2985 AM · 776 BCE · world history
The First Olympic Games
Games at Olympia give the Greeks their first shared way of counting years.
Every four years Greeks gathered at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia under a sacred truce that obliged warring cities to let competitors pass. The first event was a single sprint; wrestling, boxing, pentathlon and chariot races followed. The prize was a wreath of wild olive—and the Games became Greece's shared calendar.
Sources
Documents of the period
- documents and chronicles of the period — the lists of Olympic victors beginning with Koroibos of Elis — by these the Greeks counted olympiads
Scholarship
- general histories of the region — the sacred truce, the programme of contests, and the pan-Hellenic count of years by olympiads
Basis: documents and evidence.