The ancient Olympic Games were a sporting event held every four years at the sacred site of Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, in honour of Zeus, the supreme god of the Greek religion. The games, held from 776 BCE to 393 CE, involved participants and spectators from all over Greece and even beyond.
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Definition
Timeline
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776 BCEFirst athletic games in honour of Zeus are held at Olympia with one event, the stadion foot race.
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724 BCEThe diaulos foot-race (two lengths of the stadium) is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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720 BCEThe dolichos foot-race is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games and is won by Akanthos of Sparta.
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720 BCEOrsippos is the first athlete to discard his loincloth at the Olympic Games, establishing the convention for athletes to compete naked.
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708 BCEWrestling and the pentathlon are added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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688 BCEBoxing is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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680 BCEChariot races are added to the schedule of the Olympic Games which are extended to two days for the first time.
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680 BCEThe tethrippon (four-horse chariot race) is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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648 BCEThe Pankration (a mix of wrestling and boxing) is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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632 BCEEvents for boys are added to the schedule of the Olympic Games which are extended to three days for the first time.
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532 BCEMilon of Kroton wins the first of five consecutive wrestling competitions at the Olympic Games.
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521 BCEPhanas of Pellene wins the stadion, diaulos and race in armour in the same Olympic Games.
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520 BCEThe hoplitodromos (a foot-race in hoplite armour is added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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c. 496 BCEAlexander I the Philhellene participates in the Olympic Games.
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488 BCERunner Astylos of Kroton wins the first of his six victories over three Olympic Games.
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488 BCEKroton of Magna Graecia wins the first of three consecutive stadion races in the Olympic Games.
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420 BCESparta is excluded from the Olympic Games for breaking the ekecheiria or sacred truce.
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416 BCEAlcibiades wins three chariot races at the Olympic Games.
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408 BCEThe synoris (two-horse chariot race) was added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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396 BCECompetitions for heralds and trumpeters were added to the schedule of the Olympic Games.
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392 BCEThe horse owner Kyniska becomes the first woman to win a victor's crown at the Olympic Games.
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356 BCEPhilip II of Macedon wins the horse race at the Olympic Games.
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352 BCEPhilip II of Macedon wins the chariot race at the Olympic Games and retains the crown in 348 BCE.
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328 BCEHerodoros of Megara wins the first of ten consecutive trumpet competitions at the Olympic Games.
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164 BCELeonidas of Rhodes wins the first of his 12 Olympic crowns in runnning events in four successive Olymic Games.
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80 BCESulla moves the Olympic Games to Rome for a single Olympiad.
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72 BCEGaius becomes the first Roman victor at the Olympic Games.
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17 CERoman emperor Tiberius is victorious at the Olympic Games.
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c. 67 CEEmperor Nero competes at the panhellenic Games of Olympia and Delphi.
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81 CEHermogenes of Xanthos wins the first of his 8 Olympic running crowns over three consecutive Olympic Games.
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261 CEThe list of victors running back to 776 BCE ends for the Olympic Games.
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393 CERoman Emperor Theodosius definitively ends all pagan Games in Greece.
