We come, in the year 776 B. C., to the era when the chronology of
Grecian history becomes consecutive, and dates are reckoned by
Olympiads. These were the periods of four years each which elapsed
between the successive celebrations of the Olympic games in honor of the
Olympian Zeus (the chief Greek deity) in the plain of Olympia in Elis
(in Peloponnesus). The First Olympiad began at midsummer, 776 B. C., the
Second Olympiad at midsummer, 772 B. C., and so on--any event being
dated by a particular year of a specified Olympiad.