whatilearned
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots
TIL in 532 AD 30,000 rioters were killed and half of Constantinople was destroyed in the Nika Riots, over a conflict with chariot racing.
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The riots began during chariot races but the cause of the riots was political in nature and happened due to unpopular policy enacted by Justinian and his appointees, it was not due to the result of the races or anything of the sort.
Still a very interesting read, there are also several good videos on YouTube that cover the events leading up to and during the riots if you look it up
So it happened on a Monday night?
I mean Football (fútbol) matches are one badly trained police force away from riots in a lot of countries. Between executed players that made a mistake to refs being killed on the pitch, it’s the god damn wild west.
[Extra Credits](https://youtu.be/eGL_M1SQV5E) covered this amazingly! Love there simple but apt animation; gotta be impressed with the woman power of the episode
Lots of social unrest that year, then you had the wars in Africa and Italy, and in 536 the plague…bad times for any Empire.
Well, chariot racing is serious business…
Don’t fool yourselves. The reasons were political
If ‘perfect’ John and that Cappadocian quaestor bozo Tribonian had just popped fake-emperor Hypatius (“An’s your uncle”) it would’ve gone better. But they din’t.