Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Only by way of a very loosely construed definition of "professional." There were elite athletic competitions in antiquity, but nothing even remotely comparable to modern-day professional sports. There were no sporting economies, and athletics were not vocations.
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Actually, in the Roman Empire and early Byzantium, chariot racing was more comparable to modern-day professional sports than you'd think. The drivers were definitely professionals, the teams were highly organized, and they even had the equivalent of farm systems. It's a fascinating little sub-area of study.