The Storie about Constantinople pt 3 - Porphyrius the Superstar Charioteer

Porphyrius (Greek: Πορφύριος) was the most famous and controversial charioteer of the early 6th century AD, a living legend in Constantinople whose career spanned the reigns of emperors Anastasius I (491–518) and Justinian I (527–565). In an age when chariot racing was the biggest spectacle in the Roman/Byzantine world, Porphyrius became something close to a demigod.He was probably born around 480–485, though nothing is known of his origins; most top charioteers were of humble or even servile background. What made him extraordinary was not just his skill but his longevity and his ability to dominate the circus for decades, an almost impossible feat in a sport where crashes were frequent and often fatal.Porphyrius raced primarily for the two great factions that controlled the Hippodrome: the Blues and the Greens. Normally, a charioteer was bound to one color for life, and switching factions was seen as the ultimate betrayal. Porphyrius did it at least twice, and somehow survived the fury of the fans. Ancient epigrams say that when he first appeared for the opposing team, the crowd that had once worshipped him now cursed him and threw stones; yet his victories were so overwhelming that the same crowds eventually cheered him again.He is credited with well over 1,000 victories, an astronomical number even by the standards of the time. His specialty was the dangerous four-horse chariot (quadriga), and he was famous for daring, almost theatrical maneuvers: letting rivals pull ahead only to overtake them on the final turn, inside turn of the spina at the last possible second.While he was still alive, the emperors and the factions broke all precedent by erecting multiple honorific statues to him in the Hippodrome itself, something normally reserved for emperors or long-dead heroes. Archaeologists have discovered the bases of at least seven of these statues along the central barrier (the spina or euripus). The inscriptions, written in elegant Greek verse, survive and give a vivid picture of how the city saw him:“Porphyrius, the best from the very cradle, the glory of the Greens and the wonder of the Blues…”
“First he drove for the Greens, then he shone for the Blues; now again for the Greens he brings victory…”
“The man who tames the horses with his skill alone, without whip or spur…”
One poem even compares him to the mythical charioteer Pelops and to the sun god Helios.

The statues showed him standing in his chariot, holding the palm of victory and the crown, sometimes depicted in the act of crowning himself, an astonishing piece of self-confidence in a society that normally reserved such gestures for the emperor.His career peaked in the 510s–520s under Anastasius. When Justinian came to power in 527, Porphyrius was already old for a charioteer (probably in his mid-40s), yet he continued to race and win into the early 530s. The last certain reference to him is around 532, the year of the Nika riots; some scholars believe he may have been involved in the tense negotiations between the factions and the palace, given his unique status with both Blues and Greens.After he finally retired (or died; no source says which), the statues remained in place for centuries as objects of admiration. When the Crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204, many bronze and marble monuments were melted down, but several of Porphyrius’ statue bases survived because they were made of hard granite or limestone. They were rediscovered in modern excavations under today’s Sultanahmet Square and can now be seen in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.In the end, Porphyrius was the last and greatest superstar of a sport that had existed for a thousand years. After him, no charioteer ever again received so many public honors while still alive, and within a few generations the Hippodrome itself began its slow decline. His name, carved on those weathered stone blocks, is almost the only personal name we still know from the roaring crowds of Byzantine Constantinople.