The Chariot – history’s first personal transport concept

For the record, Valentino Rossi has a much better 47% win ratio (96 wins from 207 starts) as the best ever in MotoGP, Formula One’s best is Juan Manuel Fangio who won 24 of 51 starts (also 47%) and Michael Schumacher’s F1 career comes in at 91 wins from 248 starts for a win ratio of 36.7%.

Testimony to how good Diocles must have been at his craft, can be drawn from 4,257 races he started – nearly 20 times the number of F1 GPs that Michael Schumacher drove in a long and splendid career – despite all of modern technology’s wonders, Schumacher broke his legs in an accident. One wonders what injuries Diocles had to carry in racing what averages out to be one race every two days for a quarter of a century – a punishing schedule for such a brutal and dangerous sport where death was common, medical assistance was fundamentally primitive, and being trampled and maimed by the other horses and chariots was a daily event.

For those of less-than-noble birth, becoming a top charioteer was one of the only ways to significantly improve one’s lot in life. Just as the charioteer was one of the earliest examples of a warrior elite selected for skill rather than by birth, the sporting charioteer commanded pay commensurate with the best of today’s sporting elite.

Just how much money could a top chariot driver earn?

Diocles career earnings were a matter of public record when he retired - 36 million sesterces. We couldn’t do the math to compare it with Valentino Rossi’s US$34 million income last year. A sesterce had a nominal value of 2.5 asses (2.5 donkeys), so there are no ready conversions to 2008 dollars, but in rough terms, 90 million asses is a considerable fortune. By comparison, the hyper-wealthy general and politician of the late Roman Republic, Crassus (who fought in the war to defeat Spartacus), was said to have had estates worth 200 million sesterces. Diocles retired at 42 in reported ruddy heath having amassed a small fortune. He must have been equally as good as a Rossi or a Schumacher and then some because he performed at the highest level for 24 years and survived, when many famous drivers died very young - Aurelius Mollicius at 20, Fuscus at 24, Crescens at 22. Diocles retired at 42 years of age, unquestionably one of history’s forgotten superstars.

So in terms of career earnings, Diocles seems to have been equally well rewarded as the current master of sporting communication and commercial excellence Valentino Rossi.

In terms of safety, the charioteers would have been perpetually at dire risk. They wore minimal body protection and a light helmet but common agreement was that the most effective method of controlling the horses was wrapping the reins of the four horses around the charioteer’s waist, so he could use body movements to control the horses. This meant that if things did go pear-shaped and the chariot got turned over, the charioteer could easily be dragged behind a team of horses in the direct path of the following horses. Cutting oneself free of the reins in the case of accident was a key survival skill and whatever was required, Diocles seemingly had the lot.

Professional charioteers came from the lower classes, and the winning wreath (a motorsport tradition borrowed from chariot racing) was presented to the winning owner, not the driver. Chariot racing became a dominant theme in Greek art, sculpture, pottery and coins as it did in Roman times. Nearly a thousand years later, many Roman household items depicted famous chariot races of the day –chariot racing was the first and most popular regular sporting event and accumulated several thousand years of history. Most modern sports are less than 200 years old.

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