Professional sports have become multi-billion dollar industries with millions of fans who will live and die based on their favorite team's performance.

Occasionally, soccer hooligans and Raiders fans will take their exuberance a bit too far.

Riding after a team wins a championship happens more often than not.

However, nothing in the world of modern sports can compare to the levels of devotion

and street violence which Chiot racing commanded in ancient Rome.

Learn more about the Greens and the Blues and the havoc they caused on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Skill Share. My guess is that there's something you would like to do but just don't know how to do it.

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When you think of competitions in ancient Rome, you probably think of gladiators.

To be sure gladiators were very popular and gladiatorial games had a lot of spectators

but it was nothing compared to the popularity of chariot racing. To put it into perspective,

the Coliseum where gladiatorial games were held in Rome could seat between 50 to 80,000 people,

but the circus maximus, where theariot races were held, could seat between 150,000 and 250,000 people.

Granted, much of that is due to the fact that a racetrack just took up more space, but chariot racing was the closest thing in Rome to the professional sports teams of today.

Chariot Racing wasn't originally a Roman activity, as with many Roman cultural traits it was taken from someone else.

The Greek said chariot racing at the ancient Olympic Games,

and the Atruskins which came before the Romans on the Italian Peninsula also had races as well.

The Circus Maximus was a huge facility. It dates back to the earliest

periods of Rome, but it was rebuilt during the reign of Julius Caesar. It was so important

...