This book is about the civilization of Ancient Greece and the history of the Olympic Games – their ancient Greek and Roman cycles, periods of prosperity and decline, prohibition and renaissance. It narrates the story of events and people who turned the Olympic Games of the ancient world into a bright and popular phenomenon of the social life as well as the people who preserved the unique legacy of these games in the works of literature, architecture, and graphic art. This book is about the events and people, which have been reviving the rich Ancient Greek heritage, also related to the Olympic Games, for five hundred years of the Renaissance and the New Age and creating the environment for the revival of the Olympic Games and their emergence as a prominent international event.