Salvete!
The topic on the Olympics reminded me of how the Greeks measured time:
One of their systems was by counting the years from the Olympiades. For example: "In the second year after the 180th Olympiad". There is an easy formula to calculate what exact year this was:
4(a-1)-b-777
'a' stands for the Olympiad
'b' stands for the years that have past since the Olympiad
In our example: 4(180-1)-2-777 = 59 BC
But a more common system was that of the 'eponymic magistrates'. This system was also used by the Romans, who counted the years by the serving consuls. The same system was used in Athens (with the archonts) and in Delphi (with the priests of Apollo). This is an easy system, also for us, as long as we have lists of those serving magistrates.
Some works on this topic:
AE SAMUEL: "Greek and Roman Chronology", München, 1972.
G DAUX: "Chronologie Delphique", Paris, 1943.
WK PRITCHETT & BD MERITT: "The Chronology of Hellenistic Athens", Cambridge, 1940.
L MORETTI: "Olympionikai, i vincitori negli antichi agoni olimpici", Roma, 1957
BD MERITT: "The Athenian Year", Berkeley, 1961.
Valete bene