The ancient Olympic Games were celebrated at Olympia, Greece, every four years. They were held in honor of the god Zeus. In the early games, only Greek men were allowed to participate. The games consisted of sports like footraces , wrestling , boxing , the pentathlon and horse racing. The last event of the games was usually a chariot race .

When the Romans conquered Greece in 140 B.C. the games started to lose their religious meaning and in 393 the Roman emperor banned the event.



Model of Olympia as it looked around 100 B.C.
Image: Carole, CC BY-SA 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Words

  • ancient = here: a long time ago
  • ban = forbid, not allow
  • celebrate = here: to hold an event in a special way
  • chariot = a wagon pulled by two horses; it was used by the old Greeks and Romans
  • conquer = to take control of a country by fighting
  • consist of = to be made up of
  • footrace = athletes who run against each other
  • in honor of = to show how much you like or respect someone or something
  • participate = take part
  • pentathlon = a sports competition with  5 different events
  • wrestling = two people fight by holding each other and trying to make each other fall to the ground