Roman Empire Fan loyalty was fierce and at times erupted into sports riots. Racing was perilous, but charioteers were among the most celebrated and well-compensated athletes. One star of the sport was Diocles, from Lusitania (present-day Portugal), who raced chariots for 24 years and had career earnings of 35 million sesterces. Horses had their fans too, and were commemorated in art and inscriptions, sometimes by name. The design of Roman circuses was developed to assure that no team had an unfair advantage and to minimize collisions ("naufragia," "shipwrecks"), which were nonetheless frequent and spectacularly satisfying to the crowd. The races retained a
Sinking of the RMS Lusitania American citizens aboard. He referred to the ammunition and military goods declared on "Lusitania"s manifest and said that "vessels of that kind" could be seized and destroyed under the Hague rules without any respect to a war zone. The following day the German government issued an official communication regarding the sinking in which it said that the Cunard liner "Lusitania" "was yesterday torpedoed by a German submarine and sank", that "Lusitania" "was naturally armed with guns, as were recently most of the English mercantile steamers" and that "as is well known here, she had large quantities of war material in