Colosseum sat about 50,000 people. 2000 races would be 100,000,000 customers ser... | Hacker News

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Gibbon1 on April 4, 2020 | parent | context | favorite | on: The highest paid athlete of all time was a Roman C...

Colosseum sat about 50,000 people. 2000 races would be 100,000,000 customers served. Assuming it's alway full. Not a historian but consistently have heard that the games were heavily subsidized by the wealthy. Kinda like the big boss handing out season tickets to favored staff and business associates.

I think it's sometimes hard to imagine how important this stuff was. The Byzantine had a revolt that involved Chariot Race factions. Seriously.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots

doikor on April 4, 2020 | [–]

These races weren't hold at the Colosseum but at an oval track. The biggest one called Circus Maximus seated 150,000.

But in general these were free to attend. Some rich guy would pay for it to become more famous/get political power.

jbay808 on April 4, 2020 | [–]

Circus Maximus would easily draw a larger crowd than the Colosseum, too.

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