Original subtitles

Narrator: Rome.

The year is 90 ad.

(crowd cheering)

A 21 year old slave, flavius scorpus

Is ready to take on all comers in the biggest sport

In the greatest arena in the ancient world;

150,000 screaming fans are in love with the speed,

Fury, and drama of chariot racing.

♪

Even the emperor, domitian

Is obsessed with the sport's theater

And the political power it can win for him.

We join the latest excavations

To discover the spectacular arenas

The romans built across the empire.

Bockmann: This is a turning point for the chariots.

You have to imagine three big cones standing on there.

This is the crucial point where the race is won or lost.

Narrator: We investigate how a mere slave,

Flavius scorpus could become a racing superstar.

Toner: A successful charioteer

Would have to be physically very tough.

Narrator: We discover a man who risked his life daily

To become one of history's richest athletes.

But envy and superstition were as dangerous

As scorpius' rivals on the track.

Man: We have here a curse against opposing charioteers.

Narrator: And it was all battled out

In the greatest race track on earth, the circus maximus.

(crowd cheering) ♪

♪

It's been just 90 years since the birth of jesus christ,

Far from rome an ambitious young slave,

Called flavius scorpus,

Has been winning hundreds of chariot races.

He's seen friends and rivals die on the track

In one of history's most dangerous sports.

But the real glory and the big money

Are not found in the provinces.

There's only one arena scorpus wants to perform in,

In the very heart of the empire.

Bell: The life defining event of any charioteer

Would be to race at the circus maximus.

Toner: The circus maximus is enormous.

It holds at least 150,000 people,

Which is almost double what any stadium

In the world is able to hold today.

Narrator: We don't know exactly

When scorpus first arrived in rome,

But he would have been based

In one of the many training camps.

And since most charioteers never made it that far,

He must have been made of the right stuff.

Bell: Even for charioteers who made it to rome,

Only a select few would have actually

Been able to race in the circus maximus,

As it was the ultimate venue.

Toner: A successful charioteer

Would have to be physically very tough

But mentally they would have to be tough too.

They'd have to be phenomenally competitive.

They'd have to be prepared to

Push their rivals out of their way.

Narrator: In rome, an ambitious young racer

Can come to the attention of the emperor.

And in scorpus' time the emperor is this man, domitian.

He's won support by raising the pay of his armies

And thrilling the public with lavish entertainments.

But the rumors are rife

That he's having an affair with his own niece

And spending way more than he can afford on the games.

Bell: Domitian is an interesting emperor because,

Of course, he came from a very important family,

The flavians, and his father verspasian

Was responsible for creating the building

That we now call the colosseum, the flavian amphitheater.

Grig: So then we have the successful dynasty

Establishing itself in rome with verspasian.

He has two sons.

The first one would succeed him, titus.

He seems to be popular.

The stories tell us people liked him.

Narrator: Titus won popularity by

Finishing the colosseum

And relieving the peoples suffering

After the volcanic destruction of pompeii.

But titus died of a fever.

Domitian came to power with a hard act to follow.

Grig: It's the unpopular younger brother domitian

Who takes over and he does not get such a good reputation.

Narrator: So domitian set out to win popularity

By rebuilding rome and keeping the people entertained

With spectacular shows.

Under domitian there were over

60 days of chariot races a year,

And the season kicked off

With a great circus parade or pompa circensis.

Taking part in the pompa for the very first time

Was a huge moment for an up-and-coming

Driver like scorpus.

Meijer: You can compare the opening ceremonies

Of the charioteering games

With the opening ceremonies of the olympic games.

Toner: The day started with a procession

Where all of the charioteers and their horses

Would be paraded in front of the crowd.

(crowd cheering)

Meijer: The pompa was received by the crowd,

And they were crying for the emperor.

They were crying for domitian,

"you are our hero.

"you organized for us these great festivals."

Bockmann: You have to imagine the whole spectacle

As breathtaking.

Narrator: It's race day.

The pompa was a grand and elaborate event.

But the chance of imminent catastrophe

On the racetrack was never far away.

This wasn't just about sports,

But life and death too.

So, the roman obsession with religion

Played a prominent role.

Toner: They would carry statues of the gods

In whose honor the festival games were being held.

Bell: So the circus games

Weren't just athletic competitions,

Or political stagecraft or a religious ritual.

They were all three wrapped into one spectacular package.

♪

Narrator: Statues of the gods appeared alongside

Likenesses of the imperial family

And all placed on a viewing platform

To watch over the races.

(crowd cheering)

The parade is both a formal event,

And a chance for mischief.

Performers dressed as satyrs

Are permitted to mock the emperor

(crowd laughing)

Up to a point. (crowd laughing)

♪

♪

Bockmann: You'd get the first glimpse

Of the big stars of the races, the charioteers.

Some of them had competed in literally thousands of races

And were among the most famous and popular people in rome.

♪

(crowd cheering)

Narrator: For all the racers there is

The prospect of imminent glory or disaster,

But for scorpus, a racer new to rome,

The stakes are enormous.

Bell: So when flavius scorpus appeared

For the first time at the circus maximus,

This would have been a life altering event.

Bockmann: 150,000 people, the smells, the noise,

And the excitement for the races.

Loades: Just imagine entering the circus maximus

On your chariot for the first time.

The wall of sound would have hit you.

And all those thousands and thousands

Of people standing up and cheering.

These are people who've put money on the races.

These are people who care probably

Even more than you about the outcome,

And your main job in that moment

Is to keep your horses calm.

To be a professional sportsman at that level

You have to have the ability for absolute focus.

Bockmann: I think it's hard to imagine the excitement

That you would have as a charioteer standing

In this little box with the four horses in front of you.

You want to win.

You could earn a lot of money, but you could also die.

It's a life defining moment.

Loades: The frisson of excitement

That you could almost touch in the air

In the place that was the circus maximus,

The greatest sporting arena in the world.

♪

(crowd cheering)

Bockmann: To ensure that it's fair,

Lots were drawn to define the starting positions.

The first color coming out of the urn

Could choose the first starting box and so on and so on.

Narrator: Inside the packed circus maximus,

60 days of chariot races starts right here, right now.

♪

(crowd cheering)

Bell: In the first stage of the race

The chariots all accelerate into position.

Bockmann: They had to keep their position.

Only when they arrived at the middle the barrier,

They were free to go.

Scorpus: Hiya!

Loades: Roman chariot racing

Was the pinnacle of competitive sport.

Narrator: Scorpus' years of devoted training

And personal sacrifice have all been leading to this moment.

If he fails, he will be forgotten in a heartbeat.

If he wins, then his dream of one day gaining

Fame, fortune, and freedom lives on.

♪

(crowd cheering)

Scorpus: Hiya!

Hiya!

Hiya!

Narrator: The charioteer scorpus

Has gained his first victory at the circus maximus

Starting his climb toward becoming the hero of rome,

The champion of the super fans

Who thronged the circus maximus.

♪

At the bardo museum in tunisia,

A rare snapshot of a day at the races

Has been beautifully preserved.

Willekes: So, what we're looking at right now is a mosaic

That shows a traditional circus scene,

And it shows a lot of the characters,

The individuals that we would expect to see in such a scene

And it gives us again a good idea of the architecture

Of the traditional roman circus.

One of the things that is unique about this mosaic

Is that it's an unusual depiction of the audience

Because they're very passive,

Which is not what it would have been like.

If you read any of the literary

Descriptions of a day at the races,

You know there's this excitement.

There's the fans going crazy,

Yelling and jumping up and down,

And urging on their teams,

And almost riding along with their driver

Trying to get them.

They want their team to win.

So they're not gonna sit there passively watching.

But what this image of the audience does show us

Is it gives us an idea of how popular racing is.

This was the biggest spectator sport in the roman world.

Huge numbers of people would come out to the races

Of all different social classes to watch

The races of the day and cheer on their teams,

And it was sort of just a huge part of

Roman social activity across the empire.

Narrator: The circus maximus staged chariot races

For a thousand years.

By the time a succession of emperors

Had left their mark on the circus,

It was just under 2,000 feet in length

And over 260 feet wide.

Toner: The number of race days grows over time.

At the start of the empire, it's about 30 days a year.

By end of the empire, it's 66 days of racing a year.

So in other words, there's racing almost once a week,

And each day's racing held normally 12 chariot races.

So there's a huge number of races

That are going on throughout the racing calendar.

Narrator: Each race ran over seven grueling laps,

A distance of over five miles, lasting up to 15 minutes.

That's much longer than the kentucky derby,

Which is a mile and a quarter sprint of around two minutes.

But the circus maximus wasn't just about the racing.

It was also a chance to mix with the opposite sex.

Grig: One of the things that we get told about the

Circus maximus is that men and women can go there together,

Which is quite unusual because that's not supposed

To be the case in other theaters for example.

And indeed the poet ovid describes it,

Therefore as a great place to pick up women.

Bockmann: It is larger than any

Modern sports arena that we have today.

♪

So a modern football stadium

Maybe holds 80-90,000 spectators.

Whereas the circus maximus

Almost doubled the size for spectators.

There are authors who speak of up to 250,000 spectators

Watching the chariot races here in rome.

Narrator: As the circus grew

And the races assumed greater and greater importance,

So did the complexity of the arena's design.

The grandstands overlook the long straights

And curve at one end.

There is a special box for dignitaries, the pulvinar.

And down the center of the circuit,

There's an elaborate barrier, the spina.

At the far end lie the starting gates.

Bockmann: Behind me you can see the seating for the spectators,

Which were organized on different levels.

Then you need two main features for the races themselves.

You need starting gates and a middle barrier.

The starting gates ensure that every chariot

Parted at exactly the same time.

They were very cleverly designed here,

So that all the boxes open

At exactly the same point in time.

(crowd cheering)

♪

Narrator: And it wasn't just a race track.

It was also a self contained city, within a city.

Marialetzia buonofiglia is an expert

On the inner life of the circus.

Bockmann: So we're now under the seating, right?

(woman speaking in foreign language)

Interpreter: Yes, we're in one of the many areas

That supported the bleachers.

Imagine for the entire length of the circus on both sides,

In excess of half a mile, a series of shops,

Taberna, one after the other.

I've called the circus the ancient worlds

Largest shopping center.

So there were bakeries, brothels,

And bankers to change money for betting.

There were many businesses.

For example, in our excavation

We found traces of a butchers shop.

We've also found a fullonica, a laundry.

It was a mass of useful

And interesting places for daily life.

(people chatting loudly)

Toner: A day out at the circus maximus was

Not just about the racing

Bockmann: So there's a whole infrastructure

Around the racetrack and the races themselves.

You could basically do your shopping here.

Toner: You could go to a tavern,

And there would have been lots of wine flowing.

Bockmann: You could bet on the horses or races.

Toner: There were brothels that were famous

For applying their trade around the circus

(woman speaking in foreign language)

Interpreter: We're in the upper gallery,

An area of heavy foot traffic,

Which more than two-thirds

Of the spectators would pass through.

This gallery as well as the one on the ground floor

Was equipped with lavatories.

There were many lavatories like this

All along the length of the circus.

Also in some cases,

Let's say the raw material was used to wash laundry.

Urea is rich in ammonia,

So it was used to clean clothes in ancient times.

♪

Narrator: The four main racing factions,

Blue, green, white, and red

Were the ferrari or mercedes teams of their day.

They had stables, supply chains,

Money, and above all star drivers.

Scorpus drove for the greens.

Toner: The factions were big business.

They're effectively a kind of contractor

That the emperor would pay to put on the show on his behalf.

So there's a lot of money involved

In paying for the charioteers, in paying for the horses,

In feeding them and all the training that has to go on.

So it's a real almost industrial exercise.

♪

Narrator: And scorpus had now found four horses

That were propelling him to

A record-breaking run of victories,

A run that was spreading his fame

Far and wide across the empire.

(crowd cheering)

♪

Scorpus is the rising star

Of rome's circus maximus in 90-ad.

In his early 20s,

He's starting to win in the biggest circuit on earth.

Scorpus raced for a single team or faction, the greens,

But that was unusual.

Most drivers were guns for hire,

Just like modern day indycar and formula one drivers,

Seeking out the best teams and the highest winnings.

Willekes: We have inscriptions that tell us

That charioteers didn't always race for the same color.

Most of them seemed to have run for all four colors

At different points in their careers,

So just like a modern comparison with football or hockey,

You start off in the junior leagues,

And then you get spotted by a talent spotter

So they could win in the circus.

Narrator: But these vast racing teams

Weren't in it just for fun.

They were in it for the money, prestige, and power.

Willekes: These factions then gained so much power

That they dictate the prices they charged,

What it cost to rent their horses, to rent their drivers,

To have them for a day on the track,

And the magistrates who were running these games

They had to kow-tow to these factions

To get what they needed.

Narrator: There's even a story that rival faction leaders

Once colluded to try to leverage a price rise.

They demanded so much money

That the emperor passed them a message.

He didn't need their horses in the circus.

He would run dogs instead.

Willekes: So the official threatened to run dogs.

It's like I'm not gonna pay that for your horses.

I'm going to hire dogs.

And the emperor was like okay, this can't happen,

So he basically bullied the factions

Into being more realistic,

And I think helped covered the cost of it as well.

♪

Narrator: Aside from emperor domitian's astute grasp

Of the political power of the sport,

He was genuinely a fan of chariot racing,

And with every intention of having

The best seat in the house,

A spectacular view from his own palace.

Bell: So what we can see here is the circus maximus

And just above we can see domitian's palace,

Also known as the flavian palace.

It affords a view onto the games

And creates this kind of symbiotic relationship

Between the ruler and the ruled.

Narrator: Domitian's personal poet, martial,

Constantly flattered his emperor,

Claiming that when domitian was away from rome,

The crowd gazed at his empty palace

And couldn't concentrate on the races

Because they missed him so much.

It doesn't seem likely.

(crowd cheering)

But when domitian did attend,

He didn't let a huge captive race day crowd go to waste.

It was always a chance to try

To boost his own precarious popularity.

Bell: One of the ways in which the emperor

Would enhance the experience of the games

Was through a lottery.

(crowd cheering)

♪

The lottery took the form of small wooden balls

Which were thrown into the crowd,

And when an audience member caught them,

He or she would open them up

To find a prize inscribed inside.

Toner: This might just be a small pot of money,

Or it might be a whole house

Or even an estate in the countryside.

And you can imagine the frantic scrambling

That would have gone on to get hold of these things.

♪

Narrator: Events like these were played out

On a smaller scale all across the roman world.

Excavations are revealing that the empire

Was home to over 60 race tracks.

Over 350 miles from rome,

Across the mediterranean at carthage in modern day tunisia,

Archaeologists are finding new clues

About how the circuit was laid out.

Bockmann: We're in the circus of carthage,

The biggest circus outside of rome.

We're standing on the arena floor itself.

So you have to imagine that over this floor

The horses were running at a high speed.

(crowd cheering)

In the back we have the spectators,

70-80,000 people lining all the circus

Over hundreds of meters, booing, cheering for their chariot.

Narrator: All roman circuses

Followed largely the same plan,

Mirroring the circus maximus in rome.

Down the center of every track there was the spina barrier.

Bockmann: This is the end of the spina itself

In this semi-circle.

And in front of it you see the meta.

The meta it's the turning point for the chariots.

You have to imagine three big cones standing on there

So that the charioteers can see them from far away.

They know where they have to do

This crucial 180 degree turn.

They come from here, turn around there.

This is the most dangerous point,

That also means that the spectator sitting over there

Have the best places in the whole stadium.

Narrator: And clear for everyone to see on the spina

Was the lap counter,

Golden dolphins turned every time the chariots passed.

♪

The team in cathage have found a unique clue

To another of the special purposes of the spina.

Bockmann: This is the remains of the inner part

Of the spina of the middle barrier.

We have made a very important find here.

It doesn't look like much,

But it tells us a lot about how

The spina did actually look like in roman times.

This is what we call hydraulic mortar.

It's roman building material with a lot of pottery in it,

And it makes constructions waterproof.

That's why it's very important in roman architecture,

And it always indicates use of water in a structure.

Narrator: It's evident that water,

Lots of it, played a significant role on race day.

Just like a baseball field in the dog days of summer,

The groundskeepers needed to keep

The racetrack ready for action.

Loades: The baking heat of a hot day in rome

The circus maximus would be a dust bowl,

And imagine with 12 chariots and 48 horses.

You wouldn't have been able to see in front of your face.

So that's the problem for the charioteers.

It would certainly have affected the performance

Of the horses, which matters,

And most importantly, the paying public,

The spectators, wouldn't be able to see.

And what they did about it

Was they had people called sparsoris,

People with amphora of water.

And if you just simply sprinkle the track,

You don't have to make it very wet,

But if I just damp this down with water,

Then I'm going to reduce the clouds of dust.

If you go to a rodeo or a horse event

In the west coast of the america,

Where it's hot and arid and dry,

Before every event you will find guys with hoses

Sprinkling, spraying the track before each occasion.

Narrator: Surviving mosaics in tunisia

Seem to confirm this practice in the roman empire.

Willekes: Down here, we have a figure in a green tunic.

He is probably what's called a sparsor or the sprinkler.

The green tunic suggests that he is associated

With our green driver, so the green faction.

Up there we see another individual in a green tunic.

He's on horseback,

And so we think his job is to inform his driver

Of what's going on around him on the track

Because the track is a very big area.

It's dusty, it's noisy,

And the driver can't really pay attention

To everything that's happening around him.

So that he can focus on his horses,

But still be aware of what's going on.

♪

Narrator: Scorpus is now rapidly

Gaining the kind of experience and cunning

That means he's no longer just part of the race.

In his early 20s, he is still a relatively young gun

At the circus maximus, but fast becoming the man to beat.

♪

(crowd cheering)

In 94-ad the great charioteer scorpus is now 25 years old.

Most charioteers don't make it much past this age.

The emperor domitian has increased

The number of daily races to 30.

So scorpus is regularly risking his life

Driving for the green faction several times a day,

Testing himself against the empire's

Finest horses and drivers.

Toner: It was a question of tactics.

If you could take the inner line,

Then your horses had to race a much shorter distance.

But above all, it was about turning

The turning posts really tightly,

Because it was easy to lose control of the four horses

And for them to take a really wide berth.

♪

Narrator: For the big money races,

Each faction pits their two best drivers against the rest.

(crowd cheering)

♪

(drivers yelling)

Bell: In the second stage of the race,

They jostle into position in order to get

As close as possible to the inner barrier.

Ockmann: Which is also dangerous

Because if you touch it you'll crash,

But it makes you cover less track than the others.

♪

So laps were counted mechanically

By an installation of dolphins.

Bell: The teams went around the central barrier

A total of seven times,

And they would have averaged about 20 miles per hour.

They may have reached speeds as high as 50 miles per hour.

Narrator: Travelling at high speed

In a leather and wood basket on wheels

Must have tested the nerve of every charioteer.

♪

But being able to react quickly to unfolding events

Would have separated scorpus from the rest of the field.

Bockmann: The fact that there could always be crashes

Would make these races exciting.

(crowd cheering)

Toner: To do seven laps of the circus maximums

Is about three-and-a-half miles.

So it means that the race was all about pacing yourself,

Controlling your horses, avoiding the pitfalls,

And then timing your run,

So that you could really sort of speed past everyone

And reach the finishing line at just the right moment.

♪

(loud yelling)

(crowd cheering)

Narrator: Scorpus' career was in full flight

As a star charioteer with winnings to match

And the admiration of the emperor.

One of the key historical sources about scorpus

Is domitian's court poet martial,

Who immortalized scorpus

And his own jealousy over the charioteers success.

Have pity rome.

How long shall I be earning just

A hundred paltry coins for a whole day's work,

While in a single hour, scorpus triumphantly carries off

15 bags of shining gold?

(crowd cheering)

Bell: Winning a victory in the circus maximus

For a charioteer could be a life changing event.

Narrator: This ancient list of charioteers

Reveals the huge number of races scorpus won.

In a decade of competition,

He triumphed in 2,048 races, an astonishing achievement,

The fastest winning streak known in chariot racing history.

Toner: We know that scorpus won

2,048 races in his 10 year career.

He must have been racing then in five or 6,000 races

Which meant he was probably racing five or 600 times a year.

He's out there risking his life on a very regular basis,

But it also means that because he's successful,

He's winning a lot of money,

It quickly accumulates into a huge amount of money.

Narrator: It has been calculated

That the successful charioteer diocles

Won the equivalent of 15 billion dollars over his career

And scorpus won even more races,

Averaging over 200 victories per year.

He clearly thought it was worth the risk.

Toner: The charioteers were huge superstars,

And because of their celebrity status,

Even the emperors would like to

Associate themselves with them.

It showed that the emperor shared the passions

And the enjoyment of the people

That he had something of the common touch about him.

Narrator: But scorpus wasn't

Taking home all his winnings.

He was still a slave, owned by the green faction

Who are taking a big percentage of his prize money.

With each victory, freedom comes a step closer.

In rome it's still possible to find evidence of slaves

In other professions who managed to buy their way out.

Bell: Here we are at the tomb of p. Quintius t.L. Liber,

In other words, the tomb of publius quintius,

The freedman of titus who was a bookseller.

The l after his name tells us that he was a libertus,

That is a freed slave.

He was able to overcome the shackles of slavery

And eventually become a successful professional

Buying his freedom.

This is like the story of scorpus,

In the sense that he would had risen up

From the shackles of slavery,

But he achieved a level of wealth and greatness and fame

That this bookseller could have never even imagined.

♪

Narrator: In a simple ceremony called manumission,

Scorpus was touched on the shoulder

Signifying the freedom he was buying.

But scorpus wasn't about to give up racing.

As a free man,

He could now keep even more of his prize money,

And the victories kept on coming.

In his mid 20s,

Scorpus was the lebron james of charioteering,

A true superstar.

But that didn't mean everyone was a fan.

Toner: The most successful charioteers were hugely rich.

They were famous,

And yet they were not quite acceptable in polite society.

They were seen as being a bit violent, a bit rough

And so they were never quite sort of

Able to acquire the kind of high social status

That their money would otherwise have enabled them to buy.

Narrator: Roman racing fans were no different

Than modern sports junkies, merchandise was everywhere.

Fans would wear team colors

And buy mass-produced souvenirs.

Bell: The circus games were a

Multi-dimensional sensory experience,

And it makes a lot of sense that fans

Wanted to take some kind of memento with them.

♪

Narrator: Charioteers like scorpus were so popular

That their images appeared across the roman world.

Now at the height of his fame,

Scorpus was the man to beat.

And his opponents were prepared to resort to dark tactics,

Even black magic.

♪

Today, fans have been known to have their ashes

Scattered around their favorite sports stadiums.

And 2,000 years ago roman racing fans

Were no less obsessive.

Scorpus would have been surrounded by supporters

Who delighted in his success for the green faction.

Toner: The fans who went to the racing were hugely passionate,

But they were also hugely knowledgeable.

They knew all kinds of details about the horses,

About the horses breeding and pedigree.

They knew about the charioteers

And the charioteers' records,

And they were intensely loyal to their factions.

Narrator: Even a star athlete could get

Into trouble wandering into enemy territory.

(men yelling angrily)

♪

And if you couldn't physically attack the opposition,

There was another way to get at them,

♪

By using magic.

Grig: You could pay someone to put a curse on the rival team.

You would often do this in a great deal of detail.

One of the cursed tablets found not

It only names the charioteers on the rival team

But also names of their mothers.

And then you affix this lead tablet,

And you'd bury it in a specific place.

♪

Narrator: Next to the enormous race track at caesarea,

In modern day israel,

Excavations have discovered proof of this dark magic.

Curses.

They had been buried in water.

Daniel: We are now looking at the well

Where around 60 curses were found.

Wells were thought to provide access

To the underworld, and the underworld god,

And that's the reason that magicians

Deposited curses in them.

Narrator: Rolled up lead scrolls

Were ritually thrown into the well.

They have been painstakingly unrolled

In the israel antiquities authority's laboratory.

At first glance they seem almost blank,

But when photographed under multiple pin points of light,

A different story emerges.

♪

Ancient spells cast by magicians

Nearly 2000 years ago, start to appear.

Robert daniel has spent over a decade translating them.

They were designed to make favorite drivers go faster,

Or destroy their opponents.

Daniel: We have here a curse against opposing charioteers

Who should lose against a charioteer named domninus.

The curse opens up with an invocation.

It says I call upon you, mighty mistress.

To judge from the title,

It's the greek goddess necessity.

Narrator: After appealing to the goddess for help,

The dark work of the spell begins

To curse the opponents of domninus.

Daniel: It says, bind and blind the opposing charioteers,

So that they do not see dominus,

The charioteers, and the opposing horses.

Bind and blind them, cast them down.

Do not allow them to run.

Let them not make the turn.

Let them not win in the circus of caesarea.

Narrator: One tablet known as ct16 has shed

Fresh light on how precise and cruel curses could be

Using subtle word magic associated

With symbolic material rolled up in the curse.

Daniel: Here we have a ct16 before it was opened.

At this point we see a little something peeking out.

And here we see the roll being opened

With this strange material appearing.

Upon analysis we learned

That these are remnants of the plant sage,

The greek word for sage is svakos.

It's related to the word svakolos,

Which means trembling or shaking,

From svakolos we also get svakalismos

And that refers to epilepsy in horses.

(man speaking in foreign language)

♪

If we put that all together, we can suppose

That the magician wished that the svakos,

The sage, causes fits, seizures

In the horses before or during the race.

♪

Narrator: As the king of roman chariot racing,

Scorpus must have faced many curses.

He no doubt countered them with charms for his protection

And for a time this former slave won more races,

Faster than anyone before him.

(crowd cheering)

(horses braying)

Scorpus' story was genuinely rags to riches,

The exception that seems to prove that in rome

Anyone with the right stuff can make it.

It was myth making of the highest order.

(crowd cheering)

Scorpus won 2,048 races,

An astonishing achievement

And the fastest winning streak in chariot racing history.

But with the average life span in his sport just 25,

Scopurs' career was always likely to end violently.

The records are unclear how it happened.

A bad turn?

An unruly horse?

An unscrupulous competitor?

All we know is that by end of ad-95,

At the height of his powers,

The slave to superstar named scorpus was gone.

He was 26 years old.

Toner: We know that he was at the summit of his career.

♪

He probably died in one of those dramatic shipwrecks

That we hear the romans talking about so often.

♪

Narrator: It has been calculated that michael jordan,

The highest paid athlete of modern times,

Earned 1.65 billion dollars in his long career.

Scorpus amassed approximately

15 billion dollars in a decade.

Chariot racing as a spectator sport across the roman world

Endured for around a thousand years.

Toner: But it actually lasts beyond the empire,

And the last known race is in 549-ad.

It survives the empire because it was so popular.

The people who replaced the roman emperors, the goths,

Want to maintain their popularity

With the local population

But it dies out because it's expensive.

Grig: The infrastructure required

To run the chariot racing as we know is enormous.

I mean, the city of rome it was no longer

The same kind of city.

It didn't have the same kind of spectacles

And infrastructure as the earlier city.

♪

Narrator: Just one year after scorpus' death,

Emperor domitian was assassinated.

He'd kept the roman people happy

With food and entertainment, bread, and circuses,

But he'd failed to win over rome's elite.

His statues were smashed in the streets,

His memory obliterated.

By contrast, the adored slave charioteer scorpus

Lived long in the popular imagination,

Commemorated even by those who had

Once stolen envious glances at him.

Toner: He's mentioned in the poet martial,

Who describes how famous he was

And how everyone in rome knew all about

This great charioteer celebrity.

Narrator: Scorpus, robbed of your youthful prime,

Oh, such a shame.

Death thought you were old

Because of your multitude of victories.

Scorpus, yoke up your steeds now and drive.

You drove so swiftly once right to the finishing line.

Why did you have to finish your life's race so soon?