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 568 APPENDIX the Imperial Court as described by Constantine Porphyrogennetos (in the De Cerimoniis) points to a completely different conclusion. These considerations led Th. Uspenski to the right view of the demes as organized divisions of the population. He worked out this view in a paper in the Vizant. Vremennik (Partii Tsirka i dimy v Konstantinopolie), vol. i. p. 1-16. The data of Constantine's Book of Ceremonies show that the demes were divided into civil and military parts, which were called respectively Political and Peratic. The Political divisions were under demarchs ; while the Peratic were subject to democrats. The demarchs were Imperial officials, and had their place in the administrative hierarchy. The democrat of the Blues was the Domestic of the Scholae ; the democrat of the Greens was the Domestic of the Excubiti ; and this ciroumstanoe proves the original military significance of the Peratios. That the demes had an organization for military purposes comes out repeatedly in the history of the sixth century. For example, the Emperor Maurice on one occasion " ordered the demes {robs Stj/xovs) to guard the Long Walls ".* The Emperor Justinian, when the inhabitants of the country near Constantinople fled into the city before the invasion of Zabergan, is said to have " enrolled many in the demes," 2 and sent them to the Long Wall. It is highly probable that the dissatisfaction of the people of Constantinople with the Emperor Maurice (against whom both Blues and Greens combined, although they were divided on the question of his successor) was due to his imposing upon them increased military duties. The political significance of the demes is unmistakable in such a passage as TheophaneB' notice of the accession of Justin (p. 165, ed. de Boor) : 6 8e a-rparbs Kal oi StJ/Uoi oi>x e'f'A.ai'TO ®e6KpiTOV f}a<riev(rai, aU' 'lovcrrlvov aveicr]pv£a,v. Here there can be no question of mere Hippodrome-factions. The true importance of the Demes has been recognized by H. Gelzer, who suggests a comparison with the Macedonian Ecclesia of Alexandria under the elder Ptolemies. 3 The Deme organiza- tion represents a sm*vival of the old Greek polis. But the problem how the Demes came to be connected with the colours of the circus has still to be solved. We have no clue when or why the Beds and Whites, which were important in Old Borne, came to be lost in the Blues and Greens. In the sixth century the outbreaks of the demes represent a last struggle for municipal independence, on which it is the policy of imperial absolutism to encroach. The power of the demarchs has to give way to the control of the Prsefects of the City. " We are ignorant when the Peratics were organized separately and placed under the control of the Domestics of the Guards. Uspenski guesses that this change may have been contemporaneous with the first organization of the Theme- system (p. 16). [Literature : Wilcken, Ueber die Partheyen der Kennbahn, in the Abh. of the Berlin Acad., 1827 ; Kambaud, De Byzantino hippodromo et circensibus factionibus, 1870 ; cp. Friedlander, Sittengeschichte, vol. 2. Uspenski, op. cit.] 12. THE NIKA EIOT— (P. 237 sqq.) Gibbon does not distinguish the days on which the various events of the Nika riot took place, and he has fallen into some errors. Thus, like most other histor- ians, he places the celebrated dialogue between Justinian and the Greens on the Ides of January, whereas it took place two days before. The extrication of the order of events from our various sources is attended with some difficulty. The following diary is based on a study of the subject contributed by me to the Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1897. Sunday, Jan. 11 ("Aura 5io Kaair65ioi>). The Greens complain in the Hippo- drome to the Emperor of the conduct of Calapodius. Dialogue of Jus- tinian with the Greens (described by Theophane6). The Greens leave the Hippodrome. In the evening a number of criminals, both Blues and Greens, are exe- 1 Theopbanes, p. 254, ed. de Boor. 2 iS-qfj.6rev(re iroAAovs. I feel no doubt that this explanation of Uspenski (p. 14) is correct. 3 In Krumbacher's Gesch. der byz. Litteratur, ed. 2, p. 930.