Breaking the myth of ancient Rome: did Christians ban the ancient Olympic Games?

Every two years, when the Winter Olympic Games or the Summer Olympic Games come, we will hear how the Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece in 776 BC suddenly ended at the end of the 4th century. It is said that he banned the Olympic Games in the 1930s as part of a broader political plan against pagan religions, religious ceremonies and festivals.

A sports competition held in memory of the Greek god Zeus for more than 1000 years was closed by a puritan Christian emperor. This is a good story.

But is it true? In 39 1-392, Theodosius I issued a series of decrees prohibiting pagan sacrifices.

These laws were kept in a law called the Diodor Western Code, which was compiled by the emperor's grandson in the 5th century.

Excerpted from one of the decrees: "Marble fragments depicting animal sacrifices", 2nd century AD, Rome, now the Louvre.

In fact, as the historian Ingmar Weiler pointed out, this paragraph and any other laws in Theodore's Code did not mention the abolition of the Olympic Games.

Like other Greek festivals, offering sacrifices to the gods has always been a part of the ancient Olympic Games.

However, there is evidence that due to the change of religious customs, by the middle of the fourth century AD, the sacrificial activities in these activities basically stopped.

Throughout the Roman period, the Olympia Olympic Games was very popular, and athletes competed for their personal reputation and the glory of their hometown.

Recently discovered inscriptions describing the winning athletes show that the Olympic Games were still held during the reign of Theodosius I.

Claudian, a court poet, went on to mention the Olympic Games after the death of the emperor in 399 AD, and the most conclusive evidence of the existence of the Olympic Games after Theodosius I issued a ban on sacrifice can be found in the works of an anonymous literary critic.

He said that the Olympic Games stopped in the 5th century A.D. and were ruled by Theodosius I's grandson Theodosius II (A.D. 408-450): since the fire broke out in temple of olympian zeus, both the Ilya Festival and the Olympic Games have ended.

Olympic festivals (named after the original Olympic Games in Olympia) continued to be held in other parts of the Roman Empire.

The Olympic Games in Ephesus was not confirmed until AD 420, and it was not until the beginning of the 6th century that Antioch in Syria continued to be held.

Although public entertainment activities are often criticized by Christian clergy, Leonti Auss, a famous Christian senator, intends to hold his own Olympic Games in Charleston in the middle of the 5th century.

He didn't dare to do this. If the empire banned this festival, Theodosius I's coins (classical coin group, CC BY-SA 2.

5) What caused the Olympic Games in Olympia to end in the 5th century? Archaeological evidence shows that the stadium and infrastructure (such as the building where athletes live) have been abandoned.

The statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the world, was moved from the temple to Constantinople.

The phidias Studio, where the statue was built, was transformed into a church.

Historian Sophie Remison believes that the end of the Olympic Games is not the result of the imperial edict against paganism, but the change of economic environment.

The long-term development of the empire in the 4th century A.D. meant that wealthy elites had to pay more and more out of their own pockets to sponsor competitions, and the private funds set up to support the Olympic Games were also used for other purposes.

The Olympia Games is over, because no one can afford it.

This fate may eventually come to the modern Olympic Games, because the rising cost makes hosting the Olympic Games an unattractive proposal.

Baron Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games.

(In the public sphere) Theodosius I has said that the Olympic Games are forbidden for a long time.

Dating back to 1 1 century, T Byzantine writer Georgius Cedrenus quoted the familiar story of the ban, but with the arrival of the modern Olympic Games hosted by Pierre De Coubertin at the end of 19, the ban returned to people's imagination, and the French aristocrat de Coubertin showed great interest in sports.

Together with William Penny Brookes, a British educator, he set up a committee with the task of restoring the former glory of the Olympic Games, except the tripod, incense and sacrifices.

Athens is that place, 1896 is that time.

After the Olympic Games, Coubertin reviewed his achievements in Century Pictorial. Coubertin emphasized a problem: for centuries, newspapers, periodicals and literature spread the belief that the rise and spread of Christianity correctly eliminated pagan practices, including the Olympic Games.

However, the founder of the modern Olympic Games was happy that not only the Olympic Games were resumed, but also a Dominican missionary (incidentally, he was also the inventor of the Olympic motto) paid tribute to pagan Greece, which was the cover of the official report of 1896 Athens Summer Olympic Games.

The answer to this obvious contradiction lies in Coubertin's broader modern Olympic message, which is itself based on the idealized version of classical Greece.

No matter how people criticize the heresy between Greece and Rome, classical Greece, as the hometown of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, has always determined its position in the European education center.

For a sports educator like Coubertin, nothing can surpass the peak of the Olympic Games, which is the oldest and most popular sports event in Greece. The key is to adapt the Olympic Games to "the needs and tastes of the times".

This means no more decorations of religious worship.

Therefore, when Father Didong praised pagan Greece, it was home to "beauty, elegance and strength" (in Coubertin's words).

It is a perfect philosophical place to educate energetic young people at any time. In the end, the culprit that ended the Olympic Games was Theodosius I, because it is hard for people to believe that this festival-an ancient cultural symbol-disappeared after more than 1000 years.

Later, the conflict between pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire became a simple way to explain the end of this great sports competition.

When Coubertin revived the Olympic Games in the19th century, this story was a foregone conclusion.

When he talked about the Olympic Games in the modern world, he drew inspiration from the sportsmanship of the ancient Greeks, but left the pagan rituals in the ancient world far behind. Above: The Greek Twin Towers showing athletes in the 4th century BC.

Trustee of the British Museum.

(cc BY-NC-SA 4.

0), the article "Breaking the Ancient Roman Myth: Did Christians Ban the Ancient Olympic Games? ? Dialogue, written by Shushma Malik and Crane Davenport, was first published in Dialogue magazine and reprinted with permission of knowledge.

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