Location information

Antioch Olympic Games

This festival was celebrated at Daphne, a small place 40 stadia from Antioch, where there was a large sacred grove watered by many fountains. The festival was originally called Daphnea, and was sacred to Apollo and Artemis (Strabo, xvi. p. 750; Athen. v. p. 194), but was called Olympia, after the inhabitants of Antioch had purchased from the Eleans, in A.D. 44, the privilege of celebrating Olympic games. It was not, however, regularly celebrated as an Olympic festival till the time of the Emperor Commodus. It commenced on the first day of the month Hyperberetaeus (October), with which the year of Antioch began. It was under the presidency of an Alytarches. The celebration of it was abolished by Justin, A.D. 521. The writings of Libanius, and of Chrysostom, the Christian Father, who lived many years at Antioch, gave various particulars respecting this festival.

This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...