The North African historian who lists the names of the winners of the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games received great attention during the ancient era, as they were considered the leading sporting event, and were hosted in the Greek city of Olympia every four years. We are credited with knowing the list of Olympic champions throughout the ages thanks to the efforts of a North African writer from the third century.
The Olympics and the Olympics
The Olympic Games were first held in 776 BC, and the first thirteen editions included one competition, which was a running competition in which competitors ran around the field for a distance of 600 feet, or approximately 150 meters, and other competitions were added later.
After the death of Alexander the Great, the Greeks began to adopt the Olympiad, which is the period of time separating two Olympiads, as a calendar unit: the first Olympiad represents the period from 776 BC to 772 BC, and the second Olympiad from 772 BC to 768 BC. M, and so on. This calendar made it possible to date historical events with much greater accuracy than before.
List of winners: as relayed by Julius Africanus
Sextus Julius Africanus, known as Julius Africanus (Julius the African), was born around 160 in Palestine to a family originally from Roman Africa. The Romans at that time, having expelled the Jews from Palestine, had begun to settle new residents from all over the empire. The family of Julius the African was part of this migration.
In his youth, he joined the Roman army. After becoming an officer, he worked in the diplomatic corps. He served in the administration of Septimius Severus and his successors, emperors of African descent, who wanted to foster a new African Roman elite.
At some point in his life, he converted to Christianity, a religion still a minority at the time. Then, after his conversion, he went to Alexandria with the aim of studying at the Christian Theological School in the city.
His work is mainly history. He wrote a chronicle of the history of the world since its inception. He was the first global historian to tell the story of all of humanity, while previous historians focused on a specific people. Julius Africanus was also the first to write history from a Christian perspective. In this regard, he had a great influence on Christian historians after him.
The Chronicle of Julius Africanus contains a list of winners of the Olympic Games over a period of nearly a thousand years, from the first cycle (776 BC) to the 249th Olympic cycle (217). The names of the winners of subsequent sessions, until the cancellation of the games in 394, came to us from other sources. This is the only complete list we have today!
So it is thanks to a North African historian that we know the names of all the winners of the Olympic Games. The fact that such valuable information about the ancient world has been transmitted to us by a historian from our region should be a source of great pride for North Africa!
Source: websites