The ancient Olympic Games ran for nearly twelve centuries
From 776 BCE to around 393 CE, athletes gathered at Olympia every four years to honour Zeus - one of history's longest-running traditions.
The first Olympic champion in the records is Coroebus of Elis, a cook who won the sprint race in 776 BCE. That date marks the traditional start of the ancient Games, held at the sanctuary of Olympia in the western Peloponnese as part of a religious festival in honour of Zeus.
The Games returned every four years, an interval the Greeks called an Olympiad and used to measure time itself. They were so central to Greek life that wars paused under a sacred truce so athletes and spectators could travel safely.
The festival endured for nearly twelve centuries until the Roman emperor Theodosius I abolished it around 393 CE, condemning the Games for their pagan associations as Christianity spread across the empire.
From a single foot-race to a thousand-year institution, the Olympics began as an act of worship, not just athletics.
Sources & references
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