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
Roman bridge two, if on a border). The Alcántara Bridge in Lusitania, for example, was built at the expense of 12 local municipalities, whose names were added on an inscription. Later, in the Roman Empire, the local lords of the land had to pay tithes to the empire for "opus pontis". The Anglo-Saxons continued this practice with "bricg-geworc", a literal translation of "opus pontis". Built in 142 BC, the Pons Aemilius, later named "Ponte Rotto" (broken bridge), is the oldest Roman stone bridge in Rome, Italy. The largest Roman bridge was Trajan's bridge over the lower Danube, constructed by Apollodorus of Damascus,