Highest Paid Athlete

Of all time...

..Was a fellow named Gaius Appuleius Diocles. Our man probably won't be listed in Forbes magazine as he was a 2nd-century Roman charioteer. Laphams Quarterly observes that:

His total take home amounted to five times the earnings of the highest paid provincial governors over a similar period -- enough to provide grain for the entire city of Rome for one year, or to pay all the ordinary soldiers of the Roman Army at the height of its imperial reach for a fifth of a year. By today's standards that last figure, assuming the apt comparison is what it takes to pay the wages of the American armed forces for the same period, would cash out to about $15 billion.

These men were considered legends in their own time, receiving the virtuous nod from poets and a widespread spotlight only given to a handful of people of the day. We may have forgotten him in name, but the lore lives on in cinematic pieces like Ben-Hur.