Did Shakespeare Hold the First London Olympics?

If the Olympics are all about bringing the world together in one place to play, then William Shakespeare could be credited with holding the first London Olympics all the way back in the Elizabethan Age. The British Museum’s new exhibition, Shakespeare: Staging the World, which runs through November 25, 2012, gathers together nearly 200 artifacts related to Shakespeare’s writings that demonstrate just how the Bard brought the whole world to London, just as London itself entered the international stage as a major center of commerce and culture. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Did Shakespeare Hold the First London Olympics?"

[Image: Ides of March coin, reverse, 43-42 BC, gold aureus commemorating the assassination of Julius Caesar, Rome’s most famous murder and the subject of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The reverse shows the daggers with which Julius Caesar was murdered and a cap of liberty to symbolize the idea of the liberation of Rome from Caesar's rule. Lent by Michael Winckless Copyright of The Trustees of the British Museum.]

 
[Many thanks to the British Museum for providing me with the image above and other press materials related to Shakespeare: Staging the World, which runs through November 25, 2012.]