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Early medieval Europe (500–1000)Society and economy

Nika riots

The rival circus factions of Constantinople, the Blues and the Greens, united against Justinian under the cry “Nika!” (“Conquer!”), proclaimed a new emperor and burned nearly half the city; the revolt ended in a massacre of the crowd in the Hippodrome.

Date
13–18 January 532exact date · duration: 5 daysDate in the Julian calendar
Place
Hippodrome of Constantinopletoday: Sultanahmet Square, Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
Participants
Justinian I, Theodora, Belisarius, Narses, Byzantine Empire
Threads
Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
Also known as
Nika revolt; Nika riot; Восстание Ника; Blues and Greens; Венеты и прасины; Hypatius

The Blues and the Greens, the associations of chariot-racing supporters, had grown into powerful organized factions. On 10 January 532 two condemned rioters, a Blue and a Green, survived their execution when the scaffold broke, and monks took them to a church. Justinian commuted their sentences to imprisonment, but when he ignored the factions’ demands for a full pardon at the races on 13 January, the Blues and the Greens joined forces under the cry “Nika!” and attacked the palace; in a week of rioting fires destroyed much of the city, including the old cathedral of Hagia Sophia. The crowd demanded the dismissal of the praetorian prefect John the Cappadocian and the quaestor Tribonian; Justinian gave way, but the riot went on, and the rebels proclaimed as emperor Hypatius, a nephew of the former emperor Anastasius I.

According to Procopius, Justinian was considering flight when Theodora dissuaded him: those who had worn the crown, she said, should not survive its loss, and royalty was a good burial shroud — a speech that probably renders the debate in the palace rather than her exact words. The eunuch Narses distributed gold to turn the leaders of the Blues against the rebels, and on 18 January troops under Belisarius and Mundus burst into the Hippodrome and massacred the crowd gathered there. Procopius speaks of more than 30,000 dead, the Chronicon Paschale of 35,000; many probably died in the crush. Hypatius and his brother Pompeius were executed the next day.

The Nika riots are often regarded as the most violent in the history of Constantinople. Justinian exiled the senators who had supported the revolt and confiscated their property, and on 23 February he began building the new Hagia Sophia.

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Connections

Consequences

  • Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe old cathedral burned in the riots; the new Hagia Sophia was begun on 23 February 532

Part of

Related events

  • Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe rebels demanded the dismissal of Tribonian, the leading figure of Justinian’s legal commissions

Same participants

Same place

Adjacent events in the thread

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within a year of this event

Western and Central Europe

Eastern Europe

Middle East and Egypt

Africa

Central and Northern Asia

South Asia

East Asia

Southeast Asia and Oceania

North America

Latin America

The same period

6th century

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Nika riots
  2. Wikipedia (Russian): Ника (восстание)
  3. Grout J. The Nika Riot // Encyclopaedia Romana
  4. Greatrex G. The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal // The Journal of Hellenic Studies. — 1997. — Vol. 117. — P. 60–86.
  5. Прокопий Кесарийский. Война с персами. Война с вандалами. Тайная история / пер. А. А. Чекаловой. — М.: Наука, 1993.
  6. Wikidata: Q162665