A Brief History of the Olympic Games

For more than a millennium, the ancient Olympics captured the imaginations of the Greeks, until a Christianized Rome terminated the competitions in the fourth century AD. But the Olympic ideal did not die and this book is a succinct history of the ancient Olympics and their modern resurgence.

Classics professor David Young, who has researched the subject for over 25 years, reveals how the ancient Olympics evolved from modest beginnings into a grand festival, attracting hundreds of highly trained athletes, tens of thousands of spectators, and the finest artists and poets.

About the Author

David C. Young is Professor of Classics at the University of Florida and author of the acclaimed The Modern Olympics: A Struggle for Revival (1996). His Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics (1984) won the Book of the Year award from the North American Society of Sports Historians. He translated the Words of Pindar which were read out at the closing ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

Features

A succinct history of the ancient Olympics and their modern resurgence.
Written by a classics professor who has researched the subject for over 25 years.
Explains how, from modest beginnings, the ancient Olympics evolved into a grand festival.
Features original studies of special subjects, such as individual athletes and athletic families in ancient times, athletic record-keeping, and the ancient form of long jump.
Offers a unique account of the nineteenth-century re-kindling of the Olympic ‘spirit’ and of the early years of the modern Olympics.
Includes photographs and drawings illustrating the topography and buildings of Olympia.

Series

Wiley Brief Histories of the Ancient World

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