a Blue." Thus Justinian and the Blues were left alone at the performance.[1]
In the evening of the same day Justinian determined on an effort to quell the sedition by making an example of those who had been most insolent to him in the Hippodrome. Seven persons, drawn from both factions, were seized by Eudaemon, the Praefect of the city, and led off to execution. Four were decapitated and the remaining three were hung; but in the case of two of the latter the rope broke, and the culprits fell to the ground. At the sight of this moving accident the bystanders were greatly agitated, and an outcry for pardon arose, whereupon some monks interposed and carried off the men by boat to the monastery of St. Laurence. One of those rescued was a Blue, the other a Green; and the circumstance caused the union between the factions to be more firmly cemented. On hearing of the rescue, Eudaemon placed a guard of soldiers outside the sanctuary, but did not dare to violate it.[2] On the following Tuesday the spectacle was resumed in the Circus, and, during the whole time of the exhibition both factions clamoured conjointly to the Emperor for the release of the prisoners, intermingling cries of "Long years to the wretched Blues and Greens," with their prayers. But Justinian remained sternly irresponsive, and the assembly had to disperse without receiving any indication of Imperial sympathy.[3]
- ↑ This dialogue exists only in Theophanes (an. cit.), but is alluded to in Chron. Paschal.; an. 532. I have only sampled it, as, beyond the animosity shown on each side, there is little pregnancy in it, and the whole would be merely tedious to the ordinary reader. It has often been translated at length, by Isambert, Hodgkin, Bury, Diehl, etc.
- ↑ Malala and Theophanes, loc. cit. According to the latter they were strung up a second time, and again fell.
- ↑ Jn. Malala, p. 474.
