The Highest Paid Athlete Of All-Time?

You hear a lot of people complaining about the absurd amounts of money athletes are pocketing these days. In their defense, Brian Cardinal has made over $36 million over the last 10 years, and $6,750,000 last year to play 267 minutes and score 48 points. BRIAN CARDINAL!!!!

So with the absurd amounts of money today’s athletes are raking in, who has earned the most over their prestigous career?

Tiger Woods? Nope.

Michael Jordan? Nope.

Alex Rodriguez? Nope.

Peyton Manning? Nuh-uh. Tom Brady? Not even close. Phil Mickelson? Nah.

Floyd “Money” Mayweather? Uh, no.

Here’s a list of 2010′s highest paid athletes: SI.com’s 2010 Fortunate 50

Then who? Try Gaius Appuleius Diocles, an Ancient Roman Charioteer, who amassed “the staggering sum” of 35,863,120 sesterces (ancient Roman coins) in prize money. That’s the equivalent of approximately $15 billion.

Diocles began his career in 122 A.D., at the age of 18, and won 1,462 of his 4,257 races and finished second 861 times in his illustrious career. He made nine horses “centenari” (100-time winners) and one horse, Pompeianus, a 200-time winner. Diocles retired at the age of “42 years, 7 months, and 23 days.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE ABOUT THE HIGHEST PAID ATHLETE OF ALL-TIME

It’s a really interesting read and even delves into Diocles’ career and the similarities to today’s sponsorship deals with the Ancient Roman teams of: the Reds, Greens, Blues and Whites. (Diocles had short stints with the Whites and Greens before settling in for a long career with the Reds.)

The original publication was in Lapham’s Quarterly and can be read HERE.

I highly recommend any sports fan reading both of these articles. They basically document how even 1,800 years ago, sports were dominating forces in entertainment, and the same issues in society existed even back then (playwrights were mad because the sporting events drew more people to watch, reserve seating was recommended as a good place to pick up aristocratic women, and it was advised to let your hand linger as you fluffed her seat cushion…. etcetera)