The ancient Olympics were held in honor of Zeus, king of the Greek gods. By the mid-second century B.C.E., the Roman Empire had taken control of Greece, including Olympia.

But by 393 A.D., with Greece firmly under Roman rule, Emperor Theodosius declared the Olympics a pagan festival and banned the games, according to the Hellenic Information Society.

The graphic shows the ancient hippodrome, a U-shape stadium structure used for hosting chariot races in Ancient Olympics. It is believed that the terraces could accommodate more than 30,000 spectators ...

Truth be told, most of the modern visitors — including those here for the 2004 ...

The Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece to honor Zeus became the most important. Eventually, the ancient Greeks began to call a four-year period of time an “Olympiad.” ...

What they found was the skeleton of quite possibly the oldest and only known athlete from the ancient Olympic games. It had been suspected since the man was found that he had been an athlete in life.

Ancient Greece originated the Olympic Games. The Paris Olympics website outlines a bit of the history: The history of the Games goes back around 3,000 years, to the Peloponnese in Ancient Greece.

The Olympic flame-lighting ceremony has roots in ancient Greece and connects modern Olympic Games to their origin. The flame for the Paris games was lit on April 16, 2024.

In 776 B.C.E., spectators gathered in Olympia, Greece, to watch a simple footrace. Thus began the ancient Olympics, the classical sporting competition that continued for more than a millennium ...