the Department. . controlled by the city prefect
‘The principal departments [of the city prefect] were. . the care of [inter alia]. . the aqueducts [and] the common sewers. .’ (Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 17.) This passage refers to Rome, but Gibbon goes on to say, ‘a similar magistrate was created in that rising metropolis [Constantinople], for the same uses and with the same powers.’
Chapter 3
the capital’s prestigious Eleventh Region
This was one of the city’s most desirable districts: relatively open, elegant, containing the largest proportion of free-standing houses (domus) of all the regions, patronised by the aristocracy, and containing the fashionable church of the Holy Apostles — a bit like Edinburgh’s Morningside or Grange! The best regions were I and II around the Imperial Palace. Regions IV to VIII were the least salubrious, being the areas where labourers, artisans, and the unemployed lived — along the Mese, and around the fora and the harbours.
an overrated pastime
There is a considerable amount of evidence suggesting that some men of power or genius (intellectual, artistic, scientific, military, etc.) have shown little interest in sex — perhaps because their overriding drive/passion/obsession displaced or sublimated it. Examples are: Thomas Carlyle, Ruskin (who may have died a virgin), Isaac Newton, Erasmus, Michaelangelo. Henry VIII, despite his famously priapic reputation and his ill-starred passion for Anne Boleyn, would appear to have been less interested in sex per se than as a means of securing dynastic progeny; the same observation probably also applies to Napoleon. Hitler, despite lurid speculation of the ‘tabloid headline’ variety would appear to have been uninterested in sex, except perhaps on a semi-abstract, idealized plane.
Justinian comes over to me as very much a man of the above type — an intellectual and obsessive workaholic, to whom (as I’ve hinted in the story) sex would have been a time-wasting distraction, and may even have been physically distasteful. Which may seem a ludicrous conclusion in view of his marriage to the (allegedly) promiscuous and oversexed Theodora. That they genuinely loved one another seems certain; however, as I’ve suggested in later chapters, their love may have been more to do with a ‘meeting of minds’, than anything based on physical passion.
indicating their support for ‘the Blues’
Dominating popular entertainment in Constantinople was the sport of chariot-racing, held in the Hippodrome. Supporters of the two rival teams — known as ‘the Blues’ and ‘the Greens’ (from the colours worn by the opposing racing drivers) — extended their mutual rivalry far beyond the realm of sport. (Shades of Celtic v. Rangers fans in West Central Scotland!) In a pre-democratic age, these factions could be the voice of the people, and woe betide the emperor who failed to take notice of their complaints or demands, as voiced in the Hippodrome; Justinian very nearly lost his throne in the Circus faction Nika Riots of 532. The Blues tended to represent wealthy businessmen and landowners, while the Greens drew support from traders and artisans, many of Syrian origin. The Blues’ ‘Establishment’ credentials were further strengthened when they were backed by Justinian, whose patronage enabled them to terrorise the streets of the capital with impunity. Known as ‘Partisans’, their leaders, dressed in Hunnish fashion, were engaged in perpetual gang warfare with their rivals, the Greens: a situation with striking parallels to the urban gang culture in many cities today.
our ‘little father’ has been taken from us
The soubriquet has nothing to do with Anastasius’ stature, but was a popular endearment conferred on many Eastern emperors from Marcian on, whose generally benign regimes helped to create an image of the emperor as the loving Protector of his people. (In contrast to the policy of appeasement towards Attila of the feeble Theodosius II, his successor Marcian’s resolute stand against the Hun leader gave him popular hero status.)
Blinding or death
To forestall any possibility of his becoming a future focus for disaffection, a defeated rival for the purple was invariably either executed or — as a ‘humane’ alternative — mutilated by blinding or amputation of the nose. Disfigurement constituted an automatic bar to becoming emperor.
the most powerful post in the Empire
The powers of the Master of Offices were very great. He was in effect the head of the Empire’s central administration. In modern terms, his position would combine the roles of most senior cabinet ministers, excluding that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
a damaging schism
At the Council of Chalcedon, near Constantinople, in 451, the belief, put forward by Pope Leo, that Christ had two natures — both human and divine — was established as orthodoxy for the Church in the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. Chalcedonism was violently opposed by the Monophysites (mainly in Syria and Egypt) who believed that Christ had only one, divine, nature. As the Monophysites were now officially heretical, the effect of Chalcedon was to create religious strains within the Empire, which could threaten to degenerate into schism unless handled with tact and diplomacy. Thus, in Egypt (the source of the Eastern Empire’s vital grain supply), a blind eye had perforce to be turned to Monophysitism. After the fall of the Western Empire in 476, relations between Italy (ultra-Chalcedonian, although her German rulers were Arian) and the Eastern Empire cooled (in what became known as the Acacian Schism), because of the pro-Monophysite sympathies of Emperors Zeno and Anastasius. However, the accession of the strongly Chalcedonian Justin ended the schism, and this paved the way for Italy to become reintegrated into the Empire under Justinian.
Chapter 4
stage menials rushed around the orchestra
In the Ancient Greek theatre, the stage (a long narrow platform upon which the actors performed) was fronted at a lower level by a semi-circular space called the orchestra, in which the chorus sang and danced. The Romans (often using the same theatres that the Greeks had constructed) reversed the functions of stage and orchestra.
Eratosthenes. . who had measured the earth’s circumference
By observing the difference between the angles of the sun at two places a measured distance apart (north-south), Eratosthenes was able to calculate the angle subtended by that distance. The number of times the angle would divide into 360 degrees multiplied by the distance, gave him the answer — which was amazingly close to our own measurement of 24,000 miles. Pure geometry, pure genius!
you can’t just send me away
Beyond the fact that he was appointed governor of the Pentapolis, and that Theodora accompanied him there as his mistress, we know nothing about Hecebolus or why he should have turned her out of his house, piling insults on her as he did so (thus causing me to resort to invention). Procopius, of course, exploits poor Theodora’s predicament with prurient relish. In the Secret History he writes, ‘she was at a loss for the necessities of life, which she proceeded to provide in her usual way, putting her body to work at its unlawful traffic.’
Chapter 5
The terminus of the cursus publicus