During this time North Africa witnessed the extinction of the
Vandal kingdom by the Byzantine General Belisarius. Sicily,
Corsica, and Sardinia all were reconquered by the Byzantines,
either under the General Belisarius or the eunuch chamberlain
Narses. Italy was the home to a long, brutal war between the
Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine forces. Eventually the
Byzantines conquered the Kingdom and for a short while Italy was
again held by their Empire. The Franks established themselves in
modern day France while the Visigoths strengthened their hold on
Spain. In the East there was a continuing war with the Sassanid
Persian Empire. Also the great former Orthodox Church the Hagia
Sophia was built during this time. It would be the largest
Christian church until the late middle ages. Previous to these
conquests however, there as also an event known as the Nika
riots.
In the city of Constantinople, capital of the eastern Roman
Empire, or Byzantine Empire, there were two primary chariot teams,
the Blues and the Greens. By this time in history those two parties
were also political factions that had their own armies and faction
houses throughout the Empire. During one particular race things got
out of hand between some fans and a brawl erupted, resulting in a
number of deaths once the soldiers were called in to restore the
peace. Justinian ordered a number of ring leaders to be executed as
examples. As it so happens, two of the people to be executed
survived and were quickly taken into sanctuary at a nearby church.
One of those men was a high ranking member of the Blues, the other
a high ranking member of the Greens.
Justinian ordered them to be executed, but rioting broke out in
the city, for once the two factions having a common cause. They
demanded that the men be released but Justinian would not allow it.
The next day he wanted to start the games in the Hippodrome, and as
he took his seat in the Imperial Box, the crowd was screaming
"NIKA, NIKA!" the Greek word for win, or victory. Soon more rioting
began as it spilled into the streets buildings began to be burnt
and the mob was running wild. Justinian was almost ready to flee
the city when his wife, the Empress Theodora demanded that he and
his retinue stay.
Justinian luckily had Belisarius in the capital with some
soldiers who were just returning from the Persian front, and
another general, the Gepid Prince Mundus was passing through the
capital with 10,000 Herulian soldiers. Justinian ordered these two
to take separate routs through the ruined city towards the
Hippodrome, were Justinian had told the mob to assemble and he
would step down from the throne.
As Justinian entered the Imperial box, the mob produced
Hypastius, a friend of Justinian and nephew to the former emperor
Anastasius. They demanded that he be made Emperor and as Justinian
distracted the crowd, Narses with the Imperial Guard blocked the
exits and the Imperial troops under Belisarius and Mundus entered
the Hippodrome and attacked the mob. In a matter of minutes over
30,000 Blues and Greens were dead across the Hippodrome and the
Nika riots were over. Hypastius was executed along with some other
serious leaders, and never again was Justinian questioned by his
subjects.
Then there was the plague of Justinian, so named after the great
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I who presided over the above mentioned
conquests. This plague at its height saw thousands die a day and
would eventually spell the end of over 25 million lives throughout
the Empire. Even the Emperor Justinian himself was afflicted with
what was then known as "the demon", although he recovered, he would
for the rest of his long life be sickly.