Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

226 8. administration and politics in the cities
to their faction bears some similarity to that of modern football fans to the
club they support. Football fans are sometimes destructive but hardly ever
political. But the ancient games had a very considerable political
significance, so that the activities of the factions could not avoid having a
significant political aspect. The acclamations which it was the duty of the
Greens and Blues to lead played an important part in two highly political
activities: the making of an emperor and the voicing of popular grievances.
Acclamation led by the factions was an essential stage in the making of a
legitimate emperor; and whenever the succession to the throne was not universally
agreed, their indispensability gave the factions power. Both – or at
least one – had to agree to lead the acclamation for the new ruler. A coronation
would have to be preceded by bargaining with the factions. 142
The second source of the factions’ political power resulted from the
privileged character of demonstrations at the games. Since the time of
Augustus, the games had been treated by the emperors as occasions for
their subjects to publicize grievances. 143 In the later empire this applied not
only to games in the capitals but also to those in provincial cities, and
reports of provincial acclamations were taken down in writing and sent to
the capital, so that the emperor could learn how his subjects felt about his
officials, and reward or punish them accordingly. It is evident that acclamations
were expected to include criticism and complaints as well as praise. In
fact, surviving texts show that there was a fixed order for these demonstrations.
They began with praise of God. This was followed by acclamations
of the high officers of state, perhaps the patriarch or the bishop, then of
the individual who was being honoured on that particular occasion and
then at the end, and interrupted by more shouts of praise, petitions,
requests or grievances. 144 Civic life offered many occasions for acclamations:
the setting up of imperial statues, the arrival or departure of the provincial
governor or some visiting high official, the honouring of a civic
benefactor, but most regularly the shows in the theatre or hippodrome.
While acclamations could be spontaneous, or organized without the help
of one or both factions by some powerful, probably ecclesiastical, pressure
group, the participation of one or both factions with their large choruses
of professional supporters, whether open or covert, would have been an
enormous advantage. Clearly it would have been difficult to get a particular
grievance included in the acclamations without the co-operation of at
least one of the factions.
Given the fact that the factions had a political role, it was inevitable that
they should be manipulated by interested parties. By far the best-documented
cases of manipulation involve emperors. Most emperors publicized
142 Examples; Const. Porph. De Cer. i.92–3 (Justin I); Theophylact viii.9–10 (Phocas).
143 Cameron, Alan, Factions 156–83. 144 Roueché (1984) 186–7.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008