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.
David C. Young is Professor of Classics at the University of Florida. He translated the ‘Words of Pindar’ which were read out at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
