The games started in mid-August and were part of a religious festival dedicated to Zeus.<\/p>\n
Competing for glory<\/h2>\n
In the early days of the Olympics, there was only one event (the \u201cstadion\u201d) and one victor.<\/p>\n
Over the centuries, other events were added, like chariot races, wrestling, long-distance running and boxing. The Roman emperor\u00a0Nero\u00a0(37-68 AD) even \u201cintroduced a musical competition at Olympia\u201d, as the biographer\u00a0Suetonius\u00a0(1st\/2nd century AD)\u00a0informs\u00a0us.<\/p>\n
Victors at Olympia won a wreath of wild olive. Unlike today, there were no prizes for second or third.<\/p>\n
The athlete\u00a0Iccus of Tarentum, who lived in the 5th century BC and won victory in the pentathlon at the Olympics of 476 BC, apparently\u00a0said\u00a0that for him \u201cthe prizes meant glory, admiration in his lifetime, and after death an honoured name\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mostly men competed for the prizes but some women took part.<\/p>\n
Cynisca, daughter of King\u00a0Archidamus II of Sparta, was the first woman to achieve an Olympic victory. She got the prize because the horses she trained won the chariot racing event in the year 396 BC, as the traveller\u00a0Pausanias\u00a0(2nd century AD)\u00a0writes: Cynisca was exceedingly ambitious to succeed at the Olympic games and was the first woman to breed horses and the first to win an Olympic victory. After Cynisca, other women have won Olympic victories but none of them was more distinguished for their victories than her.<\/em><\/p>\n But competing in the games could be dangerous. Lucius Annaeus Seneca\u00a0(c. 50 BC-c. 40 AD)\u00a0describes\u00a0how a father lost both sons in the \u201cpancration\u201d, a type of combat sport that was a violent mixture of boxing and wrestling: A man trained his two sons as pancratists, and presented them to compete at the Olympic games. They were paired off to fight each other. The youths were both killed together and had divine honours decreed to them.<\/em><\/p>\n People travelled far to see the athletes competing in the famous games.<\/p>\n The rhetorician\u00a0Menander\u00a0(3rd\/4th century AD)\u00a0said\u00a0of the Olympic games: \u201cthe journey there is very difficult but nevertheless people take the risk\u201d.<\/p>\n In 44 BC, the Roman statesman\u00a0Cicero\u00a0(106-43 BC)\u00a0wrote a letter to his friend Atticus about planning a trip to Greece to see the games: I should like to know the date of the Olympic games [\u2026] of course, as you say, the plan of my trip will depend on chance.<\/em><\/p>\n Cicero never made it to the Olympics \u2013 he was interrupted by other business. If he had gone, the trip would have involved a voyage by sea from Italy to Greece, then a carriage ride to Olympia.<\/p>\n Once at Olympia, travellers stayed at lodging houses with other travellers. There they mixed with strangers and made new friends.<\/p>\n There is a famous story about what happened when the philosopher\u00a0Plato\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>(428\/427-348\/347 BC) stayed at Olympia for the games.<\/p>\n Plato lived there with others who did not realise he was the celebrated philosopher and he made a good impression on them, as the Roman writer\u00a0Claudius Aelian\u00a0(2nd\/3rd century AD)\u00a0recalled: The strangers were delighted by their chance encounter [\u2026] he had behaved towards them with modesty and simplicity and had proved himself able to win the confidence of anyone in his company.<\/em><\/p>\n Later on, Plato invited his new friends to Athens and they were amazed to find out he was in fact the famous philosopher who was the student of\u00a0Socrates<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how many people actually visited the ancient games each time they were held, although some modern scholars\u00a0think\u00a0the number could have been as high as 50,000 in some years.<\/p>\n The Greek writer\u00a0Chariton\u00a0(1st century AD) in his novel Callirhoe\u00a0wrote\u00a0how athletes \u2013 who had often also made a long journey to get to the games \u2013 arrived at Olympia \u201cwith an escort of their supporters\u201d.<\/p>\n Athletes competed naked, and women were usually not permitted to watch.<\/p>\n But there were some exceptions. For example a woman called Pherenice, who lived in the 4th century BC, was permitted to attend the Olympics as a spectator. As Claudius Aelian\u00a0explains: Pherenice brought her son to the Olympic festival to compete. The presiding officials refused to admit her as a spectator but she spoke in public and justified her request by pointing out that her father and three brothers were Olympic victors, and she was bringing a son who was a competitor. She won over the assembly and she attended the Olympic festival.<\/em><\/p>\n As the contest was held in the middle of summer, it was usually extremely hot. According to Claudius Aelian, some people\u00a0thought\u00a0watching the Olympics under \u201cthe baking heat of the sun\u201d was a \u201cmuch more severe penalty\u201d than having to do manual labour such as grinding grain.<\/p>\n The site at Olympia also had problems with freshwater supply. According to the writer\u00a0Lucian of Samosata\u00a0(2nd century AD), visitors to the games sometimes\u00a0died of thirst. This problem was fixed when\u00a0Herodes Atticus\u00a0built an\u00a0aqueduct\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>to the site in the middle of the 2nd century AD.<\/p>\n The Palaestra at Olympia, a place devoted to the training of wrestlers and other athletes. Credit: Bgabel – CC BY-SA 3.0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n The atmosphere of the crowd was electric.<\/p>\n The Athenian general and politician\u00a0Themistocles\u00a0(6th\/5th century BC) apparently\u00a0said\u00a0the most enjoyable moment of his life was \u201cto see the public at Olympia turning to look at me as I entered the stadium\u201d.<\/p>\nGoing to the games<\/h2>\n
Watching the games<\/h2>\n
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