Circus Factions in Sixth-Century Crete Spyridakis, Stylianos Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1967; 8, 3; ProQuest pg. 249

Circus Factions in Sixth-Century Crete 

Stylianos Spyridakis 

A MONG the numerous epigraphic remains of the Cretan City 
of Gortyn, a sixth-century inscription merits the attention of 
students of late antiquity and Byzantium: 

+NtKa ~ 'TVX[ '7 
JIpaoIvwv 

[-------J 
, 'T' [ Kat .1 waVV7J S'. 

The inscription was found in the vicinity of the praetorium of the 
city and was first identified by F. Halbherr, the well-known Italian 
epigrapher who had pioneered archaeological research in Crete. M. 
Guarducci, a student of Halbherr, published it in her monumental 
edition of the Cretan inscriptions and dated it in the sixth century.1 
The importance of this document, which provides the only evidence 
for the existence of circus factions in Crete, has hitherto gone un­
noticed. 

Apparently, the rallying cry, NlKa 'vanquish', figures at the top 
of the inscription, which hailed the important faction of the Prasinoi 
(Greens') and two of their charioteers-Ioannes and a colleague whose 
anonymity is the result of the mutilated state of the letters of line 3. 

Gortyn, which had become the seat of the Cretan Concilium pro­
vinciae after the conquest of the island by Metellus2 and the capital of 
the senatorial province of Crete and Cyrene in 27 B.C.,s had not lost 
its importance in the sixth century. During the reign of Justinian, 

1 Inscriptiones Creticae IV (Rome 1950) 513. 
I M. Van der Mijnsbrugge, The Cretan Koinon (New York 1931) 72. Q. Metellus, the 

conqueror of Crete, destroyed Cnossus, the traditional Cretan antagonist of Gonyn. 
Cnossus became a Roman colony and was officially deSignated as ColoniaJulia Nobilis Cnosus. 
Henceforth, Gortyn enjoyed an unchallenged supremacy on the island. 

a Strabo 17.3.25; Cassius Dio 53.12.4. During the early years of the Empire an imperial 
mint was established at Gortyn. The Roman coins of this period are discussed in N. Svoro­
nos, Numismatique de la Crete ancienne (Macon 1890) 337f. 

249 



250 CIRCUS FACTIONS IN SIXTH-CENTURY CRETE 

Hierocles states, the city was the metropolis' of Crete and, conse­
quently, the most important of the twenty-two cities of the island. 

The inscription under consideration not only bestows credence to 
the statement of Hierocles, since the life of the dty was modelled 
after that of Constantinople, but encourages a number of interesting 
assumptions worthy of scholarly investigation by students concerned 
with this period of Near Eastern history. 

As it is widely known, historians today hold the view that the circus 
factions of the late Empire represent inter alia religious, political and 
class interests.5 In the sixth century the faction of the Greens was 
associated with the lower strata of society 6 and the heretical Mono­
physite forces which opposed the orthodox Byzantine aristocracy. In 
view of these observations, would it be reasonable to assume that 
Monophysitism had found adherents among the populace of Crete 
which, in turn, would point to the fact that the heresy was not confined 
to the eastern provinces of the Empire but had penetrated even its 
European territories? 

Furthermore, since the Greens of Constantinople had constituted 
the nucleus of the anti-Justinian forces during the Nika revolt, is it 
reasonable to suspect that their Gortynian confreres followed the same 
policy and expressed similar anti-government tendencies? If this inter­
pretation is correct, the historian may argue that popular discontent 
in sixth-century Byzantium was not limited to the capital city and the 
restless eastern provinces but was extended to the Aegean area, if not 
beyond. 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS 

February, 1967 

t Synecd. 649.5. 
6 G. Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State (Oxford 1956) 61f; E. Stein, Histoire du Bas­

Empire I (Bruges 1949) 436. 
8 A. Vasiliev. History of the Byzantine Empire I (Madison 1964) 155.