INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

44 W. Leschhorn, NomKhron, v. 16, 1997, p. 90-91: “Olympic or Isolympic Games
are known in about 38 Greek cities, Pythian or isopythian Games in about 33 and
Aktia or Isaktia in about 15. The cities had sent delegates to Olympia, Delphi or
Nikopolis and asked the priests there for permission to hold games according to
their rules and to use the same names and similar prizes”.
45 See the coin from Miletos during the reign of Commodus with the inscription:
“DIDYMA COMMODEIA MILESION”, where the ancient Didymeia in honour of
Apollo were connected with the Emperor.
46 It is known that Alexander the Great chose the sacred area of Olympia, to
announce the Exiles’ Decree (Diod. Sic., Library, 17.109.1-2) and Herodotus, to
aloud his History.
47 Lysias, Olympic Oration, 1-2: “Among many noble feats, gentlemen, for which it
is right to remember Hercules, we ought to recall the fact that he was the first, in his
affection for the Greeks, to convene this contest. For previously the cities regarded
each other as strangers. But he, when he had crushed despotism and arrested
outrage, founded a contest of bodily strength, a challenge of wealth, and a display of
intelligence in the fairest part of Greece […] because he judged that our assembly
here would be a beginning of mutual amity amongst the Greeks” (translation by
W.R.M. Lamb, London 1930).
48 Hdt. 8.26.3
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