Ancient wars sparta old games
On the middle day of the festival a vast number of cows were slaughtered in honour of Zeus, King of the Greek Gods – once he had been given a small taste, the rest was for the people.įor the first 250-plus years all the action took place in the sanctuary of Olympia, situated in the north-western Peloponnese. Kyniska, daughter of a Spartan king, took advantage of this, claiming victory wreaths in 396BC and 392BC.Īt their heart, the Games were a religious festival and a good excuse for Greeks from all over the Mediterranean basin to gather for a riotous barbeque. There was, however, a loophole to this misogynistic rule – chariot owners, not riders, were declared Olympic champions and anyone could own a chariot.
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All free Greek males were allowed to take part, from farmhands to royal heirs, although the majority of Olympians were soldiers. The threat of invasion or not, the Games took place every four years from 776BC to at least 393AD. So, they actually had to delay putting the army together to defend the country against the Persians.” “The classic example is that when the Persians invaded Greece in the summer of 480 (BC) a lot of the Greek city states agreed that they would put together an allied army but they had a very hard time getting one together because so many people wanted to go to the Olympics. “It is hard for us to exaggerate how important the Olympics were for the Greeks,” Paul Christesen, Professor of Ancient Greek History at Dartmouth College, USA, said. Here, we give you the essential lowdown, highlight our favourite facts.įull of blood, passion and extraordinary feats of athletic endeavour, the Olympic Games were the sporting, social and cultural highlight of the Ancient Greek calendar for almost 12 centuries. Whether it's Super Mario style platformers, serious strategy games, or time-traveling fantasy games there is something for the historian in all fans of the genre.From boxing contests with no weight classifications or point scoring to chariot racing where danger lurked on every corner, it is easy to see why the Ancient Games enthralled the Greeks for so long. Not every game needs to put the player in the shoes of an aspiring Caesar or a gladiator climbing slaughtering dozens of foes in the arena. However, a look into the past to the current generation will prove that there is a significant list of games set in Rome in a variety of surprising genres. Updated November 8, 2021, by Michael Llewellyn: Even though the use of Roman history as a backdrop is a great setting for many genres from strategy to hack-and-slash it's not utilized often enough. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some great games based on Roman history that fans shouldn’t seek out here are ten of the best. There have been lots of games based on medieval history and World War 2, but after the hype for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator died down in the early 2000s, fans don’t have a great deal of choice out there for them. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of choices for gamers that want to immerse themselves into accurate or even fictional depictions of Roman history. RELATED: Assassin's Creed Odyssey: The Most Beautiful Locations, Ranked Naturally, gamers who are interested in a particular time love to dive into the gaming world that offers it as a setting. Whether it is Ancient Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, or the Roman Renaissance, the empire is one of the most significant in history. Roman history seems to be a perfect backdrop for a variety of video game genres.