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Medieval Sourcebook:
Procopius: JUSTINIAN SUPPRESSES THE NIKA REVOLT, 532
[From History of the Wars, I]
At this time [January 1, 532] an insurrection broke out unexpectedly
in Byzantium among the populace, and, contrary to expectation,
it proved to be a very serious affair, and ended in great harm
to the people and to the senate, as the following account will
show.
In every city the population has been divided for a long time
past into the Blue and the Green factions; but within comparatively
recent times it has come about that, for the sake of these names
and the seats which the rival factions occupy in watching the
games, they spend their money and abandon their bodies to the
most cruel tortures, and even do not think it unworthy to die
a most shameful death. And they fight against their opponents
knowing not for what end they imperil themselves, but knowing
well that, even if they overcome their enemy the fight, the conclusion
of the matter for them will be to be carried off straight away
to the prison, and finally, after suffering extreme torture, to
be destroyed. So there grows up in them against their fellow men
a hostility which has no cause, and at no time does it cease or
disappear, for it gives place neither to the ties of marriage
nor of relationship nor of friendship, and the case is the same
even though those who differ with respect to these colours be
brothers or any other kin. . . . I, for my part, am unable to
call this anything except a disease of the soul. . . .
At this time the officers of the city administration in Byzantium
were leading away to death some of the rioters. But the members
of the two factions conspiring together and declaring a truce
with each other, seized the prisoners and then straightway entered
the prison and released all those who were in confinement there.
. . . Fire was applied to the city as if it had fallen under the
hand of an enemy. . . . The emperor and his consort , with a few
members of the senate shut themselves up in the palace and remained
quietly there. Now the watch-word which the populace passed to
one another was Nika [i.e., "Conquer"]. . . .
….On the fifth day of the insurrection in the late afternoon
the Emperor Justinian gave orders to Hypatius and Pompeius, nephews
of the late emperor, Anastasius, to go home as quickly as possible,
either because he suspected that some plot was being matured by
them against his own person, or, it may be, because destiny brought
them to this. But they feared that the people would force them
to the throne (as in fact fell out), and they said that they would
be doing wrong if they should abandon their sovereign when he
found himself in such danger. When the Emperor Justinian heard
this, he inclined still more to his suspicion, and he bade them
quit the palace instantly. . . .
On the following day at sunrise it became known to the people
that both men bad quit the palace where they had been staying.
So the whole population ran to them, and they declared Hypatius
emperor and prepared to lead him to the market place to assume
the power. But the wife of Hypatius, Mary, a discreet woman, who
had the greatest reputation for prudence, laid hold of her husband
and would not let go, but cried out with loud lamentation and
with entreaties to all her kinsmen that the people were leading
him on the road to death. But since the throng overpowered her,
she unwillingly released her husband, and he by no will of his
own came to the Forum of Constantine, where they summoned him
to the throne; . . .
The emperor and his court were deliberating as to whether it would
be better for them if they remained or if they took to flight
in the ships. And many opinions were expressed favouring either
course. And the Empress Theodora also spoke to the following effect:
"My opinion then is that the present time, above all others,
is inopportune for flight, even though it bring safety. . . .
For one who has been an emperor it is unendurable to be a fugitive.
May I never be separated from this purple, and may I not live
that day on which those who meet me shall not address me as mistress.
If, now, it is your wish to save yourself, O Emperor, there is
no difficulty. For we have much money, and there is the sea, here
the boats. However consider whether it will not come about after
you have been saved that you would gladly exchange that safety
for death. For as for myself, I approve a certain ancient saying
that royalty is a good burial-shroud." When the queen had
spoken thus, all were filled with boldness, and, turning their
thoughts towards resistance, they began to consider how they might
be able to defend themselves if any hostile force should come
against them. . . .All the hopes of the emperor were centred upon
Belisarius and Mundus, of whom the former, Belisarius, had recently
returned from the Persian war bringing with him a following which
was both powerful and imposing, and in particular he had a great
number of spearmen and guards who bad received their training
in battles and the perils of warfare. . . .
When Hypatius reached the hippodrome, he went up immediately to
where the emperor is accustomed to take his place and seated himself
on the royal throne from which the emperor was always accustomed
to view the equestrian and athletic contests. And from the palace
Mundus went out through the gate which, from the circling descent,
has been given the name of the Snail. . . . Belisarius, with difficulty
and not without danger and great exertion, made his way over ground
covered by ruins and half-burned buildings, and ascended to the
stadium. . . . Concluding that he must go against the populace
who had taken their stand in the hippodrome-a vast multitude crowding
each other in great disorder-he drew his sword from its sheatb
and, commanding the others to do likewise, with a shout be advanced
upon them at a run. But the populace, who were standing in a mass
and not in order, at the sight of armoured soldiers who had a
great reputatation for bravery and experience in war, and seeing
that they struck out with their swords unsparingly, beat a hasty
retreat. . . . [Mundus] straightway made a sally into the hippodrome
through the entrance which they call the Gate of Death. Then indeed
from both sides the partisans of Hypatius were assailed with might
and main and destroyed. . . . There perished among the populace
on that day more than thirty thousand. . . . The soldiers killed
both [Hypatius and Pompeius] on the following day and threw bodies
into the sea. . . . This was the end of the insurrection in Byzantium.
from Procopius, History of the Wars, I, xxiv, translated by H.B. Dewing (New York:
Macmillan, 1914), pp. 219-230, slightly abbridged and reprinted in Leon Barnard and Theodore B. Hodges, Readings in European History, (New York: Macmillan, 1958), 52-55
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
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(c)Paul Halsall April 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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