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How Did Chariot Racing Work in the Constantinople Hippodrome? - Chariot Racing and Imperial Power in the Constantinople Hippodrome | Sleepy Facts About History · Sleepy Facts About History

0:04
Welcome to Sleepy Facts About History. In the
0:12
6th century, a person of no birth or legal standing
0:16
could enter a stadium as property and leave,
0:19
if the horses held, as a name chanted by thousands.
0:24
Meanwhile, the emperor who watched from his private
0:27
balcony depended on that same crowd's voice to
0:30
confirm that he ruled at all. This episode explores
0:33
the Hippodrome of Constantinople. not merely
0:36
as a venue for ancient sport, but as a working
0:39
institution where the Byzantine emperor and the
0:42
urban masses met face to face. It examines the
0:46
brutal reality of the races, the social mobility
0:49
of the charioteers, and the complex role of the
0:52
blues and greens, explaining why these factions
0:56
were not modern political parties but powerful
0:58
urban associations. I wanted to understand why
1:03
this specific arena held such weight in the Eastern
1:05
Roman Empire. While researching this episode,
1:09
I kept returning to one question. How did a society
1:13
without representative institutions give its
1:15
people a voice? The answer lies in the ritualized
1:19
acclamations and petitions of the crowd, a reciprocal
1:23
performance of legitimacy between the ruler and
1:26
the ruled. From the mechanical lap counters and
1:29
the dangerous turning posts to the dramatic escalation
1:33
of the Nika riots, this episode traces how civic
1:36
identity, imperial power, and physical risk converged
1:41
on a single track. It is a calm, detailed look
1:45
at how an ancient city negotiated its own stability.
1:48
In the 6th century, a person of no birth or legal
1:55
standing could enter a stadium as property. And
1:58
if the horses held... That person could leave
2:01
as a name chanted by thousands. The emperor,
2:05
who watched from his private balcony, depended
2:07
on that same crowd's voice to confirm that he
2:10
ruled at all. Imagine a morning in Constantinople,
2:14
sometime around the 6th century. The city is
2:18
already awake. A current of people is moving
2:21
through the streets toward a single destination.
2:25
That destination is the Hippodrome. the vast
2:28
U -shaped arena that sits directly beside the
2:31
Imperial Palace. You would see men and women
2:35
from every quarter of the city. Bakers, sailors,
2:39
students and retired engineers of their day all
2:42
converged on a space that could hold tens of
2:45
thousands. Vendors are setting up stalls. Musicians
2:51
are tuning instruments. Animal handlers lead
2:54
horses through side entrances. Bookmakers take
2:58
early wages in the shadows of the colonnades.
3:01
The drivers are making their final preparations.
3:05
Some are enslaved. Some are free. Some were born
3:11
in poverty. Some are already famous. And somewhere
3:15
above it all, connected to the palace by a covered
3:19
passageway, the imperial box waits for the Emperor's
3:22
appearance. This was not a spontaneous festival.
3:27
It was an expensive, professional, carefully
3:30
organized institution. The races happened because
3:34
a small army of workers made them happen. That
3:37
army included grooms, veterinarians, wheelwrights,
3:41
stable hands, cooks for the teams, messengers,
3:45
guards, and the officials who managed the starting
3:48
gates and counted the laps. The horses themselves
3:52
were valuable animals, imported and bred at considerable
3:55
cost. The chariots were lightweight, dangerous
4:00
constructions designed for speed rather than
4:03
safety. Everything about the spectacle depended
4:06
on money, patronage and long -established routine.
4:10
To understand why Constantinople loved chariot
4:13
racing, we need to understand what actually happened
4:17
in this space. We need to understand who made
4:20
it happen. And we need to understand what it
4:24
meant that the Emperor sat watching from a box
4:26
attached to his own residence. The Hippodrome
4:30
was a physical statement before it was anything
4:33
else. Its long axis ran roughly east to west.
4:38
It had a curved southern end and a straight northern
4:41
side where the starting gates stood. Down the
4:45
center ran the Spina. a raised barrier decorated
4:49
with monuments that had been gathered from across
4:51
the empire. There was an Egyptian obelisk of
4:55
Thucmos III. There was a bronze serpent column
5:00
from Delphi. There was a masonry obelisk covered
5:04
in gilded bronze plaques. These were not mere
5:08
decorations. They marked the space as imperial.
5:12
They marked it as a place where the wealth and
5:15
reach of Roman power were made visible. The turning
5:19
posts at either end of the spiner were called
5:22
mette. They were the most dangerous points on
5:25
the course. A driver taking the turn too wide
5:29
risked being overtaken. Taking it too tight,
5:33
he risked a collision that could shatter his
5:35
chariot, kill his horses, and throw his body
5:39
into the path of the teams behind him. The race
5:42
began when an official dropped a white cloth,
5:45
the mapper, from a platform near the starting
5:48
gates. The teams burst from the casas, the starting
5:52
stalls. The crowd's burst roar would rise. Each
5:58
race consisted of seven laps around the Spina.
6:01
The counting was done with mechanical devices.
6:05
Bronze eggs or dolphins rose or turned on posts
6:08
to mark the progress. The drivers wore colored
6:13
tunics, identifying their faction. Blue and green
6:17
were the dominant factions by this period. The
6:20
red and white teams still appeared. The supporters
6:23
in the stands wore their colours and chanted
6:26
their slogans. They directed their loyalty not
6:29
merely to the sport, but to the community the
6:32
colour represented. The racing itself was brutal.
6:36
A chariot was essentially a light platform on
6:40
two wheels, drawn by four horses abreast. The
6:44
drivers stood throughout, leaning into the turns.
6:48
He used his body weight to help the horses pivot
6:51
around the mette. He held reins and a whip. He
6:55
needed extraordinary strength, timing and nerve.
6:59
Crashes were common. A tangled line of reins,
7:03
a horse stumbling, a wheel clipping the spina.
7:07
These could send a driver flying, drag him under
7:11
hooves and wheels, or leave him mangled against
7:14
the barrier. The surviving sources mention drivers
7:18
who died in the arena. They also mention others
7:22
who survived dozens of crashes to race again.
7:25
The danger was part of the spectacle, but it
7:28
was also a real condition of the profession.
7:31
These were not aristocrats playing at sport.
7:34
Many drivers were enslaved or of low birth. Their
7:39
bodies were the capital they risked every time
7:41
the Muppet fell. Yet the risk carried a genuine
7:45
possibility of transformation. A successful charioteer
7:49
could win not only prize money, but freedom,
7:53
wealth, and public honor. The Greek anthology
7:57
preserves Epigram celebrating a driver named
8:00
Porphyrios. He was active in the late 5th and
8:04
early 6th centuries. He seems to have begun his
8:07
career in obscurity and risen to extraordinary
8:10
fame. Monument bases were erected in his honor,
8:14
showing him in his racing colors, holding the
8:18
symbols of victory. The inscriptions praise his
8:22
skill, his courage, his many wins. We cannot
8:26
know his exact origins, but the pattern is clear.
8:30
The Hippodrome was one of the few arenas in Constantinople
8:34
where a person of servile or humble birth could
8:37
become visible, celebrated, and materially secure.
8:42
This was not the norm. Most drivers remained
8:45
obscure, and many were injured or killed. But
8:49
the possibility existed, and the crowd knew it.
8:52
When they cheered a particular driver, they were
8:55
cheering an individual story of skill and survival
8:59
against the odds. The factions, however, were
9:03
larger than any individual driver. This is where
9:07
the subject becomes most easily misunderstood,
9:09
and where we need to be careful. The blues and
9:13
greens are sometimes described in modern accounts
9:16
as if they were political parties, or sports
9:19
hooligans, or religious militias. None of these
9:23
categories fits. The factions were organized
9:26
associations. The Greek term was demoi. They
9:31
maintained stables, employed personnel, and cultivated
9:34
networks of supporters across the city. They
9:38
had ties to neighborhoods. to guilds and to wealthy
9:41
patrons who might fund a team or protect a stable.
9:45
They played a role in public order. Their organized
9:49
membership could be mobilized for crowd control
9:51
or, conversely, for crowd violence. They had
9:56
a formal role in imperial ceremony, which we
9:59
will come to, and they provided a structure of
10:02
identity for ordinary people who might otherwise
10:04
have little collective voice in the city's affairs.
10:08
Religious and political loyalties sometimes attached
10:12
to the colors. At certain moments, one faction
10:16
might be associated with a particular theological
10:18
position, or it might be associated with sympathy
10:22
for a deposed emperor, or it might be associated
10:26
with resentment against a tax or an official.
10:29
But these attachments were fluid and situational,
10:32
not permanent or defining. A person was not born
10:37
a blue or a green in the sense that modern political
10:40
affiliation is sometimes inherited. The factions
10:43
did not publish platforms or contest elections.
10:47
Their leaders were not accountable to a membership
10:49
in any modern sense. To treat them as political
10:53
parties is to impose a category that would have
10:56
been unrecognizable to the people who actually
10:58
stood in the hippodrome chanting their colors.
11:01
They were better understood as urban communities.
11:05
They were organized, competitive, and capable
11:08
of collective action. But they were not reducible
11:12
to a single function or identity. The race day
11:16
built toward a climax that was simultaneously
11:18
athletic and political. As the final laps were
11:22
run, the tension in the arena would rise. A close
11:26
finish, a dramatic overtaking, a crash that changed
11:31
the standings. These were the moments the crowd
11:34
would remember and retell. But the racing was
11:38
not the end of the day's significance. When the
11:41
races concluded, another ritual began. This one
11:45
involved the emperor directly. The imperial box,
11:49
the kathinsma, was physically connected to the
11:52
great palace by a covered passageway. The emperor
11:56
could enter and leave without passing through
11:58
the public streets. When he appeared, The crowd's
12:02
response was structured and expected. They might
12:05
acclaim him with ritualized chants, praising
12:08
his name, his dynasty, his victories. They might
12:12
present petitions, shouted or written, requesting
12:16
redress of grievances, favors for individuals
12:19
or communities, or changes in policy. They might
12:23
celebrate a recent success, a military victory,
12:27
a diplomatic marriage, the birth of an heir.
12:31
or they might express displeasure. They might
12:34
boo, hiss, or chant against an unpopular official,
12:38
or even against the emperor himself. This was
12:41
not a modern political rally. The crowd was not
12:45
harmed, and the emperor was not campaigning for
12:48
their votes. But the interaction was real and
12:51
consequential. The emperor's legitimacy depended
12:56
in part on his visible acceptance by the people
12:58
of Constantinople. The crowd's ability to voice
13:02
approval or disapproval, however ritualized,
13:06
was one of the few mechanisms by which a large
13:08
urban population could address power directly.
13:12
The Hippodrome was, in this sense, a safety valve
13:16
and a sounding board. It allowed grievances to
13:20
be expressed in a controlled setting. The Emperor
13:23
could choose to respond or ignore. He could choose
13:27
to punish or conciliate. He could choose to appear
13:31
again the next race day or stay away. The sources
13:35
that describe this interaction are not neutral.
13:39
Procupius of Caesarea, writing in the 6th century,
13:42
was deeply hostile to the factions and to the
13:45
imperial court he served. His account of the
13:49
Nica riots of 532 CE is vivid and detailed, but
13:54
also partisan. In that event, Factional violence
13:58
escalated into a massive urban insurrection that
14:01
nearly toppled Emperor Justinian. Procopius portrays
14:06
the rioters as manipulated by demagogues. He
14:10
portrays the factions as irrational mobs. He
14:13
portrays the emperor as alternately weak and
14:16
ruthless. We need not accept his framing wholesale
14:20
to recognize the event he describes. For six
14:24
days, the Blues and Greens, who had briefly united
14:27
in their hostility to the government, burned
14:30
much of the city center. They proclaimed a rival
14:33
emperor. They besieged the palace. Justinian
14:38
survived, according to Procopius, in part because
14:42
his generals Belisarius and Mundus led troops
14:45
into the Hippodrome and massacred the assembled
14:47
crowd. The exact death toll is unknown and probably
14:51
exaggerated. But the violence was unmistakably
14:55
real. The Nika Riots are the most dramatic episode
14:59
in the history of the Hippodrome factions. They
15:03
are often the only episode that modern listeners
15:05
know. This is a distortion. The riots were an
15:10
extreme event. They were produced by a particular
15:14
convergence of military failure, tax resentment,
15:18
factional leadership and imperial miscalculation.
15:22
They were not the everyday function of the Hippodrome.
15:25
They were not the inevitable outcome of factional
15:28
competition. Most race days ended with acclamations,
15:32
not insurrection. Most grievances were expressed
15:36
and absorbed within the ritual framework. To
15:39
let the Nica Riots define the institution would
15:42
be like letting a single riot define the entire
15:45
history of a modern sports stadium or political
15:48
assembly. The riots matter because they show
15:52
what could happen when the Hippodrome's compressed
15:54
politics escaped their usual constraints. They
15:57
do not define what normally happened there. The
16:01
ceremonial acclamations preserved in the Book
16:04
of Ceremonies give us a different kind of evidence.
16:07
This text was compiled under Emperor Constantine
16:11
VII in the 10th century. It records the formal
16:15
protocols for imperial appearances in the Hippodrome.
16:19
It records the order of the faction's greetings,
16:22
the expected responses, the choreography of praise
16:25
and petition. It is a conservative document,
16:29
preserving practices that had developed over
16:32
centuries. It reveals how deeply the factions
16:35
were embedded in the machinery of imperial display.
16:39
The Blues and Greens were not interlopers in
16:42
a political ritual. They were assigned roles,
16:45
expected lines, recognized participants. Their
16:49
leaders spoke for the crowd, and the emperor
16:52
listened from his box. The ritual was scripted,
16:56
but its very scripting acknowledged the crowd's
16:59
importance. An emperor who could not manage the
17:02
Hippodrome's expectations was an emperor whose
17:05
legitimacy was visibly strained. What did this
17:09
mean for the ordinary person in the stands? We
17:13
need to be careful here, because the evidence
17:16
for individual experience is thin. Most of the
17:19
spectators left no written record. We know them
17:23
mainly through aggregate descriptions. The crowd
17:26
as a body. The factions as organizations. The
17:31
city as a population. But we can infer something
17:35
from the physical and social logic of the space.
17:38
A person who entered the Hippodrome on race day
17:42
was participating in an institution that connected
17:44
their neighborhood. their patronage ties, and
17:47
their color loyalty to a city -wide event. They
17:52
were watching professionals risk their lives
17:54
for prize and fame. They were part of a crowd
17:57
that could, in its collective voice, reach the
18:00
emperor himself. And they were doing this in
18:03
a space that was explicitly imperial, explicitly
18:06
Roman, explicitly Constantinopolitan. The obelisks
18:12
and monuments on the Spina, the palace looming
18:14
beside the Kathinsma, the very architecture of
18:18
the arena. All of these declared that this was
18:21
not merely entertainment, but civic identity
18:23
performed at scale. The professional organization
18:27
behind the races reinforced this identity. The
18:31
factions employed thousands of people across
18:34
the city. Not only drivers and grooms, but cooks,
18:38
doctors, accountants. guards, musicians who played
18:42
during the races, and officials who managed the
18:45
betting and the prize distribution. The stables
18:49
were substantial operations requiring land, fodder,
18:53
water, and veterinary knowledge. The horses were
18:57
bred and traded across the empire. Their lineage
19:00
was tracked with the seriousness of any valuable
19:03
livestock. The chariots were repaired and rebuilt
19:07
constantly. Their axles and wheels were tested
19:10
for the stresses of the track. This was an industry
19:14
as well as a spectacle. Its economic footprint
19:18
spread through the city's guilds and markets.
19:21
A person who worked in leather, in metal, in
19:25
wood, in medicine, in music or in food preparation
19:30
might find their livelihood connected to the
19:33
Hippodrome's needs. The drivers themselves occupied
19:36
a peculiar social position. Many were enslaved,
19:41
legally the property of the faction, or of a
19:44
wealthy patron. Their bodies were not their own.
19:47
A serious injury could mean abandonment or sale.
19:51
Yet, a successful driver could negotiate better
19:55
conditions, eventual manumission, even wealth
19:59
and public honor. The epigrams for Porphyrios
20:02
suggest that he was celebrated as a civic hero.
20:06
His image was displayed in public monuments.
20:10
His name was chanted by thousands. This was not
20:15
typical, but the possibility created a narrative
20:18
that the crowd could invest in. It was the narrative
20:22
of the obscure individual who, through skill
20:25
and courage, became visible and valued. It was
20:29
a narrative that resonated with a population
20:32
that was itself largely excluded from formal
20:35
political power. It was a population that lived
20:38
under imperial rule and found its collective
20:41
voice where it could. The physical dangers of
20:44
the race were not abstract. A chariot moving
20:48
at speed around the mette with three other teens
20:51
beside and behind required split -second decisions.
20:55
The driver had to control four horses with reins
20:58
wrapped around his waist. A crash could drag
21:02
him as well as throw him. The chariot's light
21:05
construction, designed for speed, offered little
21:08
protection the track surface was hard packed
21:12
earth it was dusty in dry weather and muddy and
21:16
wet it was slippery with spilled oil and blood
21:20
the crowd's noise made verbal communication impossible
21:24
drivers relied on experience instinct and the
21:29
limited signals they could give their horses
21:30
a race was not a long event it was seven laps
21:36
countered by the mechanical eggs or dolphins
21:40
But its intensity was compressed into minutes
21:42
of sustained physical and mental exertion. The
21:46
survivors were those who could maintain concentration
21:49
under extreme pressure. They knew their horse's
21:53
capacities. They could read the track and their
21:56
competitors with something approaching intuition.
21:59
The tactics of racing are less well documented
22:02
than we might wish, but some elements are clear.
22:06
Teams from the same faction might cooperate to
22:09
block a rival. A driver might hold back early
22:12
to conserve his horses for a final sprint. The
22:16
starting position mattered. The stalls were assigned
22:20
and a favorable draw could mean a cleaner line
22:23
to the first meta, the condition of the track,
22:26
the weather, the particular matchups of horses
22:29
and drivers. These variables made each race unpredictable
22:33
despite its formal structure. The bookmakers
22:37
who took wages in the colonnades were responding
22:40
to this uncertainty. They set odds based on reputation,
22:44
recent form, and rumor. Betting was illegal in
22:48
some periods, officially tolerated in others,
22:51
and always present. It added another layer of
22:55
personal investment to the crowd's engagement.
22:58
It was another way for an ordinary person to
23:01
feel connected to the outcome. The colors, chants,
23:06
and slogans of the factions created an acoustic
23:08
environment that we can only partially reconstruct.
23:12
Tens of thousands of voices chanting in unison
23:15
would have produced a sound of extraordinary
23:17
physical force. It was a pressure on the ears
23:21
and chest that modern stadium crowds might recognize,
23:24
but that ancient sources describe with awe. The
23:29
chants were not random. They were learned, rehearsed,
23:32
and passed down through factional membership.
23:35
Some praised a driver. Some mocked a rival. Some
23:41
addressed the emperor directly. The rhythm and
23:44
volume were part of the spectacle. They were
23:47
a demonstration of organized, collective energy
23:50
that was as much a performance as the racing
23:52
itself. An emperor who could not elicit a favorable
23:56
acclamation, or who faced sustained hostile chanting,
24:01
was experiencing a direct challenge to his public
24:04
standing. The emperor's presence in the Kavisma
24:08
was thus a performance with risks as well as
24:10
rewards. He appeared not as a distant figure,
24:14
but as a visible participant in the day's events.
24:18
His clothing, his gestures, his responses to
24:22
the crowd's acclamations were all read for meaning.
24:25
Did he seem confident or worried? Did he acknowledge
24:30
petitions or ignore them? Did he favor one faction
24:34
over another, and if so, why? The covered passageway
24:39
to the palace allowed him to withdraw. if the
24:43
atmosphere turned hostile but a withdrawal itself
24:46
was a signal it was an admission that the crowd's
24:50
mood had become dangerous the hippodrome was
24:54
one of the few spaces where the emperor's physical
24:56
vulnerability was implicitly acknowledged he
25:00
sat above the crowd protected by guards and architecture
25:04
but he sat within range of their voice their
25:07
gaze their collective judgment This reciprocity
25:11
was the heart of what made chariot racing matter
25:14
in Constantinople. The emperor needed the crowd's
25:18
acclamations to demonstrate his legitimacy. The
25:21
crowd needed the emperor's presence to give their
25:24
gathering significance. The factions needed the
25:28
races to maintain their organizations and their
25:31
role in city life. The races needed the factions
25:35
to provide the competitive structure and the
25:38
human material. and the drivers, many of them
25:42
enslaved or obscure, needed the Hippodrome to
25:46
make themselves visible, even for a moment, to
25:49
the most powerful city in the Mediterranean.
25:52
When the Emperor walked back through the covered
25:55
passageway to his palace, and the crowds dispersed
25:58
into the streets of their neighborhoods, the
26:00
day's performance was complete. Each side had
26:04
seen the other. Each had been reminded that their
26:08
continued coexistence depended on this repeated
26:10
recognition. We should not romanticize this arrangement.
26:15
The crowd's ability to address the Emperor was
26:18
real, but limited. Acclamations could be ignored.
26:23
Petitions could be denied. Hostile chanting could
26:27
be punished. The factions were not democratic
26:30
organizations. They were hierarchical, often
26:34
exploitative. and capable of violence against
26:37
their own members as well as their rivals. The
26:41
enslaved drivers who risked their bodies did
26:43
so without the guarantee of reward or even survival.
26:47
The professional organization that made the races
26:50
possible was also an organization of inequality.
26:53
It extracted labor and risk from the many for
26:57
the entertainment and political benefit of the
27:00
few. The Hippodrome was a space of collective
27:03
voice. But it was not a space of collective power.
27:08
Yet the fact that this voice existed at all in
27:11
a society without representative institutions
27:14
is significant. The people of Constantinople,
27:18
like the people of Rome before them, had found
27:22
a way to make themselves audible to power through
27:25
the ritual of the arena. The specific form was
27:28
historically contingent. Chariot racing. Factional
27:33
organization. Imperial acclamation. These were
27:37
a development of Roman circus culture adapted
27:40
to Constantinople's imperial and urban character.
27:44
It was not inevitable. Other cities, other periods
27:49
found other ways to negotiate the relationship
27:51
between ruler and ruled. But in Constantinople,
27:56
for centuries, the Hippodrome was where this
27:58
negotiation happened most regularly and most
28:01
publicly. The archaeological remains of the Hippodrome,
28:05
still visible in modern Istanbul, give us a material
28:09
anchor for this reconstruction. The Egyptian
28:13
obelisk stands where the Spina once ran. Its
28:17
hieroglyphs are still legible. It is a monument
28:20
from a millennium before the races that became
28:23
part of their setting. The serpent column, twisted
28:27
and damaged, marks the same line. The masonry
28:31
obelisk. its bronze plaques long stripped away
28:34
rises beside them these objects outlasted the
28:39
institution they framed they survived the decline
28:42
of the races the ottoman transformation of the
28:46
space and the modern city's growth around them
28:49
they remind us that the hippodrome was a physical
28:53
place it had a specific geometry and a specific
28:57
location in the urban fabric it was not merely
29:01
an idea or a tradition The emperor's box is gone.
29:05
The starting gates are gone. The crowds are gone.
29:10
But the spine of the arena remains traceable,
29:13
and the palace still stands nearby. The decline
29:17
of chariot racing belongs to a later period than
29:20
this episode's central focus. It followed the
29:24
broader transformations of Byzantine society.
29:26
Urban contraction. Fiscal crisis. theological
29:31
and political disputes that reshaped the faction's
29:34
role, and eventually the Fourth Crusade's devastation
29:38
of Constantinople in 1204. The Hippodrome continued
29:42
to host ceremonies and gatherings, but the professional
29:46
racing infrastructure withered. By the time the
29:49
Book of Ceremonies was compiled in the 10th century,
29:52
it was already preserving practices that were
29:54
becoming archaic. The institution had lasted
29:58
longer than most political arrangements of its
30:00
era. But it was not eternal. Its ending, like
30:05
its flourishing, was historically specific. The
30:09
Hippodrome was not a curiosity, and the Nica
30:12
riots were not its defining moment. It was a
30:16
working institution, embedded in the city's physical
30:20
and social fabric. It depended on professional
30:23
organization and expensive infrastructure. It
30:27
was charged with meaning that extended far beyond
30:30
the track. The Blues and Greens were not modern
30:34
political parties, but they were not merely sports
30:37
clubs either. They were urban associations that
30:41
organized identity, patronage, public order,
30:45
and ceremonial life. The Emperor's presence was
30:48
not passive observation, but active participation
30:51
in a reciprocal performance of legitimacy. and
30:54
the crowd was not a passive audience, but a collective
30:57
actor. It was capable of acclaim and petition,
31:01
celebration and abuse within the constraints
31:04
of an unequal society. The Hippodrome was not
31:08
a parliament, and the races were not elections.
31:12
But they were, for centuries, one of the few
31:15
places where the city and its ruler met face
31:17
to face, performed their mutual dependence, and
31:21
recognized each other in public view.