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P.M.Lawrence comments on A Fable of Science and Politics - Less Wrong
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"In the time of the Roman Empire, civic life was divided between the Blue and Green factions".
That's wrong. In the later centuries of the Roman Empire, civic life was divided between the Red, White, Blue and Green factions. The first two vanished in the early part of the Byzantine Empire, so the description is true of the period of the Byzantine Empire under consideration (which still called itself the Roman Empire).
There is some reason to believe that the factions were more than just sporting associations, also handling some militia functions for the defence of Constantinople.
I've only read edited Gibbon and limited other references and they never got specific about it that I read, but when I think about it for a second, it seems very likely that rabid sports fans of a very practical militaristic sport might often have more physical and professional ties to it than just as sports fans or partisans by accident or tradition. It also makes sense out of the brother against brother rivalry alluded to, if people's real jobs and/or semi-military gangs are involved....if career, ambition, social status come into it, not just cheering a side and random hooliganery.