1. Introduction

What was the Agora for ancient Athens or the forum for ancient Rome, was the Hippodrome for Constantinople – a place where the political beliefs of the populace of the Byzantine capital were expressed. In reality the Hippodrome, who had the shape of a grand stadium, was the only place where a large number of people could be gathered – some tens of thousands – and where the emperor could address himself to his subjects or themselves to him. In the sources there is much evidence for such a kind of communication between the leader and the people, referred to the emperors Justinian I, Anastasios I, Maurice, Phocas and Herakleios. Besides, at the Hippodrome very often took place the rise of the Byzantine emperors. John Chrysostom, who served as patriarch of Constantinople (398-404) at the turn from the 4th to the 5th century, speaks somehow critical for his compatriots’ passion about the games of the hippodrome and for this kind of public meetings. He points out that in that case the whole city was transferred to the stadium, while the houses and the squares were left empty. Nothing can dissuade them from doing this, neither the poverty, nor the lack of free time, nor the physical weakness, nor the pain in the foot. About the apostles and the prophets they know nothing, adds the well-known theologian and orator, while about the horses and the charioteers they discus not worse than the sophists.¹

2. Factions

Very early in the history of Constantinople the political beliefs of the people gathered at the hippodrome were expressed through sports clubs related to the horse-racings. These clubs at Constantinople were called demoi, and the most powerful of them were the Venetoi («the Blues») and the Greens; the other two parties, which very often cooperated with the before-mentioned ones and it seems that they were final absorbed into them, were the Rousioi («the Reds») and the Whites. In the sources about the demoi and their members the following terms are used: δῆμοι, δημόται, δῆμος, μέρος. In the older bibliography the demoi were referred as factions of the hippodrome, a mention that diminish their place within the life of Constantinople and the other big cities of the Empire and, at the same time, constitutes an oversimplification. Although the demoi were initially indeed clubs of adherents, which received their names from the colors of the equipment the charioteers carried during the chariot racings, at Constantinople they very quickly got promoted to an important institutional factor, as well as the area of their activities, the Hippodorme, filled a central place of the public life of the capital. The demoi had a similar evolution in other major cities of the East as well, where this Roman athletic institution acquired a political character under the influence of the liberal traditions of the ancient cities.

Starting from the middle of the 5th century, the relations between the demoi largely influenced some events of the political life of the Empire, and not only at Constantinople, but in other major cities as well, such as Alexandria in Egypt, Apameia and Antioch in Syria. The imperial government was obliged to reckon the demoi as significant institutional factors, while it was very often supported by the one or the other demos. Usually the one faction, the Venetoi or the Greens, enjoyed the support of the highest authority, while the other fell, in some way, into disfavor. Nevertheless, sometimes the factions were united in common uprisings against the imperial authority, resisting its absolutism and the trends for extreme centralization. In the surviving sources there is a mention of numerous and quite frequent turbulences at the Hippodrome during the 5th and the 6th century: the years 491, 493, 498, 501, 507, 511, 512, 514, 515, 518, 520, 523, 532, 547, 549, 550, 553, 556, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 565. In a period of certain years, such as in 507, in 561 and in 562, fights and disturbances took place twice, while there were uprisings that can not be dated accurately. It has been calculated that more than thirty uprisings were manifested within a period of seventy-four years.²

In charge of the factions of the Greens and the Venetoi were the so-called demarchoi, who were appointed by the imperial government. In time of peace the demoi participated in public works, as for example in the construction of the city walls, while in an emergency, when Constantinople was threatened by some danger, they functioned as civil guard. It is believed that this part of the city population organized as civil guard, constituted the core of the demoi, and around this core were gathered the wider stratums of the Constantinopolitan populace for both factions. We have to point out that the number of the active members of the demoi was not large enough. Therefore, for example, according to Theophylaktos Simokattes, based on official documents, in 602 at Constantinople there were 1500 Greens and 900 Venetoi.³ According to a later source, which probably exaggerate the numbers, the two demoi by the time of emperor Theodosios II (408-450) counted 8000 persons in total,⁴ which was, however, no more than a small proportion of the inhabitants of the capital. By siding with the Venetoi or the Greens, the populace often made a political choice. However, the demoi can not be considered as political parties in the modern meaning of the word.

In older times it was wrongly believed that the Venetoi were representatives of the aristocrats, while the Greens of the common stratums of the Byzantine society. It seems, however, that the composition of the demoi was more complicated and combined more than one trends, political-social and religious. The biggest part of both factions was composed of the wider stratums of the urban population; however, through the factions expressed their interests other, more powerful parts of the Byzantine society. Thus, the leaders of the Venetoi represented the interests of the older, Greco-Roman aristocracy of the landowners and religiously speaking they supported the Orthodoxy. The leaders of the Greens on the other hand expressed the interests of the civil office-holders who were risen from the palace and the state administration, as well as the expectations of the rich merchants. They had connections in the East and inclined towards Monophysitism and other eastern heresies. Monophysitism, although declared heretical in the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451, had, nevertheless, strong support and many adherents, especially in the eastern provinces of the Empire.

3. Conflicts between demoi and emperors

Big disturbances at the Hippodrome took place especially during the reign of the emperor Anastasios I (491-518). As far as Anastasios is concerned, the opinion has been expressed that he was a supporter of the Greens’ faction, because of his monophysitic trends; however he confronted uprisings from both the largest factions, while Malalas mentions him as a supporter of the Rousioi.⁵ During his reign many times public buildings were burnt, and statues of the emperor were thrown down and dragged on the street, at the instigation of the demoi. At the Hippodrome the crowd fiercely disapproved the emperor and took part in turbulences. Therefore, during the turbulences at the Hippodrome in 501 Anastasios’ son and around three thousand people were killed. Under the pretext of a matter of religious nature in 512 a revolt burst out that was almost about to cost him the throne. As far as this event is concerned, we read in the chronicles of John Malalas that the populace revolted because of an addition on the Trisagios Hymn, considered being of monophysitic inspiration. The eparch of the city Plato ran away all scared, while the rioters demanded the ascension of another emperor to the throne and attacked against the houses of all those they thought as responsible for the innovations. Anastasios was forced to appear at the Hippodrome and to address to the populace, explaining the groundlessness of their fear concerning the faith.⁶ The climax of the crisis was the rebellion of the strategos of Thrace Vitalian, who reached three times – in 513, 514 and 515 – as far as the walls of Constantinople; however Anastasios managed to stand victoriously before this dangerous trial.

The demoi clashed with the authoritarian rule of Justinian I (527-565) who wanted through the confinement of their activities to strengthen his despotic government. This was the cause for the biggest internal crisis at Byzantium during the 6th century. Justinian used the political character of the demoi by supporting, according to the balance of power at a given time, either the one or the other faction. Although he supported the Venetoi, his policy towards the demoi was unstable. The dissatisfaction for this fact, as well as for the unbearable taxation united, when the reason was given, the former opponent demoi who turned in common against Justinian.

This big revolt of the demoi, which was named the Nika Riot and lasted only eight days, took place on January 532. This revolt left deep scars on the conscience of the contemporaries and is described in the historical works of a long line of writers. It was the climax of the power of the demoi, who almost threw from the throne one of the most powerful emperors in the history of Byzantium.

After the Nika Riot, the factions of the Venetoi and the Greens were marginalized for a period of time; however, already during the second half of the reign of Justinian I they reappeared. During the last decades of the 6th and the fist decades of the 7th century the demoi raised again. The conflicts of the demoi were accentuated especially during the period of the tyrannical authority of emperor Phocas (602-610), when the Empire was in a state of a latent civil war and very often harsh encounters took place between the opposite parties. At the begging the emperor was supported by the Greens, but when he started persecuting the Monophysites, Phocas clashed with them, and the Venetoi started supporting him. At the crucial moment, at the beginnings of October 610, when the fleet of the exarch of Carthage Herakleios appeared on the straits of Bosporos aiming to overthrow the tyrant of Constantinople, the adherents of the Greens put down the chain of the Golden Horn and let the ships sail into the golf.

4. The demoi after the 7th century

During later periods the Greens and the Venetoi, along with the Senate, played a significant role when the throne was left vacant and the previous emperor had not in any way appointed his successor. The truth is that this did not happen so often. The demoi played as well an important role during the turbulent period from 695 until 717, namely a period of twenty two years during which seven changes took place on the Byzantine throne. Thus, for example, the faction of the Venetoi after the overthrow of Justinian II (685-695, 705-711) in 695, proclaimed Leontios (695-698) as emperor, former strategos of the new theme of Hellas. On the other side, the Greens helped Tiberios III (Apsimar) (698-705) a lot in order to ascend to the imperial throne.

In older times it was wrongly believed that the activities of the demoi were interrupted in the time of emperor Herakleios (610-641). A passage from the chronographer Theophanes in relation to a crucial moment in 811, when during the encounters with the Bulgarians the emperor Nikephoros I had lost his life and his seriously wounded son Stavrakios, for whom it was certain that he would not survive, had to choose the successor, confirms the role of the demoi until the beginnings of the 9th century. However, the demoi had more and more acquired a “decorative” character, by simply participating in the grandiose ceremonies of the palace, something that we can trace as late as the 12th century.