Blue vs. Green

Those Byzantines. Soccer hadn't caught on yet, but chariot racing was big. Really big in Constantinople in the year 532 when the Blues yet again played the Greens. A year earlier a select group of Blue and Green fans were sentenced to be hanged for rioting or killing or whatever, only come the date, one of each side broke the ropes and took refuge in a church. A standoff ensued. Justinian, the emperor, a Blue Man himself, did what great leaders always do when faced with a crisis; he called for a sporting event.

The chariot racing crowd became a mob, Blues and Greens together demanding mercy for the condemned men. Never build your Hippodrome next door to your palace. The race turned into a siege and a pretty decent torching of the city that went on for the better part of a week. Senators arranged for a new emperor, what color I do not know. Justinian called in his big guns - or swords - under the command of Belisarius.


Take heed, soccer fans. Belisarius herded the rabble into the Hippodrome and mowed down as many as he could. About 30,000 died, or nearly half a Super Bowl. History forgets what became of the condemned Blue and Green. The emperor, however, remained in power and subsequent chariot races were tamer affairs.