A chariot-racing feud burned half a capital and nearly ended an emperor's reign
In 532 AD, rival chariot-racing factions in Constantinople united against Emperor Justinian over tax grievances and a botched execution, torching much of the city. General Belisarius crushed the revolt by trapping the rioters in the Hippodrome, in a massacre historians estimate killed around 30,000 people.
— Procopius and later Byzantine historical sources, Nika riots — Constantinople, 532 AD