In the 20th century, the Olympics have occasionally gotten mixed up in world history — in 1916, 1940, and 1944, the games were canceled because everyone was too busy playing a different game called "World War." While the modern games are often affected by conflict, however, the ancient games themselves affected conflicts.
Before the beginning of each Olympics, ambassadors would be sent from Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia, and Nemea all across the known Greek world. Their job was to announce and enforce a sacred truce, which was to cover Greece for the duration of the games. While not every conflict was ended, any which was likely to hinder the games had to come to an end. The truce also protected any travelers who were traveling to Olympia (which was a designated sanctuary) and forbade any fighting against or by the city that was organizing the games that time around.
The truce was, of course, sometimes broken. The punishment for the perpetrating state would be exclusion from the games. Everyone knows you can't play with your friends if you've been fighting.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9j2lubXFfm7azv9NmpqWxnaW2pL%2BMq5yapJyueq21yp5m