Religious Influence in Byzantine Society

Like today and every moment in history, religious friction was a major element of life in 6th century Constantinople, a city designed to be based on Christianity by Emperor Constantine. But these were relatively early days of Christianity, and there was much fervent debate and physical clashing over just what Christianity was supposed to be and who would determine that. And while Christians argued over the true nature of Christ, which was at the core of most differences among denominations and sects, paganism still had a hold and Judaism was another religious force counter to Christianity.

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The characters in Blue Green dealt with these frictions in their lives, none more than the protagonist Gaius Galen, who wasn’t sure which religion was God’s true one and switched his religion four times in his formative years – even undergoing circumcision at age 16 in becoming a Jew. Gaius’ father accumulated much of his wealth converting pagan temples into Christian churches.

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Jews, pagans and heretical Christian sects were officially condemned and marginalized by the Eastern Roman Empire, which had embraced orthodox Christianity as the official religion. This was based on The Chalcedonian Creed of 451 CE that declared Christ's nature to be equal parts man and God, separate but comingled. That declaration was not accepted by the numerous other forms of Christianity with their own interpretations of the nature of Christ. These included Arianism, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, Manicheanism and many more.

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Not only were these conflicting Christian sects, Judaism and paganism chaffing factors in society, they also were strongly at play in chariot racing, as indicated in the following excerpt from Chapter 2, Hippodrome Imposters, relating track cross-talk between Blues and Greens, who regularly traded religious insults…

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“The Blues responded, getting in the final word, for this moment:

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We’re Blues not Jews and love our Christ!
Man and God in equal measure,
Chalcedon orthodox forever!

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The stands cheered as one to this appropriate embrace of the imperial-established orthodoxy, which I adhered to myself these days in the 531st year after Christ’s birth. Though the crowd was hardly united in orthodoxy, it would not do for the monophysites, Jews, Arians, Nestorians, Donatists, Manicheans, pagans and worse to malign their emperor’s chosen religion, even though it was well known that Empress Theodora was a monophysite. Sharing the imperial bed with her orthodox husband was not so strange an arrangement. Every family had its share of heretics.”