Beef Invictus
Revolutionary Positivity
Thank you guarded Rebels! Tawdry Rebels! Painstaking Rebels!
I select TEAM FANBASE:
THE BLUES
The Blues were one of two fan factions of horse racing in the later Roman Empire. Justinian (my guy) and his wife were among their fans, so I take that variety. The other faction was the Greens. Originally, there were 4 total factions but the Greens and Blues absorbed them. There is no equivalent to these factions today. They make soccer and rugby hooligans look soft and weak. Imagine if the Giants and the Jets each came to embody fandom of all AFC and NFC teams. And you picked one for life. They were an organized crime network. They were your financiers. They were your police/protection. They were your political party. Bloods and Crips mixed with GOP/Dems mixed with every sports rivalry. Over time, they spread through much of the Eastern empire and there are records of massive riots over their rivalry. A chariot driver defecting from one faction to the other and then winning was the cue for a huge riot in Antioch once. There were lots of riots. People routinely died over this rivalry.
Now it's common to portray them as having coherent and consistent political positions, but I cannot imagine that being true. Most likely the vestiges of the patron/client system meant that upper class supporters of each faction could count on them for support, and political rivals would gravitate to the opposites. For example, Justinian was a Blue. So the Greens opposed him. Did they actually all disagree with his policies? No. But they're Eagles fans and he's a Cowboys fan, so they figured he should probably be killed.
The factions came to an end following a matter where Justinian tried to execute some leaders of both Blues and Greens. The Greens already believed he should be killed. The Blues decided that he hadn't shown as much loyalty as they'd prefer, so they also decided he should be killed. The Blues and Greens banded together (there is no rivalry in NA sports that can be used to compare how insane and ominous that must have been) and then set out to overthrow Justinian's government and install their own. Again, these are sports fan clubs.
Justinian originally wanted to flee to safety before returning with loyal legions, but his smokeshow badass wife Theodora declared she would stay, as the purple is as good a burial shroud as you can get. So Justinian stayed and since he had an actual army, the sports fan revolt ended exactly as a similar event would end today: with everyone very dead. Tens of thousands. Among the dead were numerous high profile dudes, because this wasn't just ancient rednecks being rowdy; everyone was tied up in these things.
So, the Blues. They'll kill you and run organized crime rackets in your cities on my behalf. Your streets are mine. NIKA!
Nika, @CanadianFlyer88 !! Nika! Spiffy CF88! Null CF88! Slippery CF88!
I select TEAM FANBASE:
THE BLUES
The Blues were one of two fan factions of horse racing in the later Roman Empire. Justinian (my guy) and his wife were among their fans, so I take that variety. The other faction was the Greens. Originally, there were 4 total factions but the Greens and Blues absorbed them. There is no equivalent to these factions today. They make soccer and rugby hooligans look soft and weak. Imagine if the Giants and the Jets each came to embody fandom of all AFC and NFC teams. And you picked one for life. They were an organized crime network. They were your financiers. They were your police/protection. They were your political party. Bloods and Crips mixed with GOP/Dems mixed with every sports rivalry. Over time, they spread through much of the Eastern empire and there are records of massive riots over their rivalry. A chariot driver defecting from one faction to the other and then winning was the cue for a huge riot in Antioch once. There were lots of riots. People routinely died over this rivalry.
Now it's common to portray them as having coherent and consistent political positions, but I cannot imagine that being true. Most likely the vestiges of the patron/client system meant that upper class supporters of each faction could count on them for support, and political rivals would gravitate to the opposites. For example, Justinian was a Blue. So the Greens opposed him. Did they actually all disagree with his policies? No. But they're Eagles fans and he's a Cowboys fan, so they figured he should probably be killed.
The factions came to an end following a matter where Justinian tried to execute some leaders of both Blues and Greens. The Greens already believed he should be killed. The Blues decided that he hadn't shown as much loyalty as they'd prefer, so they also decided he should be killed. The Blues and Greens banded together (there is no rivalry in NA sports that can be used to compare how insane and ominous that must have been) and then set out to overthrow Justinian's government and install their own. Again, these are sports fan clubs.
Justinian originally wanted to flee to safety before returning with loyal legions, but his smokeshow badass wife Theodora declared she would stay, as the purple is as good a burial shroud as you can get. So Justinian stayed and since he had an actual army, the sports fan revolt ended exactly as a similar event would end today: with everyone very dead. Tens of thousands. Among the dead were numerous high profile dudes, because this wasn't just ancient rednecks being rowdy; everyone was tied up in these things.
So, the Blues. They'll kill you and run organized crime rackets in your cities on my behalf. Your streets are mine. NIKA!
Nika, @CanadianFlyer88 !! Nika! Spiffy CF88! Null CF88! Slippery CF88!
