A Brief History of the Olympic Games (Brief Histories of the Ancient World)
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Limited; Blackwell Pub.
Published: June 1, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9781405111300
Subjects: History of specific subjects; Olympic games; Olympics; Sports & Recreation; Sports; Ancient Greece; Sports & Recreation / Olympics; Olympic games (Ancient); Ancient - Greece; History
First sentence: Rhodon: "Maybe he will really do it!"
Description: 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.