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Content: Ancient Olympic Games - Wikipedia
Ancient Olympic Games
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For the modern event, see Olympic Games. Athletic competitions in Ancient Greece
The palaestra of Olympia, a place devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes
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The ancient Olympic Games(Ὀλυμπιακοὶ ἀγῶνες, "Olympiakoi agones") were a series of athletic competitionsamong representatives of city-statesand one of the Panhellenic Gamesof Ancient Greece. They were held in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythologicalorigin. The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BCE.[1] They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, 2nd century BCE, until the emperor Theodosius I, who having been converted to Christianity, banned pagan festivals. He banned the Olympics in CE 394 as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome.[2] The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. During the celebration of the games, an Olympic Trucewas enacted so that athletes could travel from their cities to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreathsor crowns. The games became a political tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rivals. Politicians would announce political alliances at the games, and in times of war, priests would offer sacrifices to the gods for victory. The games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean.