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CLASSIC: Who was the highest paid athlete in history? · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And we are back with this week's classic episode. Guys. Recently,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I went with our pale Ramsey Yun from earlier to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: watch a Hawks game nice here in Atlanta. Yeah, it's
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: we were at Phillips. So it's just it's a great time,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Oh I I I love I love calling it the
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  Speaker 2: old the old name against somebody.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I still think of it.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I still I still call it Phillips myself.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I did this just the other day. Well. The thing is,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you know, we're we're fans of live sporting events, even
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: if you don't know much about sports or you're not
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: into you know, watching it on the television. Uh, it's
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a good.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hang, it's it's it's good people watching even if you're
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: not into you know, the sports watching part of it.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Yet Snacks, you got all kinds of great acts in
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: between the game as well.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I love a parade, you know. Oh yeah yeah, margin
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Breton Circuses. It is fun to participate in that continuum
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of history. Ah. God, who could forget about Creed?
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I keep trying, I keep trying. They right, let you
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: friget it up next. We won't forget about Creed. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: and we won't forget about this classic episode where we
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: asked ourselves who was the highest paid athlete in history?
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  Speaker 1: And I gotta tell you, guys, there are a lot
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: of athletes who are pros who don't make a ton
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  Speaker 1: of money. So let's true.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's true. Uh. And of course we are
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: talking about a at the time in ancient Rome, an
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: absolute rock star of an athlete, a chariot tear by
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  Speaker 2: the name of Gaius Apulius Diocles, who this is like,
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  Speaker 2: this is the reason the inflation calculator of this made
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  Speaker 2: a heap of coin, being quite the showboat.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: So join us as we embark on a classic episode.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: It's a special one for none other than our super
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: producer Max, who knows way more about sports than we
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: ever will. Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. In confession,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I believe that I may have the perfect socks for
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: today's episode. There's some socks that a friend of mine
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: got me from his travels in Japan, and they have
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: separations in the fabric for the toes. I feel much
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: more agile than I would be wearing just normal socks.
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  Speaker 2: Ben, So they're like Ninja socks.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's the way to put up. Yeah, it's
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: like the division for the Sandals picture every Western film
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you've seen in the nineties, or something that featured ninjas.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I've got the I've got these. Uh, it's weird.
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  Speaker 1: I took my shoes off and showed, uh, showed you
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and our super producer, Casey Pegram these socks before we
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  Speaker 1: hit the air. I feel somewhat more athletic in these.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Ben, we are in a tiny shipping container type box.
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  Speaker 2: Did you put your shoes back on?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, you can tell Nol, you can tell that
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I put my shoes back on. I think I think
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: being in a small area with your shoes off like
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: that in a work environment, it would be kind of rude.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's poor. It's poor podcast etiquette, to be sure.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like loudly eating or something.
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  Speaker 2: My gosh, Ben, are you being passive aggressive to me
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: about I loud on Mike eating.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: No, you're not eating something.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I'm not right now. But you know, I've been known
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: to have a snack occasionally, but I try to do
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  Speaker 2: it off Mike.
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  Speaker 1: You usually do it when we're not on air.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: That's true. That's a good point. Although I got to
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: say sometimes I find it charming when when a podcaster
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: has a little snack on the air. I think it's
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: about personal choice, personal preference.
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  Speaker 1: So back to this idea. I am not a professional athlete,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and you and I know each other pretty well, you
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: are currently not a professional athlete.
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  Speaker 2: No, I'm barely a professional anything.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: We're barely professional podcasters, right.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I actually updated my Instagram bio to be a semi
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: pro podcast geek, so that's what I consider my safe
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: semi pro.
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  Speaker 1: There you go. We do know that the world of
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  Speaker 1: professional athleticism is obviously an enormous, enormous deal. It's a
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  Speaker 1: huge industry. Billions and billions of dollars are spent every year,
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  Speaker 1: and billions of dollars are generated every year through various
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: athletic endeavors around the world. And for Peak behind the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Curtain is the three of us record today's episode of
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History. We are on the verge of two very
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: big and unusual things for our fair metropolis of Atlanta.
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  Speaker 1: The first is a death, that's the super Bowl, and
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  Speaker 1: the second is a possible storm, a snowstorm.
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  Speaker 2: So we're looking for the snow apocalypse super Bowl traffic
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: jam coming our way pretty soon.
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  Speaker 1: Right, which became a Facebook event that a lot of
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: people in town checked in on, right, did you do that?
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Not yet? So we started thinking about the world of
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  Speaker 1: professional athletes, and we kicked around the idea of maybe
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: doing the history of Super Bowls, which could be a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: cool notion for a future episode. But we also asked
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  Speaker 1: ourselves a surprisingly fascinating question, who was the highest paid
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  Speaker 1: athlete not just this year, but in history.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. And it turns out that somebody else,
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  Speaker 2: someone with a little bit more of a historical pedigree
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  Speaker 2: than we have, a guy by the name of doctor
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  Speaker 2: Peter Struck, who's a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 2: In an article he wrote for Lapham's Quarterly, Struck went
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  Speaker 2: into great detail about his discovery that turns out, the
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  Speaker 2: highest paid athlete of all time was not like a
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  Speaker 2: footballer or a basketballer. Wasn't you know some some football player.
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  Speaker 1: Wasn't Michael Jordan, wasn't Joe Montana.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Joe Montana.
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  Speaker 1: That's a football player, that's true.
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  Speaker 2: I remember him from from video games mainly.
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  Speaker 1: I like he he had. He was known for his
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: effective but just very ugly throws.
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  Speaker 2: But he had a big old arm. Right, he was
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  Speaker 2: like an arm guy.
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  Speaker 1: Most of them do. There are very few.
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  Speaker 2: Peyton manning.
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  Speaker 1: He's a he's a good he's worth a lot of money,
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  Speaker 1: tinys and then the refrigerator.
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  Speaker 2: But no, none of those guys. Turns out it was
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  Speaker 2: a I'm gonna say, charioteer.
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  Speaker 1: Mm hmm, yeah, a charioteer named Gaus Appolius Diocles. Well done, well,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: we'll probably shift around in that in that pronunciation. Times. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: This is a very very interesting guy. He was from
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  Speaker 1: an area of what is now modern day Spain and Portugal.
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  Speaker 1: He was most likely illiterate, but man, his chariot game
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  Speaker 1: was on fire. So there's an inscription set up in
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  Speaker 1: the city of Rome that was originally created in one
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  Speaker 1: forty six CE or AD, however you prefer, and it
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  Speaker 1: tells us exactly how much this charioteer from the province
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  Speaker 1: of Lusitania earned during his oh what was it in
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  Speaker 1: old twenty four years as an athlete as a charioteer.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, And let's not sweep under the rug the fact
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  Speaker 2: that that is an awful long time to survive in
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  Speaker 2: such an intense and brutal and strenuous and dangerous for
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  Speaker 2: even spectators, let alone the people right in the thick
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  Speaker 2: of it, profession I mean, we're talking like these chariots
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  Speaker 2: being drawn by up to ten horses. He had like
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  Speaker 2: the reins tied around his way, you know, and I
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  Speaker 2: can imagine a mishap, you know, tearing him limb from limb.
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  Speaker 2: But no, he was able to maintain this career twenty
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  Speaker 2: four years, which is, oh gosh, at least four times
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  Speaker 2: the length I would say of an average you know,
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  Speaker 2: football or basketball player's career.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, even in these our modern days, ongoing studies show
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  Speaker 1: us that being an athlete can be tremendously damaging to
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  Speaker 1: the body and punishing to the mind, especially when you
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: get in the world of boxing in US football, which
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: you know, leave the door wide open to concussions.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and I just kind of pulled that
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  Speaker 2: out of my ear. But it's about Apparently, according to
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Business Insider, the average span of an NBA basketball player
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  Speaker 2: is about four point eight years.
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  Speaker 1: Right, right, It's true. It's now, this can be longer
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  Speaker 1: for some individuals, and of course it can be longer
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  Speaker 1: in some sports, right, some Olympic sports, you may have
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  Speaker 1: a longer lifespan, But professionally speaking again, we are at
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  Speaker 1: our best only humans. So this guy is doing a
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  Speaker 1: tremendous job. Back in his time as a charioteer. Will
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  Speaker 1: what exactly would his would his sport have been comprised?
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  Speaker 2: Well, like I said, he would have been piloting a
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  Speaker 2: I guess a two wheeled chariot, right, How many wheels
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  Speaker 2: around a chariot? Is it four? I think I pictured
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  Speaker 2: it as being reared back on two wheels, two wheels
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  Speaker 2: with a team of horses. I said, up to ten
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  Speaker 2: reins used to kind of encourage them to go faster
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  Speaker 2: or slow up, And like I said, he actually had
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  Speaker 2: them tied around his body so he could use his
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  Speaker 2: whole body to kind of control the horses.
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  Speaker 1: And he was racing racing ye specifically, and dirty tricks
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  Speaker 1: in chariot racing, I guess I think of maybe cartoon
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  Speaker 1: examples of chariot racing where all of a sudden, like
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  Speaker 1: one of the wheels would have like a blade on
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  Speaker 1: it or something like that, and they'd kind of go
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  Speaker 1: up close to the other participant and use that blade
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  Speaker 1: to kind of grind up at their wheel.
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  Speaker 2: And I think people would stop at nothing to defeat
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  Speaker 2: the competition, no matter what it took, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And chariot racing was a huge, huge deal. It
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  Speaker 1: was bigger than NASCAR is now. The classes would be
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  Speaker 1: divided primarily by how many horses were pulling the chariot.
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  Speaker 1: A two horse team, a four horse team, a six
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  Speaker 1: horse team. The earliest account of a chariot race occurs
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  Speaker 1: in Homer's description of the funeral of Patrick Less. These
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  Speaker 1: races were one of the big ticket items of the
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  Speaker 1: ancient Olympic Games. They would happen during religious festivals. Essentially,
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  Speaker 1: civilizations at the time viewed chariot races as a really
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  Speaker 1: cool thing to add to almost any public events. You
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  Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's like a city wide festival
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  Speaker 1: or contest. Normally, these chariot races would proceed thusly. There
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  Speaker 1: would be four to six different chariots they would compete
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  Speaker 1: in a single race, and the race would usually be
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  Speaker 1: around seven laps around what was called the circus, the
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  Speaker 1: circus maximus. These chariots, we should emphasize, were very light affairs,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, you wanted to get the maximum power
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  Speaker 1: and the minimum amount of weight. This also means that
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  Speaker 1: they were super fragile, so were a collision to occur
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  Speaker 1: you were up the wrong creek without a paddle.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And to that end, most of the folks that
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  Speaker 2: piloted these chariots only lived till about twenty four years old,
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  Speaker 2: whereas Diocles retired which is very unusual at the ripe
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  Speaker 2: old age of forty two, at which point he was
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  Speaker 2: worth a whole lot of money.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Struck found that Diocles's total earnings would have equated
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  Speaker 1: to roughly fifteen billion dollars in modern terms, fifteen billion
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  Speaker 1: with a bee. You can also see another great write
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: up of this in History Collection. There's an article by
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  Speaker 1: Alexander Mettings that we would recommend this. This is strange
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  Speaker 1: because these were all net earnings too. The charioteer didn't
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  Speaker 1: have to pay promoters, didn't have to pay you know,
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  Speaker 1: a marketing team or support as I don't know, entourage
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  Speaker 1: or shell out cash for sponsorship. He probably had it
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  Speaker 1: pretty good. You know, what would what would he have
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  Speaker 1: done personally with that? And how did Professor Struck figure
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  Speaker 1: out this number?
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  Speaker 2: On that inscription Ben that you mentioned, it has his
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  Speaker 2: earnings in the currency of the time, which is cestersche
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  Speaker 2: and that would have been thirty five million, eight hundred
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  Speaker 2: and sixty three thousand, one hundred and twenty and struck
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  Speaker 2: figured out that for the time that would have been
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  Speaker 2: enough to buy grain to feed the entirety of Rome
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  Speaker 2: for one year, and also was about five times higher
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  Speaker 2: a salary than any of the highest paid officials in
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  Speaker 2: the land, and also could have paid for every single
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  Speaker 2: Roman soldier for a fifth of a year. And that
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  Speaker 2: was when Rome was at its peak in terms of
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  Speaker 2: its military might.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, running from Scotland all the way in the far north,
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  Speaker 1: Egypt in the south, Spain in the west, and the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Euphrates in the east. He clearly busted his hump for
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  Speaker 1: this money. And to compare him to let's say the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: highest paid governmental authorities, in two months, he would earn
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  Speaker 1: what Rome's highest paid provincial governor could expect to earn
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  Speaker 1: in one year. And there was a great amount of
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  Speaker 1: risk with this. We mentioned the horse's reins being tied
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: physically to the athlete. When those fragile vehicles collided with something,
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  Speaker 1: it often resulted in the death or serious injury of
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  Speaker 1: a charioteer because the horses kept going.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, there's a lot of trampling and ben we
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  Speaker 2: were trying to get to the conversion method. We always
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: plug numbers into our handy dandy inflation calculator. Here on
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: ridiculous history. But those figures that I mentioned earlier were
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: on are on the Stone inscription the idea of being
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: able to bankroll the Roman army for a fifth of
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: a year. So Struck was able to extrapol a a
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: modern estimate based on what it would cost to pay
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: for our military. So it's obviously not a perfect one
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: to one, but it would have been a pretty good
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: educated guess absolutely. And oh you know what we should do.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: We should read the actual inscription. So here it goes.
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  Speaker 1: In the English translation, it begins with Gaius Appolius Diocles,
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  Speaker 1: charioteer of the Red statele Elusitanian Spaniard by birth age
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  Speaker 1: forty two years, seven months, twenty three days, and the
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: monument says he raced four horse chariots for twenty four years,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: so we get some valuable numbers there. We also know
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: that given his fame, there was a snowball effect. He
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: started turning down races, you know what I mean. It
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: had to be worth his time, so he would race
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: in the most high end, high profile races that had
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the most potential to win a large amount of money.
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  Speaker 1: He started in this, according to the inscription, in four
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty seven races. He won one four
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three times, and the inscription says that
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: translates to him winning ninety two major prizes. Of these,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: thirty two were of thirty thousand cisterci, three of them
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: with six horse teams, two in races with six horse chariots,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: one with a seven horse chariot he tied with because
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: they had these different factions. Right, he was a red stable, right,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: and he tied a blue stable ten times, a green
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: stable ninety one. And this inscription. The thing that's invaluable
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: about it is that it maps out his stats the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: same way that a baseball card, back when those were
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: a big deal. A baseball card would map out the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: stats of your favorite your favorite baseball player.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: And would these have been like alongside gladiator events or
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: would those have been like two different things, because I
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: feel like this would have almost been like a like
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: the gladiator thing might have been the main event. This
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: might have been like a side event, or were they
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: completely separate. I'm just wondering, you know, that's a good question.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: No, there's probably a situation again where in there were
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: large public events that involved this stuff, and there were
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: definitely chariots in gladiatorial combat.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: It as right, right, Sometimes there could have been probably
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: gladiator matches on chariot where they're like coming at each
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: other in weapons as they pass. Right.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: So let's go back for a second to the earlier
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: comparison in the world of animation and cartoons, right, how
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: exaggerated or how accurate was this depiction of chariot racing.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: It turns out that it's not completely off base. It's
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: not completely cartoonish or made up, because these knives on
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the wheels were a real thing, and the charioteers would
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: attempt to ram their rivals into the median at the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: center of the track called the spinnet, and then they
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: would come crashing into these hairpin turns they also, I
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: thought you would find just the pure spectacle of this fascinating.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: During races, it was very common for the three chariots
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: representing each faction to team up with one another to
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: bring down a very unpopular rival or a very strong
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: one like Diocles, and bring down in this sense means
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: literally grind them into the dust. This violence is part
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: of why chariot races were so incredibly popular. Like, think
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: about how many people love the Super Bowl. I'm sure
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: there's an income bracket to get a ticket because those
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: things are thousands of dollars, But millions and millions of
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: people in this country watch the Super Bowl and pull
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: for a team they love, regardless of, you know, their
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: individual demographic. Chariot races were the same way, but before television.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: That's true, and you can also probably expect to see
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: someone get really horribly injured, you know, And ideally that's
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: less the case with modern American football, or they're trying
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: to plase that out and make it less of an attraction.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: But I still think that's largely what people not to
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: like taste blood. But it's all about the stakes, right,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: what's the point of like being all in with this
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: if there aren't like real stakes, you don't feel like
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: these people have something to lose beyond just like glory
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: or being shamed or whatever.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a great question. I wrote a thing
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: a long time ago that wasn't wasn't part of how
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: stuff works, about the social role of sports as a
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: substitute for actual warfare. It hits all the same notes
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: of tribalism, you know what I mean, and identifying with
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: something larger than one's self. This is making me miss
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: car stuff, nol because we have to mention these chariot
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: races were also dangerous for the audience because the rivalry
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: went beyond lighthearted competition. It became as high risk as
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the races themselves. Think of soccer hooligans. Okay, there were
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: chariot hooligans, charioteer hooligans. One guy learned about the death
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of one of the best charioteers in the Red Faction,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: and he threw himself on the funeral pyre to be
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: burned alongside his sports idol.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Dude' that's like sports as a stand in for not
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: only warfare, but like religion.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, good call. In sixty nine AD or CE,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the Emperor Vitelius had some commoners executed because they talked
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: trash about the Blue Faction and the emperor loved them.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: He was personally offended, so he had them put to death.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: And it also reminds me of sort of the early
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: days of auto racing, like the Lamon. Remember we did
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: an episode on that where it was absolutely very dangerous
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: just physically to be a spectator, because if there was
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: a fiery crash, bits of flaming debris could go shooting
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: out into the crowd, potentially injuring or even killing people.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: There were several accounts of folks being killed at those races,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: and such is the case for these chariot races. You know,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: you'd have the potential for people in the stands getting
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: hit by, you know, pieces of flying off of the chariots.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: The twenty four hour la Mon. Yeah, we have a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: ridiculous history on that. We have something about the history
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of the race, and he's on car stuff too. If
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: you'd like to learn more about the oh my gosh,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the utterly horrific accidents that happened in those races. We
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: have to say, you know, we have to speculate a
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: bit on the psychology of the audience, because maybe that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: was part of the appeal to be right down there
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: in the thick of it, as close to the chariots
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: as possible, despite the risk, or to have this social
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: identification that was so strong that you would want to
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: physically harm someone because they were a green and you
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: were a blue. It's strange too, because Diocles was chasing
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: glory along with money, but he was definitely chasing the glory,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: chasing the fame because he switched his factions. He began
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: his career as a White and then he moved over
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: to the Greens. Because of all the teams, the Greens
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and the Blues were the most successful and the most popular,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: right and think of them like the New England Patriots
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: if you're a football fan. But then he made a switch.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: He made a switch through a plot twist. You see,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: he transferred to the less popular Red faction. And this
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: would have made pretty good financial sense to him, maybe
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: have given him some more time to shine. You would
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: have been a bigger fish and a smaller pond. Because
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: you see Diocles, when he was on the Green team,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: he was just one of many very popular charioteers. You know,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: he was possibly a footnote in history, but he could
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: become a main character in history if he went with
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the Reds. And that's what he did. And despite what
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: you might assume, he was not the He was not
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the charioteer who won the most races. He just got
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the most money. As Professor Robert B. Keybreak points out
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: in the of Diocles Roman charioteer. His victories paled in
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: comparison to those of other charioteers, such as Scorpus, who
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: had two thousand and forty eight victories, or Pompeius most closest,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: who had three thousand, five hundred and fifty nine victories.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: But he made it. He won the game, right, he retired,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: As we said, he lived a pretty sedate, fun life
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: after that, you know, from he was born in approximately
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: one oh four CE, and he passed away sometime after
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: one forty six CE. But I believe his death was
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: relatively peaceful or unremarked upon.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, especially given the profession. Right, so by that point
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: he I think it was just kind of unusual for
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: anyone in such a violent, inherently violent line of work
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: to be able to retire. And even though he didn't
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: win the most, maybe that's because he he was looking
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: he was playing the long game, right, ben. I mean,
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: he was like protecting himself and maybe not being quite
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: as reckless, but he certainly knew how to show off
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: and have some flourishes. He had his own signature style,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: almost like you know, tiger style or like something out
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: of like a street fighter game. And it was called
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: the strong final dash. Oh nice, because he could just
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: pull out all the stops and the end. That maybe
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: means he would bide his time a little bit and
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: stay out of harm's way and like protect himself. But
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: then at the end he would like come up ahead
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: of the pack. But yeah, it's crazy, man, that he
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: was able to just relaxingly drift away as an old
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: man of what was he like fifty years old?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: He passed away on his estate in the Italian countryside
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: near modern day Palestrina, and he lived out the remainder
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: of his days in a quiet life. Live in the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: quiet life. You know. He had a son and a
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: daughter who later erected a memorial to him at the site,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and there he remains in history as the high highest
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: paid athlete of all time. But you know what, my
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: spidey sense is telling me that several of our fellow
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: ridiculous historians are having a come on you guys moment
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: when you say, okay, so Diocles was really balling back
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: in the days of ancient Rome, but who is the
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: world's highest paid athlete? Now? It turns out we do
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: have the answer or an answer because some of this
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: depends on how you calculate it. Casey, help us out
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: with a drum roll here, if you would be so kind.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: The highest paid athlete in the modern world is.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: It's Floyd Mayweather, who's an American boxer, problematic figure. He's
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: gotten in some trouble with the law, but he's managed
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: to exceed the total of the other of himself and
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: the other two top earning athletes in the world, who
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: are Lebron James, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. And that
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: those three had a combined earning total of two hundred
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: and fifty nine million dollars for a season's worth of work.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that also includes like endorsements and partnerships and
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: things like that. And this is reported by Forbes magazine.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: But Mayweather knocked all of that out of the water
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: with something that happened very recently.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Right, that's correct, that's correct. He earned the top spot.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: You said, a little north of two hundred and fifty
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: mili total for those other three. Between June first, twenty
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: seventeen and June first, twenty eighteen, Floyd Mayweather earned two
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five million dollars. This comes to us
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: from a Great Money dot Com article by Mike Ayers.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Here's the kicker. He earned that not across the year,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: hearing that for one night of work when he fought
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Connor McGregor on August twenty seventh, twenty eighteen. Add in
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: his total ten million dollars worth of additional endorsements and
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: we get up to two hundred and eighty five million.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: This is not his first time topping the list. He
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: has topped at four times in the last seven years.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Of course, that's quite a princely sum. But all the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: money in the world, still with our current level of
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: medical technology, will not help you fully recover from decades
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: of brutal concussions.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: It's true.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: So you win some, you lose some, and at this
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: point still, according to doctors Struck, no one has beaten
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the record that dioclets. The charioteer established way back in
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: ancient Rome. Makes you think, would you do a chariot race?
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: No, man, the two wheel thing freaks me out.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I would totally do it.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: You just it seems like it'd be so easy to
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: flip over. Those horses have to counterbalance that you and
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: the whole time, and if you lose the slack on
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: the reins. It seems like your whole front end would
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: go into the dirt, or if they reared up a
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: little too much, you'd flip over backwards. It just seems
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: like a fool's errand to me, sir.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I you know, I see where you're coming from. To
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: each their own, I think it would be a lot
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: of fun. So if you know where I could I
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: could just ride some chariots around. Please please let me
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: know you can. You can hit us on our Facebook
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: group Ridiculous Historians. You can hit me up on Instagram
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: directly at Ben Bowlin.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Surely there's some kind of chariot simulator you could try
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: before jumping full bore into the circus Maximus.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I want to go for the gusto man.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: All right, man, I respect that, I really do. You
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: can check me out on Instagram at Embryonic Insider and
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Ben I think you had a comic recommendation today.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I do have a comic recommendation today. I am a
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: fan of a comic series called Britannia, which studies the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: story of someone named Antonius Axia, the the Empire's Finest.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: You'll love this word, folks detectioner. He is applying scientific
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: scrutiny and rational thought to various mysteries, usually mysteries that
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: he is tasked with solving by the mad Emperor Nero.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: It's a great read. It's highly recommended. Let us know
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: if you've read it and what you think about it.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, of course, thank you for checking out
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: today's show, and thank you to Casey Pegram.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: As always, thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Thanks to our amazing research associate Gabe, and thanks to
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: you Ben Bolin, my friend.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Hey, thanks to you, old Brown.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: I got a question for you. Is this this comic
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: recommendation that's sort of an alternate historical account, kind of
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: like manifest destiny or one of those kind of.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Deals without all of the tinges of supernatural stuff. Yeah,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: it's it's a mystery comic and it's well done.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Let us know what you and please be sure and
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: join us for the next episode of Ridiculous History. See
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: you next time. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: favorite shows.