SWPKO #10

[swp]

This contest is now open to Pete, Dan Tilque, and Mark Brader.

Another year question, this time inspired by the current events in Sochi,
Russia. My question, and the expected answer, were taken from the IOC site, so
blame them if you have a problem with the question as asked.

***
#10. Emperor Theodosius I suppressed the *ancient* Olympic games in what year as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the state religion of Rome.
***


swp

[Mark Brader]

Stephen Perry:

> #10. Emperor Theodosius I suppressed the *ancient* Olympic games in what
> year as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the state
> religion of Rome.

401. (It's a highway.)
--
Mark Brader | "...it's always easier to see the mud when it's
Toronto | coming toward your side rather than from your side."
m...@vex.net | --Mike Kruger

My text in this article is in the public domain.

[Dan Tilque]

472 AD

--
Dan Tilque

[Mark Brader]

Stephen Perry:
> My question, and the expected answer, were taken from the IOC site...

Well, I didn't *think* you'd had a chance, by the time you posted that,
to consult today's episode of Jeopardy!!

"King Me" for $400:

GREECE'S GEORGE I SUPPORTED A MOVEMENT TO REVIVE
THIS SPORTING EVENT ABOLISHED IN 393 A.D.

--
Mark Brader | "...she was quite surprised to find that she remained
Toronto | the same size: to be sure, this generally happens
m...@vex.net | when one eats cake, but..." --Lewis Carroll

[swp]

interesting. I'll try to look up their source, as it disagrees with mine.
yet another off by 1 error. you know the kind. :-)

swp

[Mark Brader]

Mark Brader quoted Jeopardy!:

>> GREECE'S GEORGE I SUPPORTED A MOVEMENT TO REVIVE
>> THIS SPORTING EVENT ABOLISHED IN 393 A.D.

Stephen Perry:

> interesting. I'll try to look up their source, as it disagrees
> with mine.

That's a surprise. After posting my guess, I googled or wikipediaed
it or something, and the answer I found was also 393. I hadn't
remembered the exact year, but I did assume it was well known.

In fact it turns out not to be accurately known at all. Just another
reminder of how spotty our knowledge of ancient times really is.

First, you earlier said you were using an Olympic source -- here's one
of those that agrees with Jeopardy!:

http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/The_Olympic_Games_of_the_Antiquity.pdf

Second, have a look at this page:

http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2012/08/04/when-were-the-olympic-games-abolished/

I was curious enough to do a Google search like

olympics abolished 391..395

(I think that's exactly what I typed, but I'm not sure now) and scan the
result summaries for the first 50 hits. One of them was Roger Pearse's
page cited above, and a few others were irrelevant hits or the summaries
did not give a date. But of the ones that did give a date, the votes were:

1 391
3 392
32 393
2 "about" or "around" 393
1 "393 or 394"
6 394

> yet another off by 1 error. you know the kind. :-)

If not more.

There is also disagreement as to which Theodosius it was.
--
Mark Brader | Obviously an off by 1 error somewhere. You know
Toronto | the kind, where you intend to put something simple
m...@vex.net | like "while (1=0) {" and type "while (1=1) {" instead.
--Stephen Perry

[Pete]

swp <Stephen...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:22baba6c-2ee4-46fc...@googlegroups.com:

150 A.D.

Pete

[swp]

150 - Pete
394 - *** Correct Answer ***
401 - Mark Brader
472 - Dan Tilque

There is some doubt about the exact year, but most say 392-394. See Mark Brader's other post for more details.

Pete is eliminated.

and then there were 2.

swp