16.14. Riots and Urban Unrest in the Eastern Empire
In Thrace and Illyricum the departure of the Goths left the way open to the more savage Bulgarians. In 499 they inflicted a disastrous defeat on Aristus, magister militum of Illyricum, at the Tzurta; and in 500 Anastasius thought it wise to give a donative to the Illyrian army. At an unknown date his nephew Pompeius was defeated by some enemy at Hadrianople; and in 507 the long wall across the peninsula on which Constantinople stands was built to secure the city from attack by land.
In 512 the Heruli after their defeat by the Lombards were settled in the Empire, but afterwards rebelled and had to be put down by force of arms. In 517 the Slavs plundered Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus, and carried off captives, whom Anastasius ransomed. Libya also suffered from the incursions of the Maszices.
Though there was little serious hostility with the Goths, relations were for a large part of the reign unfriendly. In 493 the Emperor refused Theodoric's request for confirmation of his title to Italy, though by accepting his consuls he tacitly recognised him In 498 however he gave the desired recognition and returned the imperial insignia which Odovacar had sent to Zeno. But in 505 a conflict was brought about by a certain Mundo, who had been expelled by the king of the Gepids and received as a foederatus in the Empire, but afterwards became a captain of robbers, and being attacked by Sabinianus, magister militum of Illyricum (son of the Sabinianus who held the same office under Zeno), with Bulgarian allies, called in a Gothic force which had been fighting the Gepids. In the battle which followed at Horrea Margi the Romans were routed; but no further fighting seems to have taken place, and Mundo entered. Thcodoric's service. The assistance given to Mundo caused ill-feeling at Constantinople, and in 508 a fleet raided the coast of Italy, by which Theodoric was hindered from supporting the Visigoths against the Frankish king, on whom Anastasius conferred the insignia of the consulship. Shortly afterwards peace was restored, no doubt by concessions on the side of Theodoric, who wished to be free to deal with the Franks.
The domestic administration of Anastasius was distinguished by several popular measures. The most celebrated of these was the abolition of the chrysargyron (May 498), a tax on all kinds of stock and plant in trade, instilled by Constantine, which pressed heavily on the poorest classes. Instead of this he imposed a land-tax called chrysoteleia, which he applied to the support of the army, abolishing the right of requisition. He also attempted by several enactments to ensure that the soldiers received their full pay. But his chief financial reform was the abolition, by the advice of the Syrian Marinus, of the system under which the curiales were responsible for the taxes of the municipalities, and the institution of tax-collectors called vindices. The burdens of the curiales were not however wholly removed, for they existed in some form under Justinian. These measures were no doubt primarily intended to increase the revenue, and at the end of his reign under the administration of Marinus complaints were made of heavy extortion; but the immediate financial success of the policy is proved by the fact that at the time of his death the treasury was full. His humanity was shewn by the abolition of fights between men and beasts (Aug. 400); but this did not extend to the practice of exposing criminals to beasts, which existed as late as the time of Maurice.
But, although Anastasius is almost universally praised for mildness and good administration, his Monophysite opinions were distasteful to the population of the capital, and the peace was constantly disturbed by serious riots. In 493 his refusal to release some stonethrowers of the Green faction who had been arrested by the city-praefect produced an outbreak, during which a stone was thrown at the Emperor, part of the circus buildings burnt, and the statues of Anastasius and Ariadne dragged through the streets. Many of the rioters were arrested and punished, and the thrower of the stone, a Moor, was killed by the excubitores; but the Emperor was compelled to appoint a new praefect in the person of Plato. An occasion for rioting was also provided by the ancient pagan festival of the Brytae, which was celebrated by dancing performances every May. Such a riot occurred in the praofecture of Constantine (501), when the Greens attacked the Blues in the theatre and many were killed, among them an illegitimate sou of Anastasius. After this an order was issued that the celebration of the Brytae should cease throughout the Empire (502).
In 512 the Monophysite addition to the Trisagion, made at the instigation of Mariuus, caused the most dangerous outbreak of the reign (6 Nov.). The rioters killed the Monophysite monks, threw down the Emperor's statue^ and proclaimed emperor the unwilling Areobindus, whose wife Juliana represented the Theodosian house. When Celer and Patricius were sent to appease them, they drove them away with stones, burnt the houses of Marinus and Pompeius, and plundered Marinus' property. On the third day Anastasius shewed himself in the circus without his crown and begged them to refrain from massacre, whereupon they demanded that Marinus and Plato should be thrown to the beasts, but the Emperor by promising concessions persuaded them to disperse. The banishment of Ariadne's kinsman, Diogenes, and the ex-praefect Appion (510) may, as they were recalled by Justin, have been caused by religious troubles. In Alexandria and Antioch also riots were frequent.
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