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150-457: A warrior or soldier armed primarily with one or more javelins is a javelineer . The word javelin comes from Middle English and it derives from Old French javelin , a diminutive of javelot , which meant spear. The word javelot probably originated from one of the Celtic languages . There is archaeological evidence that javelins and throwing sticks were already in use by the last phase of

300-637: A Greek historian, explains the situation of the athlete Sotades, Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the Cretans. Apparently starting with just a single foot race, the program gradually increased to twenty-three contests, although no more than twenty featured at any one Olympiad. Participation in most events

450-460: A comprehensive reform of their army and changed the basic tactical formation from the Greek-style phalanx armed with the hasta spear and the clipeus round shield to a more flexible three-line formation. The hastati stood in the first line, the principes in the second line and the triarii in the third line. While the triarii were still armed with hastae , the hastati and

600-465: A crowd? Are you not without comfortable means of bathing? Are you not wet when it rains? Have you not abundance of noise, clamour, and other disagreeable things? But I suppose that setting all these things off against the magnificence of the spectacle, you bear and endure. The ancient Olympics were as much a religious festival as an athletic event. The games were held in honor of the Greek god Zeus , and on

750-738: A demonstrative ( þis , þat ), after a possessive pronoun (e.g., hir , our ), or with a name or in a form of address. This derives from the Old English "weak" declension of adjectives. This inflexion continued to be used in writing even after final -e had ceased to be pronounced. In earlier texts, multisyllable adjectives also receive a final -e in these situations, but this occurs less regularly in later Middle English texts. Otherwise, adjectives have no ending and adjectives already ending in -e etymologically receive no ending as well. Earlier texts sometimes inflect adjectives for case as well. Layamon's Brut inflects adjectives for

900-594: A fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign. During the celebration of the games, the Olympic truce ( ekecheiría ) was announced so that athletes and religious pilgrims could travel from their cities to the games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive leaf wreaths or crowns. The games became a political tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rival city states. Politicians would announce political alliances at

1050-415: A flat tang . A pilum usually weighed between 0.9 and 2.3 kilograms (2.0 and 5.1 lb), with the versions produced during the empire being somewhat lighter. Pictorial evidence suggests that some versions of the weapon were weighted with a lead ball at the base of the shank in order to increase penetrative power, but no archaeological specimens have been found. Recent experiments have shown pila to have

1200-495: A javelin or spear called Gungnir. It was created by a group of dwarves known as the Sons of Ivaldi who also fashioned the ship of Freyr called Skidbladnir and the golden hair of Sif . It had the property of always finding its mark ("the spear never stopped in its thrust"). During the final conflict of Ragnarok between the gods and giants , Odin will use Gungnir to attack the wolf Fenrir before being devoured by him. During

1350-502: A largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary (with many Norse borrowings in the northern parts of the country) but a greatly simplified inflectional system. The grammatical relations that were expressed in Old English by the dative and instrumental cases were replaced in Early Middle English with prepositional constructions. The Old English genitive - es survives in the -'s of the modern English possessive , but most of

1500-489: A late Bronze Age society, participate in athletic competitions to honor the dead. In the Iliad there are chariot races, boxing, wrestling, a foot race, as well as fencing, archery, and spear throwing. The Odyssey adds to these a long jump and discus throw. Aristotle reckoned the date of the first Olympics to be 776 BC, a date largely accepted by most, though not all, subsequent ancient historians. To this day, this

1650-494: A lengthened – and later also modified – pronunciation of a preceding vowel. For example, in name , originally pronounced as two syllables, the /a/ in the first syllable (originally an open syllable) lengthened, the final weak vowel was later dropped, and the remaining long vowel was modified in the Great Vowel Shift (for these sound changes, see Phonology , above). The final ⟨e⟩ , now silent, thus became

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1800-495: A lesser extent), and, therefore, it cannot be attributed simply to the influence of French-speaking sections of the population: English did, after all, remain the vernacular . It is also argued that Norse immigrants to England had a great impact on the loss of inflectional endings in Middle English. One argument is that, although Norse and English speakers were somewhat comprehensible to each other due to similar morphology,

1950-593: A process called apophony ), as in Modern English. With the discontinuation of the Late West Saxon standard used for the writing of Old English in the period prior to the Norman Conquest, Middle English came to be written in a wide variety of scribal forms, reflecting different regional dialects and orthographic conventions. Later in the Middle English period, however, and particularly with

2100-440: A quiver and/or bow case. Beyond its military purpose, the javelin was likely also a hunting instrument, for food and sport. The peltasts , usually serving as skirmishers , were armed with several javelins, often with throwing straps to increase stand-off power. The peltasts hurled their javelins at the enemy's heavier troops, the hoplite phalanx , in order to break their lines so that their own army's hoplites could destroy

2250-621: A range of about 30 metres (98.4 ft), although the effective range is only 15 and 20 metres (49.2 and 65.6 ft). Pila were sometimes referred to as "javelins", but the archaic term for the javelin was " verutum ". From the third century BC, the Roman legion added a skirmisher type of soldier to its tactical formation. The velites were light infantry armed with short swords (the gladius or pugio ), small round shields, and several small javelins. These javelins were called " veruta " (singular verutum ). The velites typically drew near

2400-538: A return to the origins of Greek life. These origin traditions have become nearly impossible to untangle, yet a chronology and patterns have arisen that help people understand the story behind the games. Greek historian Pausanias provides a story about the dactyl Heracles (not to be confused with the Hercules who was the son of Zeus and joined the Roman pantheon) and four of his brothers, Paeonaeus, Epimedes , Iasius and Idas , who raced at Olympia to entertain

2550-559: A somewhat disordered arrangement of buildings, the most important of which are the Temple of Hera , the Temple of Zeus , the Pelopion and the area of the great altar of Zeus, where the largest sacrifices were made. The name Altis was derived from a corruption of the Elean word also meaning "the grove" because the area was wooded, olive and plane trees in particular. Uninhabited throughout

2700-434: A specific regiment. Javelins were carried by Egyptian light infantry, as a main weapon, and as an alternative to a bow or spear , generally along with a shield . They also carried a curved sword, club , or hatchet as a sidearm . An important part in battles is often assigned to javelin-men, "whose weapons seem to inflict death at every blow". Multiple javelins were also sometimes carried by Egyptian war-chariots , in

2850-474: A statue of his likeness was commissioned at Olympia. Subsequent divine emperors also had statues erected within the sacred Altis. The stadium was renovated at his command and Greek athletics in general were subsidized. One of the most infamous events of Olympic history occurred under the rule of Nero . He desired victory in all chariot races of the Panhellenic Games in a single year, so he ordered

3000-643: A sword, and a shield. They were proficient at skirmishing and rapid maneuver, and played an important role in Arabic mounted warfare throughout the Reconquista until the sixteenth century. These units were widespread among the Italian infantrymen of the fifteenth century. The Welsh , particularly those of North Wales , used the javelin as one of their main weapons. During the Norman and later English invasions ,

3150-522: A thanksgiving to the gods and as funeral games in honor of King Oenomaus, in order to be purified of his death. It was from this funeral race held at Olympia that the beginnings of the Olympic Games were inspired. Pelops became a great king, a local hero, and he gave his name to the Peloponnese . One (later) myth, attributed to Pindar , states that the festival at Olympia involved Heracles ,

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3300-524: A variant of the Northumbrian dialect (prevalent in northern England and spoken in southeast Scotland ). During the Middle English period, many Old English grammatical features either became simplified or disappeared altogether. Noun, adjective, and verb inflections were simplified by the reduction (and eventual elimination) of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw considerable adoption of Anglo-Norman vocabulary, especially in

3450-575: A venue for representatives of the city-states to peacefully compete against each other. From the 8th century BC onwards, the city-states expanded with the establishment of colonies in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. While their cults and sanctuaries provided a sense of identity, those local identities as well as the increasing contacts with non-Greek populations presented the Greeks with

3600-541: Is evidenced by the dominance of Peloponnesian athletes in the victors' roles. Over time, the Olympic Games gained increasing recognition and became part of the Panhellenic Games , four separate games held at two- or four-year intervals, but arranged so that there was at least one set of games every year. The other Panhellenic Games were the Pythian , Nemean , and Isthmian Games , though the Olympic Games, being

3750-634: Is identified as a "god of the javelin". Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME ) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the University of Valencia states

3900-417: Is likely that tripping was allowed. Boxing ( pygmachia ) was first listed in 688 BC, the boys' event sixty years later. The laws of boxing were ascribed to the first Olympic champion Onomastus of Smyrna . It appears that body-blows were either not permitted or not practised. The Spartans, who claimed to have invented boxing, quickly abandoned it and did not take part in boxing competitions. At first

4050-522: Is no specific evidence suggesting that women were excluded from attending the other Panhellenic or Panathenaic contests. After the Roman conquest of Greece the Olympics continued but the event declined in popularity throughout the pre-Augustan era. During this period, Romans largely concentrated on domestic problems, and paid less attention to their provinces. The fact that all equestrian victors were from

4200-433: Is now rare and used only in oxen and as part of a double plural , in children and brethren . Some dialects still have forms such as eyen (for eyes ), shoon (for shoes ), hosen (for hose(s) ), kine (for cows ), and been (for bees ). Grammatical gender survived to a limited extent in early Middle English before being replaced by natural gender in the course of the Middle English period. Grammatical gender

4350-425: Is the conventional given date for the inception of the ancient Olympics and, while this specific date of origin cannot be verified, it is generally accepted that the games date from some time in the eighth century BC. Archaeological finds confirm, approximately, the Olympics starting at or soon after this time. Archaeology suggests that major games at Olympia arose probably around 700. Christesen's important work on

4500-411: Is the story of Pelops , a local Olympian hero. Oenomaus , the king of Pisa , had a daughter named Hippodamia , and according to an oracle, the king would be killed by her husband. Therefore, he decreed that any young man who wanted to marry his daughter was required to drive away with her in his chariot, and Oenomaus would follow in another chariot, and spear the suitor if he caught up with them. Now,

4650-449: Is thought that competitors ran in lanes marked out with lime or gypsum for the length of a stade then turned around separate posts ( kampteres ), before returning to the start line. Xenophanes wrote that "Victory by speed of foot is honored above all." A third foot race, the dolichos ("long race"), was introduced in the next Olympiad. Accounts of the race's distance differ; it seems to have been from twenty to twenty-four laps of

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4800-573: Is unlikely plumbatae were viewed by the Romans as the killing blow, but more as a means of stalling the enemy at ranges greater than previously provided by the heavier and shorter ranged pilum. The Gallic cavalry used to hurl several javelin volleys to soften the enemy before a frontal attack. The Gallic cavalry used their javelins in a tactic similar to that of horse archers ' Parthian shot . The Gauls knew how to turn on horseback to throw javelins backwards while appearing to retreat. The Hispanic cavalry

4950-524: The Augustinian canon Orrm wrote the Ormulum , one of the oldest surviving texts in Middle English. The influence of Old Norse aided the development of English from a synthetic language with relatively free word order to a more analytic language with a stricter word order. Both Old English and Old Norse were synthetic languages with complicated inflections. Communication between Vikings in

5100-588: The Carthaginian Army and played a key role in assisting both Hannibal and Scipio during the Second Punic War . There is some literary and archeological evidence that the Norse were familiar with and used the javelin for hunting and warfare, but they commonly used a spear designed for both throwing and thrusting. The Old Norse word for javelin was frakka . The Anglo-Saxon term for javelin

5250-597: The Danelaw and their Anglo-Saxon neighbours resulted in the erosion of inflection in both languages. Old Norse may have had a more profound impact on Middle and Modern English development than any other language. The effect of Old Norse on Old English was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. Like close cousins, Old Norse and Old English resembled each other, and with some words and grammatical structures in common, speakers of each language roughly understood each other, but according to historian Simeon Potler

5400-616: The Early Modern English and Modern English eras. Middle English generally did not have silent letters . For example, knight was pronounced [ˈkniçt] (with both the ⟨k⟩ and the ⟨gh⟩ pronounced, the latter sounding as the ⟨ch⟩ in German Knecht ). The major exception was the silent ⟨e⟩ – originally pronounced but lost in normal speech by Chaucer's time. This letter, however, came to indicate

5550-471: The Lower Paleolithic . Seven spear-like objects were found in a coal mine in the city of Schöningen , Germany. Stratigraphic dating indicates that the weapons are about 400,000 years old. The excavated items were made of spruce (Picea) trunk and were between 1.83 and 2.25 metres (6.0 and 7.4 ft) long. They were manufactured with the maximum thickness and weight situated at the front end of

5700-585: The Norman Conquest , had normally been written in French. Like Chaucer's work, this new standard was based on the East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Clerks using this standard were usually familiar with French and Latin , influencing the forms they chose. The Chancery Standard, which was adopted slowly, was used in England by bureaucrats for most official purposes, excluding those of

5850-460: The Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece . They were held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia , in honor of Zeus , and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin . The originating Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held every four years, or Olympiad , which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. These Olympiads were referred to based on

6000-529: The Xystos (meaning 'scraped'), an open colonnade or running track, for the runners and pentathletes, and the Tetragono for wrestlers and boxers. A loincloth known as the perizoma was initially worn by athletes at the ancient Olympic Games. Archaeological evidence from late sixth-century BC reveals athletes sporting this garment during competitions. For most of its history, Olympic events were performed in

6150-550: The nude , a habit which the Greeks felt distinguished them from non-Greeks. Pausanias says that the first naked runner was Orsippus , winner of the stadion race in 720 BC, who simply lost his garment on purpose because running without it was easier. The 5th-century BC historian Thucydides credits the Spartans with introducing the custom of "publicly stripping and anointing themselves with oil in their gymnastic exercises". He continues saying that "formerly, even in

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6300-425: The principes were rearmed with short swords and heavy javelins. Each soldier from the hastati and principes lines carried two javelins. This heavy javelin, known as a pilum (plural pila ), was about two metres long overall, consisting of an iron shank, about 7 mm in diameter and 60 cm long, with pyramidal head, secured to a wooden shaft. The iron shank was either socketed or, more usually, widened to

6450-529: The war (and subsequent alliance) between the Aesir and Vanir at the dawn of time, Odin hurled a javelin over the enemy host which, according to custom, was thought to bring good fortune or victory to the thrower. Odin also wounded himself with a spear while hanging from Yggdrasil , the World Tree , in his ritual quest for knowledge but in neither case is the weapon referred to specifically as Gungnir. When

6600-645: The 12th century, incorporating a unique phonetic spelling system; and the Ancrene Wisse and the Katherine Group , religious texts written for anchoresses , apparently in the West Midlands in the early 13th century. The language found in the last two works is sometimes called the AB language . Additional literary sources of the 12th and 13th centuries include Layamon's Brut and The Owl and

6750-422: The 13th century and was replaced by thorn. Thorn mostly fell out of use during the 14th century and was replaced by ⟨th⟩ . Anachronistic usage of the scribal abbreviation [REDACTED] ( þe , "the") has led to the modern mispronunciation of thorn as ⟨ y ⟩ in this context; see ye olde . Wynn, which represented the phoneme /w/ , was replaced by ⟨ w ⟩ during

6900-409: The 13th century. Due to its similarity to the letter ⟨p⟩ , it is mostly represented by ⟨w⟩ in modern editions of Old and Middle English texts even when the manuscript has wynn. Under Norman influence, the continental Carolingian minuscule replaced the insular script that had been used for Old English. However, because of the significant difference in appearance between

7050-473: The 14th century, even after the loss of the majority of the continental possessions of the English monarchy . In the aftermath of the Black Death of the 14th century, there was significant migration into London , of people to the counties of the southeast of England and from the east and central Midlands of England, and a new prestige London dialect began to develop as a result of this clash of

7200-604: The 1540s after the printing and wide distribution of the English Bible and Prayer Book , which made the new standard of English publicly recognizable and lasted until about 1650. The main changes between the Old English sound system and that of Middle English include: The combination of the last three processes listed above led to the spelling conventions associated with silent ⟨e⟩ and doubled consonants (see under Orthography , below). Middle English retains only two distinct noun-ending patterns from

7350-572: The Church and legalities, which used Latin and Law French respectively. The Chancery Standard's influence on later forms of written English is disputed, but it did undoubtedly provide the core around which Early Modern English formed. Early Modern English emerged with the help of William Caxton 's printing press, developed during the 1470s. The press stabilized English through a push towards standardization, led by Chancery Standard enthusiast and writer Richard Pynson . Early Modern English began in

7500-557: The Nightingale . Some scholars have defined "Early Middle English" as encompassing English texts up to 1350. This longer time frame would extend the corpus to include many Middle English Romances (especially those of the Auchinleck manuscript c.  1330 ). Gradually, the wealthy and the government Anglicised again, although Norman (and subsequently French ) remained the dominant language of literature and law until

7650-539: The Norse speakers' inability to reproduce the ending sounds of English words influenced Middle English's loss of inflectional endings. Important texts for the reconstruction of the evolution of Middle English out of Old English are the Peterborough Chronicle , which continued to be compiled up to 1154; the Ormulum , a biblical commentary probably composed in Lincolnshire in the second half of

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7800-544: The Old English -eþ , Midland dialects showing -en from about 1200, and Northern forms using -es in the third person singular as well as the plural. The past tense of weak verbs was formed by adding an -ed(e) , -d(e) , or -t(e) ending. The past-tense forms, without their personal endings, also served as past participles with past-participle prefixes derived from Old English: i- , y- , and sometimes bi- . Strong verbs , by contrast, formed their past tense by changing their stem vowel (e.g., binden became bound ,

7950-713: The Old Norse influence was strongest in the dialects under Danish control that composed the southern part of the Northern England (corresponding to the Scandinavian Kingdom of Jórvík ), the East Midlands and the East of England , words in the spoken language emerged in the 10th and 11th centuries near the transition from Old to Middle English. Influence on the written languages only appeared from

8100-663: The Olympic Games. His desire came to fruition at the Olympics held in Athens in 1896 . Power in ancient Greece became centered on the city-state ( polis ) in the 8th century BC. The city-state was a population center organized into a self-contained political entity. Every city-state worshiped the same pantheon of gods , although each one often gave more emphasis on a limited group of deities and celebrated religious festivals based on various calendars. These city-states often lived in close proximity to each other, which created competition for limited resources. Though conflict between

8250-459: The Olympic contests, the athletes who contended wore belts across their middles; and it is but a few years since that the practice ceased." The only event recorded at the first thirteen games was the stade , a straight-line sprint of just over 192 metres (630 feet). The diaulos (lit. "double pipe"), or two-stade race, is recorded as being introduced at the 14th Olympiad in 724 BC. It

8400-553: The Olympic judges had to repay the bribes he had bestowed and declared the "Neronian Olympiad" to be void. In the first half of the second century, the Philhellenic emperors, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius oversaw a new and successful phase in the history of the games. The Olympics attracted a great number of spectators and competitors and the victors' fame spread across the Roman Empire. The renaissance endured for most of

8550-533: The Olympic victor lists shows that victors' names and details were unreliable until the sixth century. Elis's independent state administered it, and while the Eleans managed the games well, there sometimes was bias and interference. Also, despite modern illusions, the famous Olympic truce only mandated safe passage for visitors; it did not stop all wars in Greece or even at Olympia. The historian Ephorus , who lived in

8700-494: The Spartans down, eventually routing them and killing just under half. This marked the first recorded occasion in ancient Greek military history in which a force entirely made up of peltasts had defeated a force of hoplites. The thureophoroi and thorakitai , who gradually replaced the peltasts, carried javelins in addition to a long thrusting spear and a short sword . Javelins were often used as an effective hunting weapon,

8850-710: The abundance of Modern English words for the mechanisms of government that are derived from Anglo-Norman, such as court , judge , jury , appeal , and parliament . There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the chivalric cultures that arose in the 12th century, an era of feudalism , seigneurialism , and crusading . Words were often taken from Latin, usually through French transmission. This gave rise to various synonyms, including kingly (inherited from Old English), royal (from French, inherited from Vulgar Latin), and regal (from French, which borrowed it from Classical Latin). Later French appropriations were derived from standard, rather than Norman, French. Examples of

9000-437: The angles. A strap or tasseled head was situated at the lower end of the javelin: it allowed the javelin thrower to recover his javelin after throwing it. Egyptian military trained from a young age in special military schools. Focusing on gymnastics to gain strength, hardiness, and endurance in childhood, they learned to throw the javelin – along with practicing archery and the battle-axe – when they grew older, before entering

9150-494: The areas of politics, law, the arts, and religion, as well as poetic and emotive diction. Conventional English vocabulary remained primarily Germanic in its sources, with Old Norse influences becoming more apparent. Significant changes in pronunciation took place, particularly involving long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift . Little survives of early Middle English literature , due in part to Norman domination and

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9300-638: The beginning of the 13th century, this delay in Scandinavian lexical influence in English has been attributed to the lack of written evidence from the areas of Danish control, as the majority of written sources from Old English were produced in the West Saxon dialect spoken in Wessex , the heart of Anglo-Saxon political power at the time. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 saw the replacement of

9450-620: The best. The Numidians were indigenous tribes of northwest Africa . The Numidian cavalry was a light cavalry usually operating as skirmishers. The Numidian horseman was armed with a small shield and several javelins. The Numidians had a reputation as swift horsemen, cunning soldiers and excellent javelin throwers. It is said that Jugurtha , the Numidian king "...took part in the national pursuits of riding, javelin throwing and competed with other young men in running." [Sallust The Jugurthine War: 6]. The Numidian Cavalry served as mercenaries in

9600-524: The boxers wore himantes (sing. himas ), long leather strips which were wrapped around their hands. The pankration was one of the most popular sports in the Ancient Olympics Games. The pankration was introduced in the 33rd Olympiad (648 BC). Boys' pankration became an Olympic event in 200 BC, in the 145th Olympiad. As well as techniques from boxing and wrestling, athletes also used kicks , locks, and chokes on

9750-501: The buildings and invasions by barbarians had reached Olympia. The last recorded games were held under Theodosius I in 393 (at the start of the 293rd Olympiad), but archeological evidence indicates that some games were still held. Areas of note: 2:  Prytaneion , 4:  Temple of Hera , 5:  Pelopion , 10:  Stadium , 15:  Temple of Zeus , 20:  Gymnasium , 21:  Palaestra , 26:  Greek Baths , 29:  Leonidaion , 31:  Bouleuterion Olympia lies in

9900-423: The city-states was ubiquitous, it was also in their self-interest to engage in trade, military alliances, and cultural interaction. The city-states had a dichotomous relationship with each other: on one hand, they relied on their neighbors for political and military alliances, while on the other they competed fiercely with those same neighbors for vital resources. In this political context the Olympic Games served as

10050-414: The clergy for written communication and record-keeping. A significant number of Norman words were borrowed into English and used alongside native Germanic words with similar meanings. Examples of Norman/Germanic pairs in Modern English include pig and pork , calf and veal , wood and forest , and freedom and liberty . The role of Anglo-Norman as the language of government and law can be seen in

10200-507: The comparative and superlative (e.g., greet , great; gretter , greater). Adjectives ending in -ly or -lich formed comparatives either with -lier , -liest or -loker , -lokest . A few adjectives also displayed Germanic umlaut in their comparatives and superlatives, such as long , lenger . Other irregular forms were mostly the same as in modern English. Middle English personal pronouns were mostly developed from those of Old English , with

10350-402: The competitions. Some say all females were excluded from the sacred precinct where the games took place, while others cite Pausanias who indicated that parthenoi (maidens) could view the competitions, but not gynaikes (married women), who had to remain on the south side of the river Alpheios . The evidence regarding the attendance of women in the Olympics is inconclusive. Nevertheless, there

10500-400: The destroyed Sicilian polis of Naxos would have been completely forgotten if not for its four-time Olympic champion, Tisandros. Pierre de Coubertin , one of the founders of the modern Olympic Games , wanted to fully imitate the ancient Olympics in every way. Included in his vision was an artistic competition modeled on the ancient Olympics and held every four years, during the celebration of

10650-486: The development of the Chancery Standard in the 15th century, orthography became relatively standardised in a form based on the East Midlands-influenced speech of London. Spelling at the time was mostly quite regular . (There was a fairly consistent correspondence between letters and sounds.) The irregularity of present-day English orthography is largely due to pronunciation changes that have taken place over

10800-495: The different dialects, that was based chiefly on the speech of the East Midlands but also influenced by that of other regions. The writing of this period, however, continues to reflect a variety of regional forms of English. The Ayenbite of Inwyt , a translation of a French confessional prose work, completed in 1340, is written in a Kentish dialect . The best known writer of Middle English, Geoffrey Chaucer , wrote in

10950-531: The double consonant represented a sound that was (or had previously been) geminated (i.e., had genuinely been "doubled" and would thus have regularly blocked the lengthening of the preceding vowel). In other cases, by analogy, the consonant was written double merely to indicate the lack of lengthening. The basic Old English Latin alphabet consisted of 20 standard letters plus four additional letters: ash ⟨æ⟩ , eth ⟨ð⟩ , thorn ⟨þ⟩ , and wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ . There

11100-468: The end of the Middle English period only the strong -'s ending (variously spelled) was in use. Some formerly feminine nouns, as well as some weak nouns, continued to make their genitive forms with -e or no ending (e.g., fole hoves , horses' hooves), and nouns of relationship ending in -er frequently have no genitive ending (e.g., fader bone , "father's bane"). The strong -(e)s plural form has survived into Modern English. The weak -(e)n form

11250-457: The enemy, hurled javelins against their formation, and then retreated behind the legion's heavier infantry. The velites were considered highly effective in turning back war elephants , on account of discharging a hail of javelins at some range and not presenting a "block" that could be trampled on or otherwise smashed – unlike the close-order infantry behind them. At the Battle of Zama in 202 BC,

11400-464: The entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate. The games were always held at Olympia rather than moving between different locations like the modern Olympic Games . Victors at the Olympics were honored, and their feats chronicled for future generations. To the Ancient Greeks, it was important to root the Olympic Games in mythology . During

11550-418: The exception of the third person plural, a borrowing from Old Norse (the original Old English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped). Also, the nominative form of the feminine third person singular was replaced by a form of the demonstrative that developed into sche (modern she ), but the alternative heyr remained in some areas for a long time. As with nouns, there

11700-501: The first Olympiad. Nevertheless, there is disagreement among scholars as to when the games began. According to the later Greek traveler Pausanias , who wrote in 175 AD, the only competition held at first was the stadion , a race over about 190 metres (620 feet). The word stadium is derived from this event. Several groups fought over control of the sanctuary at Olympia, and hence the games, for prestige and political advantage. Pausanias later writes that in 668 BC, Pheidon of Argos

11850-450: The flag of Eswatini there is a shield and two javelins, which symbolize the protection from the country's enemies. The Zulu warriors used a long version of the assegai javelin as their primary weapon. The Zulu legendary leader Shaka initiated military reforms in which a short stabbing spear, with a long, swordlike spearhead named iklwa , had become the Zulu warrior's main weapon and

12000-523: The four main hosts to hold their games in AD 67, and therefore the scheduled Olympics of 65, in the 211th Olympiad, were postponed. At Olympia he was thrown from his chariot, but still claimed victory. Nero also considered himself a talented musician, so he added contests in music and singing to those festivals that lacked them, including the Olympics. Nero won all of those contests, no doubt because judges were afraid to award victory to anyone else. After his suicide,

12150-439: The fourth century BC, is one potential candidate for establishing the use of Olympiads to count years, although credit for codifying this particular epoch usually falls to Hippias of Elis , to Eratosthenes , or even to Timaeus, whom Eratosthenes may have imitated. The Olympic Games were held at four-year intervals, and later, the ancient historians' method of counting the years even referred to these games, using Olympiad for

12300-465: The games continued past 217. Until recently the last securely datable winner was Publius Asclepiades of Corinth who won the pentathlon in 241 (the 255th Olympiad). In 1994, a bronze plaque was found inscribed with victors of the combative events hailing from the mainland and Asia Minor; proof that an international Olympic Games continued until at least 385 (the 291st Olympiad). The games continued past 385, by which time flooding and earthquakes had damaged

12450-473: The games, and in times of war, priests would offer sacrifices to the gods for victory. The games were also used to help spread Hellenistic culture throughout the Mediterranean. The Olympics also featured religious celebrations. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was counted as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world . Sculptors and poets would congregate each Olympiad to display their works of art to would-be patrons. The ancient Olympics had fewer events than

12600-554: The games, and the violators of the truce were fined 2,000 minae for assaulting the city of Lepreum during the period of the ekecheiria . The Spartans disputed the fine and claimed that the truce had not yet taken hold. The games faced a serious challenge during the Peloponnesian War , which primarily pitted Athens against Sparta, but in reality touched nearly every Hellenic city-state. The Olympics were used during this time to announce alliances and offer sacrifices to

12750-460: The god Baldr began to have prophetic dreams of his own death, his mother Frigg extracted an oath from all things in nature not to harm him. However, she neglected the mistletoe , thinking it was too young to make, let alone respect, such a solemn vow. When Loki learned of this weakness, he had a javelin or dart made from one of its branches and tricked Hod , the blind god, into hurling it at Baldr and causing his death. The god Runesocesius

12900-440: The gods for victory. While a martial truce was observed by all participating city-states, no such reprieve from conflict existed in the political arena. The Olympic Games evolved the most influential athletic and cultural stage in ancient Greece, and arguably in the ancient world. As such the games became a vehicle for city-states to promote themselves. The result was political intrigue and controversy. For example, Pausanias ,

13050-446: The ground. Although the only prohibitions were against biting and gouging, the pankration was regarded as less dangerous than boxing. It was one of the most popular events: Pindar wrote eight odes praising victors of the pankration . A famous event in the sport was the posthumous victory of Arrhichion of Phigalia who "expired at the very moment when his opponent acknowledged himself beaten". The discus ( diskos ) event

13200-471: The immediate locality and that there is a "paucity of victor statues in the Altis" from this period suggests the games were somewhat neglected. In 86 BC the Roman general Sulla robbed Olympia and other Greek treasuries to finance a war. He was the only Roman to commit violence against Olympia. Sulla hosted the games in 80 BC (the 175th Olympiad) as a celebration of his victories over Mithridates . Supposedly

13350-412: The indicator of the longer and changed pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ . In fact, vowels could have this lengthened and modified pronunciation in various positions, particularly before a single consonant letter and another vowel or before certain pairs of consonants. A related convention involved the doubling of consonant letters to show that the preceding vowel was not to be lengthened. In some cases,

13500-517: The island of Crete and Thera , and Archaic literary texts. The Minoan culture centered on Crete engaged in gymnastics, with bull-leaping , tumbling, running, wrestling and boxing shown on their frescoes. The Mycenaeans adopted Minoan games and also raced chariots in religious or funerary ceremonies. The exact relation between the early Minoan and Mycenaean sporting activities and the later Greek practicies remains elusive. The heroes of Homer 's epics, composed around 750 BC and held to represent

13650-539: The javelin as an offensive weapon used by the Ancient Egyptian military . It was lighter in weight than that used by other nations. He describes the Ancient Egyptian javelin's features: It consisted of a long thin shaft, sometimes merely pointed, but generally armed with a head, which was either leaf-shaped, or like the head of a spear, or else four-sided, and attached to the shaft by projections at

13800-471: The javelin-throwing velites proved their worth and were no doubt critical in helping to herd Hannibal's war elephants through the formation to be slaughtered. The velites would slowly have been either disbanded or re-equipped as more-heavily armed legionaries from the time when Gaius Marius and other Roman generals reorganised the army in the late second and early first centuries BC. Their role would most likely have been taken by irregular auxiliary troops as

13950-449: The king's chariot horses were a present from the god Poseidon and therefore supernaturally fast. The king's daughter fell in love with a man called Pelops. Before the race however, Pelops persuaded Oenomaus' charioteer Myrtilus to replace the bronze axle pins of the king's chariot with wax ones. Naturally, during the race, the wax melted and the king fell from his chariot and was killed. After his victory, Pelops organized chariot races as

14100-403: The large oval or round shields used at the time. Massed troops would unclip and hurl plumbatae as the enemy neared, hopefully stalling their movement and morale by making them clump together and huddle under their shields. With the enemy deprived of rapid movement and their visibility impaired by their own raised shields, the Roman troops were then better placed to exploit the tactical situation. It

14250-561: The main difference lied on their inflectional endings, which led to much confusion within the mixed population that existed in the Danelaw, this endings tended gradually to become obscured and finally lost, "simplifying English grammar" in the process. In time, the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged. Viking influence on Old English is most apparent in pronouns , modals, comparatives, pronominal adverbs (like hence and together ), conjunctions, and prepositions show

14400-417: The masculine accusative, genitive, and dative, the feminine dative, and the plural genitive. The Owl and the Nightingale adds a final -e to all adjectives not in the nominative, here only inflecting adjectives in the weak declension (as described above). Comparatives and superlatives were usually formed by adding -er and -est . Adjectives with long vowels sometimes shortened these vowels in

14550-442: The middle day of the games, 100 oxen would be sacrificed to him. Over time, Olympia, the site of the games, became a central spot for the worship of the head of the Greek pantheon and a temple, built by the Greek architect Libon , was erected on the mountaintop. The temple was one of the largest Doric temples in Greece. The sculptor Pheidias created a statue of Zeus made of gold and ivory. It stood 42 feet (13 m) tall. It

14700-442: The modern games, and for many years only freeborn Greek men were allowed to participate, although there were victorious women chariot owners. Moreover, throughout their history, the Olympics, both ancient and modern, have occasionally become arenas where political expressions, such as demonstrations, boycotts, and embargoes, have been employed by nations and individuals to exert influence over these sporting events. As long as they met

14850-427: The more complex system of inflection in Old English : Nouns of the weak declension are primarily inherited from Old English n -stem nouns but also from ō -stem, wō -stem, and u -stem nouns, which did not inflect in the same way as n -stem nouns in Old English, but joined the weak declension in Middle English. Nouns of the strong declension are inherited from the other Old English noun stem classes. Some nouns of

15000-561: The more heavily armoured galloglass . Various kingdoms and dynasties in China have used javelins, such as the iron-headed javelin of the Qing dynasty . Qi Jiguang 's anti-pirate army included javelin throwers with shields. Many African kingdoms have used the javelin as their main weapon since ancient times. Typical African warfare was based on ritualized stand-off encounters involving throwing javelins without advancing for close combat. In

15150-490: The most marked Danish influence. The best evidence of Scandinavian influence appears in extensive word borrowings; however, texts from the period in Scandinavia and Northern England do not provide certain evidence of an influence on syntax. However, at least one scholarly study of this influence shows that Old English may have been replaced entirely by Norse, by virtue of the change from Old English to Norse syntax. While

15300-551: The most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470), and aided by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439, a standard based on the London dialects (Chancery Standard) had become established. This largely formed the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by Early Modern English , which lasted until about 1650. Scots developed concurrently from

15450-465: The need to define themselves not only as members of a certain polis but also as Hellenes . That was made possible on the basis of a common language, a body of shared myths and legends, their religious observance and fondness in athletic festivals, which functioned as important factors for the Greek self-definition. As a result, a small number of religious festivals assumed a panhellenic character and were reserved for members of all Greek city-states;

15600-401: The newborn Zeus. He crowned the victor with an olive wreath (which thus became a peace symbol), which also explains the four-year interval, bringing the games around every fifth year (counting inclusively). The other Olympian gods (so named because they lived permanently on Mount Olympus ) would also engage in wrestling, jumping and running contests. Another myth of the origin of the games

15750-693: The old insular g and the Carolingian g (modern g ), the former continued in use as a separate letter, known as yogh , written ⟨ȝ⟩ . This was adopted for use to represent a variety of sounds: [ɣ], [j], [dʒ], [x], [ç] , while the Carolingian g was normally used for [g]. Instances of yogh were eventually replaced by ⟨j⟩ or ⟨y⟩ and by ⟨gh⟩ in words like night and laugh . In Middle Scots , yogh became indistinguishable from cursive z , and printers tended to use ⟨z⟩ when yogh

15900-516: The oldest among the rest, were considered the most prestigious. The Olympic games were held to be one of the two central rituals in ancient Greece , the other being the much older religious festival, the Eleusinian Mysteries . Participation in the Olympic Games was reserved for freeborn Greek men, although there were also Greek women who were victorious as chariot owners. Authorities differ as to whether females were allowed to attend

16050-459: The oldest of them being the Olympic Games. A body of officials, known as Hellanodikai , was responsible for determining the city-state of origin and the Greek identity of the competitors. The spread of Greek colonies in the 6th and 5th centuries BC is repeatedly linked to successful Olympic athletes. For example, Pausanias recounts that Cyrene was founded c. 630 BC by settlers from Thera with Spartan support. The support Sparta gave

16200-468: The only contest held was the stadion race because all the athletes had been called to Rome. Under the rule of emperor Augustus the Olympics underwent a revival. Before he came to full power, Augustus' right-hand man Marcus Agrippa restored the damaged temple of Zeus and in 12 BC Augustus asked King Herod of Judea to subsidize the games. After Augustus was declared a god by the Senate after his death,

16350-423: The other case endings disappeared in the Early Middle English period, including most of the roughly one dozen forms of the definite article ("the"). The dual personal pronouns (denoting exactly two) also disappeared from English during this period. The loss of case endings was part of a general trend from inflections to fixed word order that also occurred in other Germanic languages (though more slowly and to

16500-426: The participant cities at each set of games to announce the beginning of the truce. During this period, armies were forbidden from entering Olympia. Legal disputes and the use of the death penalty were forbidden. The truce — primarily designed to allow athletes and visitors to travel safely to the games — was, for the most part, observed. Thucydides wrote of a situation when the Spartans were forbidden from attending

16650-411: The period between two games. Previously, the local dating systems of the Greek states were used (they continued to be used by everyone except historians), which led to confusion when trying to determine dates. For example, Diodorus states that there was a solar eclipse in the third year of the 113th Olympiad, which must be the eclipse of 316 BC. This gives a date of (mid-summer) 765 BC for the first year of

16800-624: The period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly coincided with the High and Late Middle Ages . Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography . Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English literary variety broke down and writing in English became fragmented and localized and was, for

16950-401: The plumbata was fitted with an oval-shaped lead weight socketed around the shaft just forward of the center of balance , giving the weapon its name. Even so, plumbatae were much lighter than pila, and would not have had the armour penetration or shield transfixing capabilities of their earlier counterparts. Two or three plumbatae were typically clipped to a small wooden bracket on the inside of

17100-403: The prestige that came with writing in French rather than English. During the 14th century, a new style of literature emerged with the works of writers including John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer , whose Canterbury Tales remains the most studied and read work of the period. The transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English had taken place by the 1150s to 1180s, the period when

17250-461: The primary Welsh tactic was to rain javelins on the tired, hungry, and heavily armoured English troops and then retreat into the mountains or woods before the English troops could pursue and attack them. This tactic was very successful, since it demoralized and damaged the English armies while the Welsh ranks suffered little. The kern of Ireland used javelins as their main weapon as they accompanied

17400-473: The regard that their competitions were often held in grand facilities, with prizes and nudity that stressed the Greek idealisms of training one's body to be as fit as their mind. It is this ideology and athletic exceptionalism that resulted in theories claiming the Greeks were the inventors of sport. In the first 200 years of the games' existence, they only had regional religious importance. Only Greeks in proximity to Olympia competed in these early games. This

17550-505: The republic expanded overseas. The verutum was a cheaper missile weapon than the pilum . The verutum was a short-range weapon, with a simply made head of soft iron. Legionaries of the late republic and early empire often carried two pila , with one sometimes being lighter than the other. Standard tactics called for a Roman soldier to throw his pilum (both if there was time) at the enemy just before charging to engage with his gladius . Some pila had small hand-guards, to protect

17700-569: The resulting doublet pairs include warden (from Norman) and guardian (from later French; both share a common ancestor loaned from Germanic). The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not result in immediate changes to the language. The general population would have spoken the same dialects as they had before the Conquest. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, only dialects that evolved individually from Old English. Early Middle English (1150–1350) has

17850-437: The second century. Once again, "philosophers, orators, artists, religious proselytizers, singers, and all kinds of performers went to the festival of Zeus." The 3rd century saw a decline in the popularity of the games. The victory list of Africanus ends at the 249th Olympiad (217), though Moses of Chorene 's History of Armenia lists a boxing winner from as late as 369 (the 287th Olympiad). Excavated inscriptions also show

18000-807: The second half of the 14th century in the emerging London dialect, although he also portrays some of his characters as speaking in northern dialects, as in " The Reeve's Tale ". In the English-speaking areas of lowland Scotland , an independent standard was developing, based on the Northumbrian dialect . This would develop into what came to be known as the Scots language . A large number of terms for abstract concepts were adopted directly from scholastic philosophical Latin (rather than via French). Examples are "absolute", "act", "demonstration", and "probable". The Chancery Standard of written English emerged c.  1430 in official documents that, since

18150-458: The second person singular in -(e)st (e.g., þou spekest , "thou speakest"), and the third person singular in -eþ (e.g., he comeþ , "he cometh/he comes"). ( þ (the letter "thorn") is pronounced like the unvoiced th in "think", but under certain circumstances, it may be like the voiced th in "that"). The following table illustrates a typical conjugation pattern: Plural forms vary strongly by dialect, with Southern dialects preserving

18300-473: The son of Zeus: According to Pindar, Heracles established an athletic festival to honor his father, Zeus, after he had completed his labors . Areas around the Mediterranean had a long tradition of physical activities, eventhough they did not seem to hold regular competitions, with the events being probably the preserve of kings and upper classes. The earliest evidence of athletic tradition in Greece come from late Bronze Age artistic represenations, such as from

18450-595: The strap adding enough power to take down large game. Javelins were also used in the Ancient Olympics and other Panhellenic games . They were hurled in a certain direction and whoever hurled it the farthest, as long as it hit tip-first, won that game. In 387 BC, the Gauls invaded Italy, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Roman Republican army , and sacked Rome. After this defeat, the Romans undertook

18600-409: The strong type have an -e in the nominative/accusative singular, like the weak declension, but otherwise strong endings. Often, these are the same nouns that had an -e in the nominative/accusative singular of Old English (they, in turn, were inherited from Proto-Germanic ja -stem and i -stem nouns). The distinct dative case was lost in early Middle English, and although the genitive survived, by

18750-419: The time of the ancient games their origins were attributed to the gods, and competing legends persisted as to who actually was responsible for the genesis of the games. The patterns that emerge from these legends are that the Greeks believed the games had their roots in religion, that athletic competition was tied to worship of the gods, and the revival of the ancient games was intended to bring peace, harmony and

18900-440: The top levels of the English-speaking political and ecclesiastical hierarchies by Norman rulers who spoke a dialect of Old French , now known as Old Norman , which developed in England into Anglo-Norman . The use of Norman as the preferred language of literature and polite discourse fundamentally altered the role of Old English in education and administration, even though many Normans of this period were illiterate and depended on

19050-468: The track, around 7.5 km to 9 km (4.6 to 5.6 mi), although it may have been lengths rather than laps and thus half as far. The last running event added to the Olympic program was the hoplitodromos , or " hoplite race", introduced in 520 BC and traditionally run as the last race of the games. Competitors ran either a single or double diaulos (approximately 400 or 800 metres, 0.25 or 0.5 miles) in full military armour. The hoplitodromos

19200-663: The valley of the Alfeiós River (Romanized as Alpheus) in the western part of the Peloponnese , today around 18 km (11 mi) away from the Ionian Sea but perhaps, in antiquity, half that distance. The Altis, as the sanctuary as was originally known, was an irregular quadrangular area more than 180 meters (590.5 feet) on each side and walled except to the North where it was bounded by the Mount Kronos. It consisted of

19350-539: The weakened enemy formation. In the battle of Lechaeum , the Athenian general Iphicrates took advantage of the fact that a Spartan hoplite phalanx operating near Corinth was moving in the open field without the protection of any missile-throwing troops. He decided to ambush it with his force of peltasts. By launching repeated hit-and-run attacks against the Spartan formation, Iphicrates and his men were able to wear

19500-462: The wielder if he intended to use it as a melee weapon, but it does not appear that this was common. In the late Roman Empire, the Roman infantry came to use a differently-shaped javelin from the earlier pilum . This javelin was lighter and had a greater range. Called a plumbata , it resembled a thick stocky arrow, fletched with leather vanes to provide stability and rotation in flight (which increased accuracy). To overcome its comparatively small mass,

19650-473: The winner of their stadion sprint, e.g., "the third year of the eighteenth Olympiad when Ladas of Argos won the stadion ". They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule in the 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I , but archaeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date. The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II , possibly in connection with

19800-400: The wooden shaft. The frontal centre of gravity suggests that these weapons were used as javelins. A fossilized horse shoulder blade with a projectile wound, dated to 500,000 years ago, was revealed in a gravel quarry in the village of Boxgrove , England. Studies suggested that the wound was probably caused by a javelin. In History of Ancient Egypt : Volume 1 (1882), George Rawlinson depicts

19950-572: The year, when the games were held the site became over congested. There were no permanent living structures for spectators, who, rich or poor, made do with tents. Ancient visitors recall being plagued by summer heat and flies; such a problem that sacrifices were made to Zeus Averter of Flies. The site's water supply and sanitation were finally improved after nearly a thousand years, by the mid-second century AD. But you may say, there are some things disagreeable and troublesome in life. And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched? Are you not pressed by

20100-495: Was france . In Anglo-Saxon warfare , soldiers usually formed a shield wall and used heavy weapons like Danish axes , swords and spears . Javelins, including barbed angons , were used as an offensive weapon from behind the shield wall or by warriors who left the protective formation and attacked the enemy as skirmishers . Designed to be difficult to remove from either flesh or wood, the Angon javelin used by Anglo-Saxon warriors

20250-489: Was a light cavalry armed with falcatas and several light javelins. The Cantabri tribes invented a military tactic to maximize the advantages of the combination between horse and javelin. In this tactic the horsemen rode around in circles, toward and away from the enemy, continually hurling javelins. The tactic was usually employed against heavy infantry. The constant movement of the horsemen gave them an advantage against slow infantry and made them hard to target. The maneuver

20400-433: Was a major part of the games. Sculptors, poets, painters and other artisans would come to the games to display their works in what became an artistic competition. Poets would be commissioned to write poems in praise of the Olympic victors. Such victory songs or epinicians, were passed on from generation to generation and many of them have lasted far longer than any other honor made for the same purpose. Pausanias claimed that

20550-432: Was an effective means of disabling an opponent or his shield , thus having the potential to disrupt opposing shield-walls. The Almogavars were a class of Aragonese infantrymen armed with a short sword, a shield and two heavy javelins, known as azcona. The equipment resembled that of a Roman legionary and the use of the heavy javelins was much the same. The Jinetes were Arabic light horsemen armed with several javelins,

20700-400: Was based on a war tactic of soldiers running in full armor to surprise the enemy. Wrestling ( pale ) is recorded as being introduced at the 18th Olympiad. Three throws were necessary for a win. A throw was counted if the body, hip, back or shoulder (and possibly knee) touched the ground. If both competitors fell nothing was counted. Unlike its modern counterpart Greco-Roman wrestling , it

20850-479: Was commissioned by the town of Pisa to capture the sanctuary from the town of Elis , which he did and then personally controlled the games for that year. The next year, Elis regained control. Greek sports also derived its origins from the concept that physical energy was being expended in a ritualistic manner, in which Paleolithic age hunting practices were turned into a more socially and glamorized function, thus becoming sport. The Greeks in particular were unique in

21000-514: Was designed to harass and taunt the enemy forces, disrupting close formations. This was commonly used against enemy infantry, especially the heavily armed and slow moving legions of the Romans. This tactic came to be known as the Cantabrian circle . In the late Republic various auxiliary cavalry completely replaced the Italian cavalry contingents and the Hispanic auxiliary cavalry was considered

21150-425: Was indicated by agreement of articles and pronouns (e.g., þo ule "the feminine owl") or using the pronoun he to refer to masculine nouns such as helm ("helmet"), or phrases such as scaft stærcne (strong shaft), with the masculine accusative adjective ending -ne . Single-syllable adjectives added -e when modifying a noun in the plural and when used after the definite article ( þe ), after

21300-466: Was limited to male athletes, except for women who were allowed to take part by entering horses in the equestrian events. Youth events are recorded as starting in 632 BC. Our knowledge of how the events were performed primarily derives from the paintings of athletes found on many vases, particularly those of the Archaic and Classical periods. Competitors had access to two gymnasiums for training purposes:

21450-483: Was not available in their fonts; this led to new spellings (often giving rise to new pronunciations), as in McKenzie , where the ⟨z⟩ replaced a yogh, which had the pronunciation /j/ . Ancient Olympics The ancient Olympic Games ( Ancient Greek : τὰ Ὀλύμπια , ta Olympia ), or the ancient Olympics , were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of

21600-520: Was not yet a distinct j , v , or w , and Old English scribes did not generally use k , q , or z . Ash was no longer required in Middle English, as the Old English vowel /æ/ that it represented had merged into /a/ . The symbol nonetheless came to be used as a ligature for the digraph ⟨ae⟩ in many words of Greek or Latin origin, as did ⟨œ⟩ for ⟨oe⟩ . Eth and thorn both represented /θ/ or its allophone / ð / in Old English. Eth fell out of use during

21750-417: Was ousted by it in most dialects by the 15th. The following table shows some of the various Middle English pronouns. Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources because of differences in spellings and pronunciations at different times and in different dialects. As a general rule, the indicative first person singular of verbs in the present tense ended in -e (e.g., ich here , "I hear"),

21900-542: Was placed on a throne in the temple. The statue became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world . As the historian Strabo put it, ... the glory of the temple persisted ... on account both of the festal assembly and of the Olympian Games, in which the prize was a crown and which were regarded as sacred, the greatest games in the world. The temple was adorned by its numerous offerings, which were dedicated there from all parts of Greece. Artistic expression

22050-437: Was primarily the loan of three-time Olympic champion Chionis. The appeal of settling with an Olympic champion helped to populate the colonies and maintain cultural and political ties with the city-states near Olympia. Thus, Hellenic culture and the games spread while the primacy of Olympia persisted. During the Olympic Games, a truce, or ekecheiria was observed. Three runners, known as spondophoroi , were sent from Elis to

22200-413: Was similar to the modern competition. Stone and iron diskoi have been found, although the most commonly used material appears to be bronze. To what extent the diskos was standardized is unclear, but the most common weight seems to be 2 kg (4.4 lbs) size with a diameter of approximately 21 cm (8 in), roughly equivalent to the modern discus. In the long jump ( halma ) competitors swung

22350-475: Was some inflectional simplification (the distinct Old English dual forms were lost), but pronouns, unlike nouns, retained distinct nominative and accusative forms. Third person pronouns also retained a distinction between accusative and dative forms, but that was gradually lost: The masculine hine was replaced by him south of the River Thames by the early 14th century, and the neuter dative him

22500-418: Was used as a mêlée weapon. The assegai was not discarded, but was used for an initial missile assault. With the larger shields, introduced by Shaka to the Zulu army, the short spears used as stabbing swords and the opening phase of javelin attack; the Zulu regiments were quite similar to the Roman legion with its Scutum , Gladius and Pilum tactical combination. In Norse mythology, Odin, the chief god, carried

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