DERBY DAYS/Greens v Blues:As with all derbies, there is a sense of life and death to the outcome, none more so than when the different colours met in 527 AD, writes Damian Cullen

IT’S ALL fun and games until someone loses an eye. Or a city is burned to the ground and tens of thousands of sports fans are dead.

All the talk this week has been about the Reds beating the Blues. But while Manchester United versus Chelsea has been dominating the sporting headlines lately, sporting rivalries are nothing new of course. They’ve been around for at least 1,500 years. And back then, the locals also took big sporting clashes just as seriously.

In the sixth century, chariot racing was the sport of choice and winning and losing was truly a life and death issue. Rioting accompanied sporting events in the Roman Empire in a way that only Detroit has tried to copy in more recent times, which may be appropriate as it’s the home of the industry that took its name from the chariot. However, car racing has only been around for a little over 100 years, chariot racing lasted 4,000 years.

In 527 AD, Justinian succeeded his uncle, Justin, as the Roman Emperor of Byzantium.

At the time, the Roman Empire was under relentless pressure on several fronts – with the Persian Empire a constant threat from the east, the Slavs making inroads in the Balkans and western Europe falling from the grasp of the Roman Empire. And then the trouble started at home – in Constantinople.

The capital of Byzantium (now Istanbul) was famous for its chariot races – and originally boasted four teams. Each was known simply by their colours the Reds (Roúsioi), Greens (Prásinoi), Whites (Leukoí) and Blues (Vénetoi).

By the time Justinian – a keen supporter of the Blues – began his reign, the Reds and Whites had become an embarrassment to their supporters. There were only two teams in the city worth talking about – the Greens and the Blues. Wearing the colours of your team became an important aspect of Byzantine dress, something which proved unwise by the 530s when gangs supporting one side would often attack supporters of the other on the streets of Constantinople.

The Blues sat opposite the imperial box in the Hippodrome – one of the largest of the ancient arenas, with capacity for 100,000 – near the starting gates, with the Greens at the opposite end and the rivalry between the two sides was fierce and uncontrollable.

Injury and even death in the races was almost as frequent as in gladiatorial combat, and the crowd were regularly whipped into a frenzy – leading to clashes between rival supporters. Concerned by the growing level of violence, Justinian turned his forces on the more extreme members of each side.

With the city’s residents enraged by heavy taxes and the imprisoning of Greens and Blues supporters, Justinian need a distraction. In retrospect, however, his decision to hold a chariot race between the two biggest sporting rivals in the city is rather questionable.

Three days before the sporting event – which was fixed for January 13th, 532 – several members of the Greens and Blues were due to be hanged. However, two (one from each faction) survived and found sanctuary in a church. Supporters came to the aid of the men and demanded a pardon from the Emperor.

As the contest in the Hippodrome wore on, the supporters grew more hostile and began to channel their anger towards the Imperial box. By Race 22, the two factions had found a single voice, chanting “Nika, Nika”, which means “Victory, Victory”. It had nothing to do with the ongoing sporting contest.

The Hippodrome of Constantinople was connected to the palace, allowing spectators to view the emperor as they had in Rome, but it also allowed the emperor a quick exit, and taking the chant as a reference to victory for the crowd against the emperor, Justinian decided to leave the arena. It was a timely exit, with the violence now sweeping around the Hippodrome soon spilling on to the streets. Gangs were on the rampage, and the rioting became so serious that Justinian couldn’t leave the palace and Hypatius, a nephew of the former Emperor Anastasius I, decided to seize his chance to declare himself emperor.

The Hippodrome was converted into the centre of operations for the mob, with the leading figures of the Greens and Blues directing the rioting from the safety of the stadium.

Justinian, who was by now considering fleeing the city, launched a last-ditch attempt to hold on to power. The story goes that Justinian sent one of his men into the Hippodrome. Narses went directly to the Blues’ section and reminded them that Justinian was also a supporter of the Blues. Hypatius, he claimed, was a fanatic for the Greens.

The Blues thought about the choice between standing with their traditional sporting rivals and leaving to join their hated Emperor who they were currently fighting because of his no-mercy executions of many of their number. But the Emperor was one of the Blues. To the amazement of the Greens, the Blues stormed out of the Hippodrome.

This was after several days of violence, which had left nearly half the city either burned or destroyed. The army, though, had already begun a large-scale push against the rioters, eventually forcing many to retreat into the Hippodrome.

With the Greens now locked inside the stadium, the army forced their way into the ground and slaughtered every single person inside.

In all 30,000 rioters were killed. Dealing with hooliganism, early Middle Ages style.