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justinian’s early years (527,32) 71
present with him; 50 the latter’s account shows little interest in the attempts
of Justin I and Justinian to strengthen Byzantine military and diplomatic
interests in the east. 51 The terms of the ‘eternal’ peace concluded in the
autumn of 532 and pushed through by Kavadh’s son and successor,
Khusro I, nullified whatever had been gained by the Romans while at the
same time imposing on them a payment of 11,000 pounds of gold; it was
under this treaty that the Athenian philosophers were granted safe
return. 52
In January of the same year Justinian had faced the most serious crisis
of his reign, in the so-called Nika (‘Victory’) revolt, so named after the rallying-cry
of the rioters. 53 The trouble began at the chariot races in the
Hippodrome on 13 January, and its immediate cause was the mishandling
by the city prefect of the execution of Blue and Green malefactors. During
13 and 14 January the praetorium of the city prefect, the seating in the
Hippodrome and parts of the portico as far as the baths of Zeuxippos
were destroyed by fire. The damage soon extended to the Chalke entrance
to the imperial palace, the portico of the scholae, the senate house and
Augustaion, and the church of St Sophia, and thus to the ceremonial heart
of Constantinople. According to Procopius, Justinian would have turned
to flight and was only restrained by the proud and defiant words of
Theodora: ‘Empire is a fair winding sheet.’ 54 The Blue and Green factions
chanted slogans and demanded the removal of Justinian’s ministers, including
the praetorian prefect John the Cappadocian, Tribonian the quaestor and
the city prefect Eudaimon. But the rioting continued after the emperor had
complied with these demands and went on for some days even after
Belisarius had been sent into the Hippodrome to put it down with force;
more of the city was destroyed in the ensuing violence between rioters and
soldiers. Justinian himself appeared to the people in the Hippodrome on
Sunday, 18 January; some rioters were won over by bribery, but others were
inflamed into an attempt to crown the patrician Hypatius in his stead. At
last Justinian was able to stage a counter-coup with his loyal supporters,
including Belisarius and the eunuch Narses the cubicularius and spatharius, 55
50 Stein, Bas-Empire ii.283–93; Lazica; Malal. 427.1–13; on the Persian war the narrative of Malalas,
perhaps based on reports of the magister Hermogenes, provides a corrective to the narrative in
Procopius, Wars. 51 See Shahîd (1995) i.1, 139–143. 52 Stein, Bas-Empire ii.294–95.
53 Differing accounts are given in the sources: Procop. Wars ii.24, with SH 12.12 and Buildings i.20f.,
attributes the riots to political factors, especially dislike of Justinian’s ministers and his attacks on the
senate, or to the excitability of the factions or ‘the rabble’; Marcell. Chron. s.a. 532 blames an attempt
on the throne by the nephews of Anastasius; further accounts in Malal. 473–7; Chron. Pasch. 620–9,
based on Malalas, with lacuna at the start of the account (detailed discussion in Whitby and Whitby
(1989) 112–27; see also Croke (1995) 125–6); Theophanes, Chron. pp.181–3 de Boor, also based on
Malalas, but less reliably. See Bury (1897); Stein, Bas-Empire ii.449–56; Cameron, Alan (1976) 278–80;
PLRE iii, s.v. Calapodius 1; Greatrex (1994).
54 Wars i.24.33–7; see Cameron, Procopius 69, pointing out the literary tone of the speech.
55 PLRE iii, s.v. Narses 1.
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