A monument was erected to the Charioteer Gaius Appuleius Diocles by admirers to celebrate his illustrious career.
Rome had four main 'stables' of racers which were designated by colors: Red, Blue, Green and White. Each stable would engage in races, sometimes with multiple stable team members in each race, over a series of designations of horse teams, from 2 up to 9 horses pulling each chariot.
Diocles was a Spaniard by birth and the monument records his retirement aged 42 years, 7 months and 23 days after 24 years of racing. He first drove for the White Stable, later transferred to the Greens and spent most of his career driving for Red.
He started 4,257 races and won 1,462 victories, 110 of which were in 'opening’ races in which the chariots would race to the stadium before the games began. In a straight fight between each stable (so only one driver from each team), he won 1,064 times.
He won 92 'major purses' in single horse races, 32 of them winning 30,000 sesterces at a time, 28 at 40,000 sesterces and 3 at 60,000 sesterces. In two horse races he won 347 times. In three horse races, he won 51 victories.
He won or 'placed' 2,900 times, second 861 times, third 576 times and fourth once.
He tied with the Blues 10 times and with White 91 times for 30,000 sesterces every time. He won under handicap 36 times, won in 'various styles' 42 times, and won in a 'final dash' 502 times (216 over Green, 205 over Blue, 81 over White). The 'final dash' is hard to understand but would appear to be a 'last lap win' and carries the most prestige.
Nine of his horses won 100 races. One of them won 200 races.
The rest of the inscription is lost or hard to understand but he is called 'the champion of all charioteers...he excelled the charioteers of all the stables who ever participated in the circus.'
Interestingly it also records how much prize money he won over his career. Some of which would have been shared with his stable, the percentage of which is not recorded.
He earned 35,863,120 sesterces during his career. Which roughly translates to about $55 million.