died young
• Fabius, who had a paralyzed neck and died young
• Theodosius, born deaf-mute

These children may have suffered due to the inbreeding of Heraclius with a close relative. The population pointed fingers at this "evidence" that the marriage was cursed.

There were children who survived and became rulers themselves, however. When Heraclius was on his deathbed, he asked that his son by Fabia, Constantine, and a son by Martina, Heraclonas, be honored. Constantine and Martina did not get along, however, which was going to cause trouble in the near future. See you tomorrow. (The illustration is a much later coin struck to commemorate Heraclius.)

Emperor Heraclius

Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (reigned 610 - 641) was mentioned here when he tried to make the whole empire follow Monothelitism. The idea that Jesus had only a single "energy" and not two (the human and the divine) was not well-received by everyone. That was not the only issue of Heraclius' reign.

Born c.575 in (we think) Armenia, his father (Heraclius the Elder) was a general under Emperor Maurice during the time of Bahram Chobin's revolt against the Iranian emperors Hormizd IV and his son, Khosrow II. Maurice made Heraclius the Elder the Exarch (regional governor) of Africa.

In 608, Heraclius the Elder and his son led a revolt against Emperor Phocas (reigned 602 to 610). Phocas had overthrown Maurice years earlier, but was so unpopular that when the younger Heraclius approached Constantinople, the elite imperial guard that was led by Phocas' son-in-law defected to Heraclius. The son-in-law, Priscus, supported the overthrow and was later given a command against the Persians. Another group in favor of change that supported the revolt was the Greens.

Heraclius the Younger became emperor. The illustration shows him sentencing Phocas, although a generation later an historian said Heraclius slew Phocas himself without any formality. The Elder was still securing Egypt. When news came that his son was made emperor, the father is said to have rejoiced. He died shortly after, however.

Heraclius was crowned on 5 October 610. Much of his reign was spent dealing with the danger from the east. War with the Sassanian Empire (602 - 628) lost him Syria and Egypt. When Khosrow II was overthrown by his son, Kavad II, Kavad II wanted peace. The war against the Persians ended, but the military losses on both sides were significant.

As a sign of good faith, Kavad offered the True Cross to Heraclius in 628. Heraclius returned it to Jerusalem a year or two later.

Unfortunately, here was another enemy to the East, the Rashidun Caliphate, who conquered the Sassanian Empire first and then came for the West, taking Armenia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. What was gained from Persian Zoroastrians was lost to Arab Muslims.

He established the Heraclian dynasty that lasted a century. There was a problem with his descendants, however, and that was the problem of incest. I'll explain more tomorrow.

The Nika Riots, Part 3

Emperor Justinian's plan to end the Nika Riots involved bribes. One difficulty about the Riots was that two large and influential rival factions, the Blues and the Greens, had joined together against the imperial administration. The Greens were mostly working class: merchants, tradesmen, craftsmen. The Blues, however, were more elite, and more willing to listen to the emperor.

These two factions filled the Hippodrome, the site of chariot races that was attached to the imperial palace. Narses, a eunuch, was given gold with which to bribe the Blues. He entered the Hippodrome through the entrance used by the Blue chariot teams, going to the most influential members of the Blues. He reminded them that Justinian considered them his favorites instead of the Greens. He gave them the gold for their embers, and told them what the emperor wanted in return.

The riots had called for replacing Justinian with Hypatius, a nephew of a former emperor, Anastasius I. Hypatius had taken refuge in the palace with Justinian. An announcement went out that Hypatius would be crowned emperor at the Hippodrome. The teams let down their guard, thinking they were getting a happy outcome.

During the mock coronation, the Blues stood apart from the Greens, having been informed what would happen next. General Belisarius and his troops then entered the Hippodrome and started killing rioters. Belisarius took Hypatius and his brother Pompeius into custody while the soldiers killed anyone, Blues as well as Greens.

Procopius claimed that 30,000 people were killed, although it is likely that many of those deaths were caused not by the soldiers but by the stampede to get out of the Hippodrome. Although it would seem that Hypatius and Pompeius were innocent, Justinian now saw them as a potential threat to his power and had them executed (although later he gave their properties and royal titles to the men's children). Senators who had supported the rioters were exiled and their properties confiscated. John the Cappadocian, whose dismissal was demanded (and received) by the rioters, was reinstated.

Theophanes (c.759 - 817), writing over 200 years later, said the chariot races were not held for a long time afterward. A contemporary chronicler, John Malalas (c.491 - 578), says 35,000 were killed, although he did not have the "inside track" that Procopius had.

General Belisarius went on to be Justinian's chief commander of the military, involved in the first phase of the Gothic Wars, then having to return to northern Italy again to deal with problems (this was before the Justinian Plague and the Lombard invasion). We'll start looking at his return tomorrow.

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 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 a 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 in the next couple days, 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.

The Nika Riots, Part 1

Constantinople during the reign  of Emperor  Justinian I (482 - 565) saw a tumultuous week in 532. The catalyst was a little earlier, when in 531 the city prefect, Eudaimon, arrested some citizens in connection with deaths that took place after a chariot race.

As we see today in the USA, after an intense sporting event there may be brawls that take place between fans of the opposing teams. From Ancient Rome to the time of which I speak (and beyond), the supporters of chariot-racing teams were very vocal and (at times) very violent. I spoke more about them yesterday, especially the Blues and the Greens.

Well, the brawl resulted in some deaths, and Eudaimon arrested some members of the Blues' and Greens' "fan clubs." Found guilty, they were sentenced to be executed for murder. On 10 January 532, the executions were to be carried out by hanging.

One Blue and one Green survived when, unexpectedly, the wooden scaffolding broke. This seemed to be an act of Providence, and monks from the monastery of St. Conon hurried the two survivors to a nearby church for sanctuary. Eudaimon, foiled in his attempt to seek justice, surrounded the sanctuary with his troops to prevent their escape.

This was very concerning to Justinian, who had plenty of other potential problems on his mind without angering two of the largest and most vocal groups in the city. On the eastern front he was trying to establish a peace treaty with the Persians after a six-year war. Demanding the two men be executed as planned could make things worse. Justinian was also blamed for high taxes and accusations of corruption in high government officials.

In order to avoid further unrest, he therefore decreed that their death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. He also declared a chariot race to be held on the 13th. The races were held in the Hippodrome (circled in red above), which was attached to the palace complex. Justinian was able to view the races and be seen from a safe balcony in his palace.

The races commenced, with the usual chants of the Blues and the Greens to cheer on their teams. As the day wore on, however, the tone changed. Instead of shouting out "Blues" or "Greens," they started shouting Nika!, "Victory" (or, if used as an imperative verb, "Conquer"). The crowds surged toward the palace itself, starting riots that lasted a week. Buildings were burned, including the Hagia Sophia, which Justinian would later have to rebuild.

Justinian's attempt at "bread and circuses," hosting more games to occupy and appease the rioters, failed. There was real fear that the city would be destroyed or the emperor overthrown. Tomorrow we'll see how it was resolved, although "resolved" is an awfully sanitized word for how it was ended.

The Blues and Greens

People love sports, and people love their sports teams, and rivalries abound. 'Twas ever thus, and Ancient Rome was no exception.

In Rome and the later Byzantine Empire, chariot races were extremely popular, so popular that the different teams, called demes (from a Greek word meaning "people" as in the words democracy and demography, but here used to mean "faction"), that were so persistently popular and polarizing that they became social and political forces and could be fiercely opposed to each other. The Blues included many of higher status, while the Greens were more of a working-class group.

There were four factions: the Blues (Veneti), the Greens (Prasini), the Reds (Russati), and the Whites (Albati); these colors were first mentioned by Pliny the Elder. The largest and most powerful were the Blues and Greens. These factions maintained their identities over centuries, starting with the time of Augustus in the 1st century BCE and lasting into the 8th century CE and beyond.

It is the 6th century in the Eastern Roman Empire that we will concern ourselves with, and the time of Emperor Justinian I (482 - 565). Although some modern scholars minimize the impact these factions had on society, evidence of the Nika Riots shows how strong an effect they could have on major cities where large numbers of the different colors resided.

Whole neighborhoods were described as pro-Blue or pro-Green. The factions created their own militias, and the emperor would sometimes request help from them in military matters. They even got involved in religious matters. When the Council of Chalcedon met, their conclusions were supported by the Blues, while the Greens were opposed (although these distinctions were not universal).

Even a 12th-century scholar, Theodore Balsamon, whose writings preserved information from earlier sources now lost to us, when writing about the Council of Trullo (in 692), comments that the emperors had no control over the factions and had to appease them.

Justinian, according to contemporary chroniclers Procopius and Evagrius Scholasticus, favored the Blues, likely because they included more elites and politicians. This made the Blues more arrogant and likely to cause trouble in Constantinople for others. Despite this, there were times when all factions felt the need to speak out against the state and join forces. One such time was the Nika Riots, when the Blues and the Greens united against Justinian. It started when the prefect of Constantinople arrested some members of the Blues and Greens in connection with some deaths during riots after (what else?) a chariot race.

The suspects were all to be executed, and on 10 January 532, the sentence was carried out. The Riots did not come about because of the executed men, but because of two—one Blue and one Green—who escaped execution by luck. I'll explain tomorrow.