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
RMS Lusitania 1,962 passengers and crew aboard "Lusitania" at the time of the sinking, 1,198 lost their lives. As in the sinking of "Titanic", most of the casualties were from drowning or hypothermia. In the hours after the sinking, acts of heroism amongst both the survivors of the sinking and the Irish rescuers who had heard word of "Lusitania"s distress signals brought the survivor count to 764, three of whom later died from injuries sustained during the sinking. A British cruiser , which had heard of the sinking only a short time after "Lusitania" was struck, left her anchorage in Cork Harbour