desire of life should expose you to
wretched exile and ignominious death. For my own part, I adhere to
the maxim of antiquity, that the throne is a glorious sepulchre." The
firmness of a woman restored the courage to deliberate and act, and
courage soon discovers the resources of the most desperate situation.
It was an easy and a decisive measure to revive the animosity of the
factions; the blues were astonished at their own guilt and folly, that
a trifling injury should provoke them to conspire with their implacable
enemies against a gracious and liberal benefactor; they again proclaimed
the majesty of Justinian; and the greens, with their upstart emperor,
were left alone in the hippodrome. The fidelity of the guards was
doubtful; but the military force of Justinian consisted in three
thousand veterans, who had been trained to valor and discipline in the
Persian and Illyrian wars.

Under the command of Belisarius and Mundus, they silently marched in
two divisions from the palace, forced their obscure way through narrow
passages, expiring flames, and falling edifices, and burst open at the
same moment the two opposite gates of the hippodrome. In this narrow
space, the disorderly and affrighted crowd was incapable of resisting on
either side a firm and regular attack; the blues signalized the fury of
their repentance; and it is computed, that above thirty thousand persons
were slain in the merciless and promiscuous carnage of the day. Hypatius
was dragged from his throne, and conducted, with his brother Pompey, to
the feet of the emperor: they implored his clemency; but their crime
was manifest, their innocence uncertain, and Justinian had been too much
terrified to forgive. The next morning the two nephews of Anastasius,
with eighteen illustrious accomplices, of patrician or consular rank,
were privately executed by the soldiers; their bodies were thrown
into the sea, their palaces razed, and their fortunes confiscated. The
hippodrome itself was condemned, during several years, to a mournful
silence: with the restoration of the games, the same disorders revived;
and the blue and green factions continued to afflict the reign of
Justinian, and to disturb the tranquility of the Eastern empire. [53]

[Footnote 53: Marcellinus says in general terms, innumeris populis in
circotrucidatis. Procopius numbers 30,000 victims: and the 35,000 of
Theophanes are swelled to 40,000 by the more recent Zonaras. Such is the
usual progres