In Sixth Century Constantinople, the chariot races held such power over the city and its citizens, it influenced the military, politics and religion. The Emperor himself was drawn into the eternal question of whether the Greens (Prásinoi) or Blues (Vénetoi) would win.
Chariot races became the source of cheating, bribes, curses, mechanical tampering, gang warfare, street violence and murder until they finally culminated in 532 AD in five days of riots and burning, known as the Nika riots, when the Blues and the Greens worked together in a failed attempt to usurp the emperor himself.
Chariot racing fell into decline after the riots, never again to achieve the huge popularity and influence it had held for the centuries since Greece and Rome had pushed it to the fore.
But the Nika riots don’t take place until forty-three years after the events in this book.