00:00Did you know a sports riot once almost destroyed the Roman Empire and it was an
00:04ex-circus performer who stopped it? In 532 AD, Constantinople had two chariot
00:10racing gangs, the Blues and the Greens. They hated each other, but one week they
00:15stopped fighting and turned on Emperor Justinian instead. For five days they
00:19burned the city. They crowned a new Emperor. Justinian's own guards were
00:24abandoning him. He was ready to board a ship and run. Then his wife spoke. Theodora
00:29had grown up poor, performing in the streets, the daughter of a bear trainer.
00:33Now she stood in the palace and told her husband something simple. She would not
00:37flee. She would rather die wearing imperial purple than live in exile as a
00:41nobody. Purple makes a fine burial shroud, she said. Justinian stayed. His general
00:47Belisarius herded roughly 30,000 rebels into the Hippodrome and sealed the
00:51exits. The revolt ended in hours. One woman's refusal to run saved an empire
00:56that would last another 900 years.
