(Sabah Newspaper, 4 July 2014)
The world's second oldest profession: match-fixing.
The Smithsonian Research Institute in the U.S.has published
a document concerning one of the first match-fixing incidents
in sports history. The document is a Roman one from 267 BC
and has been preserved at Oxford University. It was written on
papyrus during a sports tournament organized in Antinoopolis
city on the banks of the Nile, in the time of Roman Emperor
Gallienus.
According to the translation by Dominic Rathbone of King's
College, London, two wrestlers named Nicantinous and
Demetrius signed what could be characterized as a match-
fixing agreement. Demetrius was to fall to the ground three
times and would receive 3,800 drachma. For the agreement,
the names of two witnesses were also written on the document.
In those times, 3,800 drachma was only enough to buy a
donkey.
The document was found during an excavation conducted in
1903 at Oxyrhynchus Antique City in Cairo. In the event that
Demetrius did not adhere to the match-fixing conditions
stipulated in the agreement he would be obliged to pay 18,000
drachma to the other party (Nicantinous) of the agreement
right away. Experts say that match-fixing is also mentioned in
some old Greek memoirs.
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