‘The real problem is that whatever the court officials do that is taken badly, I get the blame.’
Flavius was tempted to reply ‘poor you’, instead he pointed out the obvious. ‘You do have the power to remove those who thwart your will.’
‘Flavius, they are not the problem, it is those carrying out my express wishes that do that. John the Cappadocian removes a whole raft of people drawing stipends for doing nothing, but when they combine it is me they curse.’
‘I have heard he is doing well.’
If Flavius was seeking to say he was corrupt it was not very well hidden, not that he intended it to be, but the reply from the Emperor answered several questions.
‘Theodora has great faith in him.’
‘Ah.’
‘I can afford to buy off Kavadh only because John has seen to my coffers. If he looks to his own needs in the process then he is no different to anyone else I would employ in that task. The notion that any of my officials refuse to take bribes is one only the likes of you could hold.’
‘Since you do not compliment me often, Highness, I will accept that one with gratitude.’
Justinian grinned like a naughty child, before a quick glance at the now closed door of the private chambers. ‘We are alone, Flavius, you may call me by my name.’
That had the recipient look at the same door and pulling a face, the inference being plain: in this place they were never alone. Justinian began referring to the unrest, of which Flavius had received an inkling prior to his entry into Constantinople, the imperial view that it was not as bad as was being reported by the urban prefect.
‘There are always grumbles in the city and that crescendos if you deprive lazy bureaucrats of their places. Besides, what one of my predecessors did not have the odd upheaval to contend with?’
‘So it can be contained?’
‘The city regiments are available to put a cap on any trouble.’
The entrance of Theodora stopped the conversation. A quick look established that she seemed more comfortable in her imperial status — there was an aura about her now as there was in her husband — but whereas Justinian had let that soften, there was no reduction in her manner for the sake of old acquaintance. She produced a smile, there was a greeting, but neither could be said to convey any warmth. Flavius then found himself on the receiving end of a series of rapid-fire questions that bordered on an interrogation, she demanding an explanation for the defeat at Callinicum, brushing aside the proposition that Flavius had said all that had to be imparted in his despatch.
‘They are never enough,’ she insisted as her husband nodded. ‘The written word cannot fully describe what …’ There was a pause then, before she added, ‘The truth.’
‘The truth is I failed, Highness.’
That being brushed aside, Flavius looked to Justinian to keep his wife in check, only to be reminded that it was not something he either wished to do or perhaps was capable of, which left his favourite general exposed to an uncomfortable period of explanation, one in which he refused to allot the blame for the defeat to any other cause than his own incompetence.
‘Such nobility,’ was the parting shot as Theodora reminded Justinian, just before she left the chamber, that there were other matters requiring his attention, things more important.
‘We shall talk again,’ the Emperor imparted quietly, adding the kind of smile that conveys a lack of liberty to do as you wish. ‘And do not mind Theodora, she fears only for my well-being and that of the empire.’
‘The good Lord help you if you do not do as you are told.’
That being said to an empty room had no consequences and he left the palace to lead his men to Galatea and see them safe to their barracks under the command of Solomon.
Over the next week, Flavius, who had returned to the city, sensed the growing unrest for, divested of his military garb, he was at liberty to walk the streets and overhear what was being said, to sense the febrile nature of the feelings of both factions, the Blues and the Greens. It was a mystery to him how rival chariot racing teams could morph over time into what they were now: political forces and sworn enemies.
From time to time he came across Procopius — their coincidental meeting seemed frequent — who had the same understanding of what was happening as he: Justinian was stoking passions as he sought to introduce edicts curbing the disturbances: limiting numbers permitted to gather outside the Hippodrome, higher fines for misbehaviour and a curb on too overt a display of allegiance. Such efforts to calm things turned out to have the absolute opposite effect and matters came to a head in the one place where the two polities gathered to vocally cheer on their charioteers.
The Hippodrome was packed, the early January weather was clement and the races were in progress when the trouble started. As reported it was small to begin with but it spread like a bushfire until the whole stadium seemed involved and the groups looked close to killing each other. The urban prefect, Eudaimon, asked and was given permission to enter the Hippodrome and not only quell the disorder but to arrest the leaders of both, people well known to the authorities. Seven men in all were taken up and a special court was set up which condemned all of them to death.
Such a show of force did not calm things, quite the reverse. Locked up in the urban prefect’s gaol until the following day, their plight drew a crowd to protest at their impending fate, which continued into the morning as they were taken to the newly constructed scaffold to be hanged. The point at which the ropes began to choke then set off great lamentations, yet still the parties remained separate, one side cheering the drop of an enemy while keening and praying at the fate of one of their own.
Satisfied that the deed had been completed, Eudaimon led his men away, which allowed the mob to cut down the victims, whereupon they found two were still alive. Monks from the monastery of St Lawrence took both survivors to their cloisters which, being sanctified ground, they hoped would keep them safe. Eudaimon, unwilling to make a forced entry, posted guards outside to deny the whole monastery food until the monks surrendered the two miscreants.
This situation continued for months with no sign of the monks complying with the Prefect’s demands, this while the atmosphere within the city walls went from bad to worse: the two surviving leaders, it transpired, consisted of one from each side, a Blue and a Green, and both having similar grievances they decided to combine.
Flavius, observing the mayhem that followed, took cognisance of one glaring fact: the regiments stationed permanently in the city were as factional as the general population. This was a factor which had kept them useful since they would only ever be employed against one or the other and only when called to contain a situation out of control.
Now that the Blues and Greens were acting in concert, what then? The answer came on the next occasion Justinian and Theodora entered the imperial box, to hear the entire assembled crowd in the Hippodrome, a stadium which held thirty thousand spectators, chanting in unison and their anger was aimed at him. The cry on which they combined was ‘Nika’, the Greek word for ‘Victory’, and it was plain the person they saw as the enemy needing to be defeated was Justinian.
Sat close to him Flavius watched as he tried to maintain an expression of unconcern — Theodora looked thunderous. If that worked at a distance it was certainly possible to observe the tenseness of his jaw and the odd furrowing of the brow in close proximity. Seeking to make a joke he made much play of laughing, which inflamed the crowd even more.
These protests should have ceased once the races began and the crowd became distracted; they did not, if anything they increased with shouting spectators flowing onto the competition area to get closer to the imperial podium. With the chariots unable to run the races were abandoned and the crowd, flushed with what they saw as success, poured out into the streets and headed for the palace of the urban prefect, killing the guards and, once they had freed the prisoners there, setting fire to the building.