Historical records show that the Olympic Games were first staged as early as 776 BC on the plains of Olympia in ancient Greece. Afterwards, the games took place every four years for over a thousand years, until 393 AD, when they were prohibited by the Roman Emperor Theodosius. Fifteen hunderd years later, in 1896, the first moder summer Olympics were held in Athens and have continued ever since, having been cancelled on only three occasions, during the First and Second World Wars.