his opportunities, denying him use of their best horses. He left the Greens after only 3 years, and raced 15 years for the Reds before retiring to the small but opulent town of Praeneste at the age of 42. He is assumed to have died in or soon after 146. Winnings His winnings, as recorded in Roman inscription CIL 6.10048, totalled 35,863,120 sesterces (HS) over a working life of 24 years. From this, he would have been paid an unknown sum by his management team, or his owners; his status as slave or free is not certain, nor is the likely amount of his total share. Whereas slave-charioteers could not lawfully own property, their owners would have kept prize monies on their behalf, against their future manumission as clients of their former master. Drivers were paid a basic driving fee regardless of their social class, their placing or their completion of the race. Vamplew calculates that even if Diocles' personal winnings had been only a tenth part of the prize money, this would have yielded him an average annual income of 150,000 HS during his career, excluding his driving fees; a great deal more than any other racing competitors known to history. Peter Struck asserts that Diocles would have been given all his winnings, making him the highest paid athlete of all time. Golden believes that Diocles' winnings would have been thought "significant" in Rome. Status The races were discretely organised, financed and managed "behind the scenes", usually by members of the equestrian order on behalf of wealthy patrons and investors. Diocles was a "public hero", an exemplar of what Sinclair Bell describes as Rome's "performance culture", but was at best a low-class citizen, possibly a slave in his early career, or if manumitted, a freedman with continued duties to his patron. His earnings would have been more than enough to qualify him for membership of the equestrian or senatorial orders, but his profession excluded him from both, as someone socially and morally tainted or "infamous". For a member of the upper classes, openly competing for money was disgraceful in itself, and driving one's own chariot was an indignity. Making a living as a chariot driver would have excluded any citizen from many of the privileges and protections of full citizenship, and from holding any public office. Others in this category included actors, prostitutes, auctioneers, gladiators, butchers and funeral directors.