ROCKY ROAD - 1 A. D.

 

I would say the odds were that young “Rocky” Sabbatius was destined to die unknown, within 50 miles of  the village of Tauresium, in what is today Macedonia. He was a very smart lad, and handsome. A bit small by all accounts. But  his biggest failing was that Rocky was not overly ambitious, and the world still answered to bloodlines and ambition. But Rocky was to blessed by two strokes of luck in his life.  The first was that he had an uncle who was very ambitious.

That uncle, Flavis Iustinus,  arrived in Constantinople sometime around 470 A.D. barefoot and hungry, an ignorant adolescent.  He joined the army because soldiers were fed, and he rose in the ranks because war favors competency over blood lines. Iustinus was eventually made commander of the palace guards. That made him wealthy, by normal standards, which enabled him to bring his sister’s boy to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and adopt him under the name of Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus - Rocky. It turned out this may have been the smartest thing Iustinus ever did, because when the emperor, Anastasius I, died in 519 A.D, the precocious lad advised Iustinus to take on the purple himself. And he did, becoming the Emperor Justin I.

Now, palace politics being what they are, being the adopted son of the emperor made Rocky as likely to be poisoned as he was to be the next emperor. But this was when Rocky had his second stroke of luck.

One night at the theatre he met a lovely comedian, talented, gorgeous, and just about his size. Her name was Theo, and Rocky was smart enough to recognize that she was as smart as he was, and twice as ambitious.

Her father had been an animal keeper for the Greens. These were one of what were the strongest most influential social groups in the Eastern Roman Empire, sports fans. Now, since politics in a dictatorship is dangerous for everybody except the Emperor,  all politics in Constantinople had become the choice of supporting either the Venti – the Blue - or the Pasini – the Green, in the chariot races.

Each of these “clubs”, supported chariot races held in Constantinople’s Hippodrome, and were a sort of NASCAR, roller derby, ice hockey and Russian roulette all rolled into one, and with soccer hooligans thrown in for spice.

The drivers dressed in their club colors: leather helmets, knee and shin pads, and a leather corset. They were all young, and one of the most famous lived to the ripe old age of 27, before he died in a crackup. The horses had far shorter life spans.

Each of the 24 races held each day during the season (which lasted only 66 days) pitted up to six Greens and Blues against each other for five crash filled laps. The Christian emperors found this crash ‘em, smash ‘em preferable to old gladiatorial games because they were slightly less gory, and less easy to fix.

Everybody in town wore their team colors, usually a stripe along the legging or the hem of a dress or tunic. This started out as friendly rivalry, but the partisanship turned increasingly bitter until the fights between Venti and Pasini in the stands required that each group be confined to their own sections.  Screaming at the opposing side, and even at the Emperor in the Hippodrome became the only chance the common folk had to make their voices heard.

After the season the clubs morphed into gangs of Greens and Blues roaming the streets after dark, mugging and killing each other and any random civilians who wandered into their path.  The politicians got involved, paying the thugs to intimidate their political opponents.

The Greens were the largest and strongest club, and when Theo’s father died, her mother begged the Greens for a job or at lest a pension to support herself and her three daughters. The Greens turned her down. And that was why Theo had been forced to work as an actress.

Rocky was smart enough to want to marry Theo, but he was prohibited by the law from marrying any woman below his social station. As an actress, Theo was a half step above being a prostitute, a recognized profession but you wouldn’t want your son to marry one. So, Rocky pushed his uncle to change the law. In 525 A.D. the happy couple became a happy couple, legally. This infuriated the nobility politicians, who spread false rumors about Theo’s shameless behavior, and noted that the Greens had tossed her out. 

Over night Rocky and Theo became rabid fans of the Blues. This may have been a mistake, except on 1 August, 527 A.D., Rocky’s uncle died, and the shy kid from a backwater of the Empire, and an actress from nowhere, became joint rulers of a big chunk of the known world, the Emperor Justinian and the Empress Theodora..

Rocky had big plans to rebuild the empire, but to do that he would need to increase taxes, and that again offended the nobility, who were the only ones who paid taxes. Things came to a head on Saturday, 19 January, 532 A.D., when seven gang members, both Blues and Greens, were hanged for the murder of a minor city official. What brought things to a head was that only five of them died. Somehow two escaped, one Green and one Blue. The pair took sanctuary in a monastery, which was quickly surrounded by soldiers, waiting to arrest them when they came out. Of course there was always the chance the entire thing was a set up, a little public play staged by the nobility to manipulate the masses. What we know for a fact is that the masses of people wanted those two men, one Green and one Blue, pardoned and freed.

All day long, on Tuesday, 13 January,  the crowd at the Hippodrome glowered at Rocky, sitting up in the royal box. As the 22nd race of the day was run, the Blues and Greens began to chant in ominous unison, “Win! Win! Win!” ("Nika", in Latin). Rocky thought it was a good idea to remove himself as an irritant and sneaked back into the palace, which was adjacent to the stadium.

As soon as that happened the crowds exploded out of the stands and filled the nearby streets, in a full riot, burning, looting and killing. It became known as the Nika Riot.

Almost half the city went up in flames. With nightfall, the gangs occupied the Hippodrome, which allowed them to keep an eye on the palace.

As if it had been planned in advance - and it probably was -  bright and early Wednesday morning, Senators appeared at the palace to offer their advice. It seemed to them, said the politicians, that what would calm the crowds would be to pardon the two surviving thugs. Rocky agreed. Well, suggested the politicians, how about also dismissing the tax collector?  Rocky agreed, again. And that was clearly a mistake. 

The Senators now decided they were in control, and on Thursday the mob from the Hippodrome marched through the streets to the home of Flavius Hypatius, who had been a nephew of the long dead ex-Emperor Anastasius. They dragged the old man out of his house and named him the new Emperor. 

In the palace, Rocky was contemplating a safe retreat by boat, urged on by most of his advisers. And then Theo stood to up. She may not have been much over five feet tall, but it was instantly clear she was the tallest person in that room.

Legend gives several versions of what Theo said, but in essence they all boil down to this, “Purple makes a fine burial shroud.” I guess you had to be there. But however she said it, Rocky and his advisers were embolden. Being powerful is a risky existence. And sometimes staying in power requires that you run a little more risk. Rocky and Theo decided to stay and fight it out with the nobility, and to fight smart.

On Friday morning, a royal advisor (a eunuch named Narses), slipped into the Hippodrome. Quietly he met with the leaders of the Blues, not their political masters, the nobility, but the gang leaders on the spot. He displayed his badge of office, a ring with the royal seal. Then he reminded the Blue leaders that the Emperor had long supported them over the Greens. He reminded them that their “new” emperor, Hypatius, was a Green. And then he handed out some gold coins, and retreated. Within a few hours, after talking the situation over among themselves, the Blues, en mass, filed out of the Hippodrome. There was no confrontation, and no argument, no announcment. The Greens were stunned.

And while they remained stunned, the Imperial Guards stormed into the Hippodrome from both ends and slaughtered the Greens. All of them.  Every last one of them. 

The soldiers then tracked down the would be and unwilling Emperor Hypatius and hacked him to death as well. 

Those helpful noble Senators who had offered their advice to the Emperor, were arrested, their wealth was seized and they and their families were killed or exiled. And then, of course, the Blue gang leaders were slaughtered as well. In all some 30,000 people were butchered. No one dared to oppose Rocky, ever again.

Rocky became known as “the Emperor who never sleeps.” He was constantly in motion, and seemed to  be everywhere, paying attention to everything. And he trusted Theo so much he officially made her his co-Emperor. He got his higher taxes. He increased pay to the army, and the social safety net.

He rebuilt the city of Constantinople, erecting perhaps the most magnificent building in all of Christendom, the Haggai Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom (above), which still stands to this day, but now as a Mosque. He rebuilt much of the Roman Empire as well, rebuilt it so well that Constantinople stood as the capital of western civilization for another thousand years.

The lady who saved all of this, Theo, had died on 28 June, 548 A.D., not yet 50 years old. She was made and remains a saint in Eastern Orthodox Christianity.  Rocky outlived his Empress by another 17 years, dying on 14 November, 565 A.D. Two people born without money or education or power, but when given a chance at greatness, rose to the challenge. Proving again that a little ambition, at  the right moment, can be a very good thing. 

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