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Sunday, October 13, 2013

Highest-Paid Athlete Hailed From Ancient Rome

Ultra millionaire sponsorship deals such as those signed by sprinter Usain Bolt and tennis player Maria Sharapova are just peanuts compared to the personal fortune amassed by a second century A.D. Roman racer.

An illiterate charioteer named Gaius Appuleius Diocles earned the staggering sum of 35,863,120 sesterces in prize money. By today's standards that would be about $15 billion. Diocles 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. Records show that he won 1,462 out of the 4,257 four-horse races he competed in.

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