Ravenna is where the amazing mosaics are, however. I just read that when the blues and greens factions engineered a coup against Justinian I, he was about to flee when Theodora advised him against it, and he sent Belisarius to round the rioters all up into the Hippodrome and the soldiers hacked them to pieces.Constantinople (then) or Istanbul (today) is where Justinian and Theodora wore their crowns. Byzantium or the Eastern Roman Empire.
Makes one feel quite wistful about the more effective, direct methods of the Roman Empire, East or West.