Page "Pankration" Paragraph 9

By the Imperial Period, the Romans had adopted the Greek combat sport ( spelled in Latin as pancratium ) into their Games.

In 393 A. D., the pankration, along with gladiatorial combat and all pagan festivals, was abolished by edict of the Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I. Pankration itself was an event in the Olympic Games for some 1, 000 years.

It is a matter of controversy whether and to what extent pankration persisted in Greek and the broader Byzantine society after the ancient Games were discontinued.