Ultra-millionaire sponsorship deals signed by some of today’s athletes pale in comparison to the amount earned by Gaius Appuleius Diocles, a charioteer who amassed the sum of 35,863,120 sesterces (the ancient Roman coins) in prize money, the equivalent of today’s $15 billion, according to Peter Struck, associate professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
As recorded in a monumental inscription erected in 146 A.D. by his fellow charioteers and fans, Diocles, “the most eminent of all charioteers,” was born in Lusitania, in what is now Portugal and south-west Spain, and started his spectacular career in 122 A.D., when he was 18.
Experienced charioteers like Diocles drove hard-to-manage chariots driven by four horses. Often slaves who could eventually buy their freedom, these racers battled in brutal laps of competition at the Circus Maximum, the main center of chariot racing, running a total of about 4,000 meters (nearly 2.5 miles). “After seven savage laps, those who managed not to be upended or killed and finish in the top three took home prizes,” Struck wrote in the history magazine Lapham Quarterly.
Their sporting equipment included a leather helmet, shin guards, chest protector, a jersey, a whip, and a sharp knife with which to cut the reins if the chariot overturned.
“The drivers affiliated with teams supported by large businesses that invested heavily in training and upkeep of the horses and equipment,” Struck wrote.
There were four divisions, or factiones, of charioteers, distinguished by the color of their costumes: the red, blue, green and white teams. Diocles won his first race with the team of the Whites. He then briefly moved to race with the Greens. But his longest and most successful stint was with the Reds, with whom he remained until the end of his career at the age of “42 years, 7 months, and 23 days.” Diocles’ career was unusually long - many charioteers in fact died young.
He is said to have won 1,462 of his 4,257 races, making nine horse centenari (100-time winners) and one horse, Pompeianus, a 200-time winner.
His winning tactic, recorded on the inscription, consisted in taking the competitors by surprise by coming from behind. His signature move was a strong final dash.
Although other racers surpassed him in the total number of victories, Diocles became the richest of all, as he run and won at big money events.
Struck calculated that Diocles’ s total earnings of 35,863,120 sesterces were enough to provide grain for the entire population of Rome for one year.
“Tiger [Woods, the world's highest-paid athlete according to Forbes' annual ranking, ed.] was never all that well paid when compared with the charioteers of ancient Rome,” he half-jokingly concluded.
