MOOOODS why the fuck doesn't bold text work within greentext??
> [b]So that I, for my part, do not know what to call this if not a mental disorder.[/b]
> [i]So that I, for my part, do not know what to call this if not a mental disorder.[/i]
On this day in history...
"An insurrection broke out unexpectedly in Byzantion among the populace and, contrary to expectation, took on huge dimensions and ended in great harm to the people and to the senate..."
What follows is one of the many immortal stories in Roman/Byzantine history, and this passage itself is one of my most beloved:
>In every city the fan-clubs have long been divided into the Blues and the Greens, but in relatively recent times it has come about that, for the sake of these names and the grandstands from which they watch the games,134 they spend money and give their bodies over to the most cruel tortures, and even do not think it unworthy to die a most shameful death. [3] They fight against the rival faction without knowing why they are putting themselves at such risk, but they do know well that, even if they overcome their enemy in the fight, the outcome for them will be to be carried off immediately to prison and, after suffering extreme torture, to be destroyed. [4] So there grows in them against their rivals a hatred that has no cause, and at no time does it cease or disappear, for it does not soften for the ties of marriage, kinship, or friendship, even if those who are divided by color are brothers or the like. [5] They care not for things divine or human when it comes to winning in these struggles, and simply do not care whether a sacrilege is committed by anyone against God, or whether the laws and the republic are being violated by friend or foe, and this is so even if they are poor and lacking basic things or if their fatherland is in the most pressing need and suffering unjustly, they still do not care; all that matters is that it goes well with their “faction,” for so they name the bands of partisans. [6] Even women join them in this unholy strife, and they not only follow the men but even fight them if that is how it turns out, even though they neither go to the spectacles at all nor are led by any other cause to get involved. [b]So that I, for my part, do not know what to call this if not a mental disorder.[/b]
Wars of Justinian, 1.24
So whose side are YOU on? Blues or Greens? Justinian or Hypatius?
