The ancient Greeks celebrated festivals at Nemea that were part of the cycle of Games at Delphi, Isthmia and (best known today) Olympia. At each of these four cities in rotation, for a brief period each year, wars and hostilities were suspended by a sacred truce and all Greeks - Spartans and Athenians, Corinthians and Argives, Macedonians and Cretans -gathered in recognition of their common humanity. This impulse toward peace - albeit limited to a few days each year - was the first in the history of mankind on an organized regular and international scale. Thus , the ancient festivals at Nemea, Olympia, Delphi and Isthmia are the direct answers of today's Olympic games as well as of the United Nations. The Society for the Revival of the Nemea Games (which now has more than 12200 members from around the world) was founded in the belief that there is today scope and perhaps even need for the average person -regardless of ethnicity, language, religion, gender age or athletic ability to participate in an international athletic festival. And so it happened in the three past Nemea Games. More than 1800 people from 45 different countries, ranging in age from 10 to 90, added their footprints to those of ages long ago while thousands spectators looked on. No records were kept and no medals were awarded, families with picnics on the slopes of the stadium were as much a part of the festival as the runners. Races were organized by gender and age and were interspersed with music and dance.