Quote · Lex Fridman Podcast
#498 – Anthony Kaldellis: Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Rise & Fall of Empires
Where this was said
Power, violence, and civil war
At 46:41 · chapter starts 33:06
This chapter gets to the heart of the episode's most surprising argument. The Eastern Roman Empire had no elections, no constitutional term limits, no separation of powers in the Western sense. What it had instead was a perpetual referendum [1] — Anthony Kaldellis "In the Eastern Roman Empire, there were no elections — but there was something more powerful: a perpetual referendum. Emperors appeared pub…" 42:33 — emperors appearing in the Hippodrome before crowds of up to 100,000 people, reading the mood through chants, silences, and occasional booing. Kaldellis shares the remarkable statistic that roughly 46% of Constantinople's emperors were removed through violence, and explains why this number was a feature rather than a flaw: every emperor knew that governing badly was existential. The Hippodrome story of Emperor Alexios III proposing a 'German tax' and immediately backing down when the crowd erupted illustrates how quickly popular sentiment could translate into policy reversal. Kaldellis distinguishes this from military dictatorship — the army almost never served as a tool of social control, and emperors who tried to use it that way (Justinian being the exception) risked accelerating their own downfall. The approximately 120 civil wars in the millennium Kaldellis studies were almost always brief, never ideological, and functioned as an ongoing accountability mechanism — not as symptoms of dysfunction.
The Eastern Roman Empire experienced approximately 120 civil wars over the millennium Kaldellis studies, yet these were almost always swift power contests rather than ideological conflicts.
In the Eastern Roman Empire, there were no elections — but there was something more powerful: a perpetual referendum. Emperors appeared publicly, crowds cheered or fell silent, and if the grain supply failed or taxes bit too hard, you knew it instantly. 46% of Constantinople's emperors were removed by violence. That number wasn't a bug. It was the mechanism that made good governance rational.
In the Eastern Roman Empire, nearly half of all emperors were removed through violent means, creating a perpetual incentive for rulers to govern well and maintain popular support.
The Hippodrome of Constantinople could hold between 30,000 and 100,000 spectators and served as the primary venue where citizens expressed approval or displeasure with the emperor — functioning as a perpetual political referendum.
