Demes in the Byzantine Empire

So that is, I don't know, off the top of my head, about 680 years in the future.

Meanwhile, we have in Constantinople the Blues and Greens.

Now, what's interesting, remember I said earlier with Gaius about how he's racing for those teams? We are 400 years later, give or take.

and yet we still got the idea of the blues, greens, etc.

It's a little bit like football in Scotland.

Just by asking people, which football team do you support in Scotland, will reveal your religion and your politics, and it gets very divisive.

However, Anything you've ever heard about football hooliganism, about poorly behaved fans, is about to pale into comparison because there was a fierce sporting competitiveness between the Blues and Greens.

And they ended up uniting with each other against the other groups.

The whole system, the chariot races between the teams that represented the factions of the circus, was reproduced at Byzantium with an energy that even surpassed the devotion of the Romans to horse racing.

From the first foundation of the city the rivalry of the Blues and the Greens was one of the most striking features of the life of the place.

It was carried far beyond the circus and spread into all branches of life.

We often hear of the Green faction identifying itself with Arianism, or of the Blue supporting a pretender to the throne.

The system was a positive danger to the public peace and constantly led to riots culminating in the great sedition of A.D. 523, which we shall presently have to describe at length.

In the Hippodrome the Greens always entered by the northeastern gate and sat on the east side.

The Blues approached by the northwestern gate and stretched along the western side.

The emperor's box, called the Kathisma, occupied the whole of the short northern side and contained many hundreds of seats for the imperial retinue.