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
Claudius, Duke of Lusitania the Franks and routed them, killing 5,000 and capturing 2,000, as well as their camp. According to Isidore of Seville, "nulla umquam in Hispaniis Gothorum uictoria uel maior in bello vel similis extitit": "No victory of the Goths in Spain was ever greater or even equal to it." The chronicler John of Biclarum, with even more excitement, exaggerated his figures to make Claudius, the next Gideon, defeat 60,000 Franks (the evil Midianites in the biblical metaphor) with merely 300 men. Claudius, Duke of Lusitania Claudius was a Hispano-Roman Catholic "dux" (duke) of Lusitania (or "dux Emeretensis civitatis") in the late