a cabal or party formed in a state, city, or company.

in antiquity, a name given to the different companies of combatants in the circus. They were four, viz., the white, the red, the green, and the blue; to which Domitian added another of purple colour. They were so denominated from the colour of the livery they wore, and were dedicated, according to M. Aur. Cassiodorus, to the four seasons of the year, the green being consecrated to spring, the blue to winter, the red to summer, and the white to autumn. It appears from ancient inscriptions, that each faction had its procurators and physician; and from history, that party rage ran so high among them, that in a diffusion between two factions, in the time of Justinian, almost forty thousand men lost their lives in the quarrel.