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
The Sinking of the Lusitania the US entering the war. His own papers' readers were increasingly pro-war in the aftermath of the "Lusitania". McCay was as well, but was required to illustrate anti-war and anti-British editorials by editor Arthur Brisbane. In 1916, McCay rebelled against his employer's stance and began to make the pro-war "Sinking of the Lusitania" in his own time. The sinking itself was never photographed. McCay said that he gathered background details on the "Lusitania" from Hearst's Berlin correspondent August F. Beach, who was in London at the time of the disaster and was the first reporter at the scene. The film