Truce in the context of "Olympic truce"

The Olympic Truce is a tradition originating from ancient Greece that dates back to 776 BC. A "truce" (from Ancient Greek ἐκεχειρία (ékécheiria) 'laying down of arms') was announced before and during the Olympic Games to ensure the host city state (Elis) was not attacked and athletes and spectators could travel safely to the Games and peacefully return to their respective countries.

In 1992, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) renewed this tradition by calling upon all nations to observe the Truce during the modern Games. The Truce was revived by United Nations Resolution 48/11 of 25 October 1993, as well by the United Nations Millennium Declaration relating to the world peace and security. Every two years since the 1993 resolution, the United Nations has adopted, with varying levels of consensus, a resolution reaffirming the ideals of the Olympic Truce.

The Han–Xiongnu Wars or Sino-Xiongnu Wars, were a series of military conflicts fought from 133 BC to 89 AD between the agrarian Chinese Han Empire and the nomadic Xiongnu confederacy, although extended conflicts can be traced back as early as 200 BC and as late as 188 AD.

The Chinese civilization initially clashed with Inner Asian nomadic tribes (then collectively known as Di) that would later become the Xiongnu during the Warring States period, and various northern states built elongated fortifications (which later became the Great Wall) to defend against raids down from the Mongolian Plateau. The unified Qin dynasty, who conquered all other states under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, dispatched General Meng Tian in 215 BC in a successful campaign to expel the Xiongnu from the Ordos region (which was often used as a staging area to threaten Qin's Guanzhong heartland). However, the subsequent civil wars following the Qin dynasty's collapse gave the Xiongnu tribes, who were then unified into a large confederacy under Modu Chanyu, the opportunity to reinvade the Ordos region. After the Han dynasty was established in 202 BC, Emperor Gao tried to fight off Xiongnu invasions but had himself trapped in an ambush during the Battle of Baideng, and a truce was negotiated by bribing Modu's wife, thus ending first Han–Xiongnu War. Decades of de jure peace then followed with the Chinese gifting "harmony via marriage" to appease the Xiongnu, who still routinely raided Chinese borderlands.

In Greek mythology, Ekecheiria, Ekekheiria, or Ecechiria (/ɛsɪˈkaɪri.ə/; Ancient Greek: Ἐκεχειρία means 'armistice, truce') was the spirit and personification of truce, armistice, and cessation of hostilities. The term is also used to refer to the Olympic truce. The ancient Greeks hosted Olympiads for almost 600 years, and whenever the games were announced, Truce Heralds from Olympia went to all participating nations and city states to call for the laying down of arms. The truce was considered sacred, and only two violations are found in the records: Soldiers of Philip of Macedon were convicted of robbing travellers on their way to the games, leading to the Macedonian king being fined, and a King of Sparta was subject to a similar fine. Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, tried to invoke Ekecheiria during World War I in order to continue with the 1916 Games in Berlin. However, he was unsuccessful, and the games were cancelled.

The Truce of Andrusovo (Polish: Rozejm w Andruszowie, Russian: Андрусовское перемирие Andrusovskoye Pieriemiriye, also sometimes known as Treaty of Andrusovo) established a thirteen-and-a-half year truce, signed on 9 February [O.S. 30 January] 1667 between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had fought the Russo-Polish War since 1654.

Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin (for Russia) and Jerzy Chlebowicz (for the Commonwealth) signed the truce in the village of Andrusovo not far from Smolensk. Representatives of the Cossack Hetmanate were not allowed.

Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Vsse Yvholv in Creek, also spelled Asi-yahola), named Billy Powell at birth, was an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman, James McQueen. He was reared by his mother in the Creek (Muscogee) tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees, led by a relative, Peter McQueen, after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people.

In 1836, Osceola led a small group of warriors in the Seminole resistance during the Second Seminole War, when the United States tried to remove the tribe from their lands in Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. He became an adviser to Micanopy, the principal chief of the Seminole from 1825 to 1849. Osceola led the Seminole resistance to removal until he was captured on October 21, 1837, by deception, under a flag of truce, when he went to a site near Fort Peyton for peace talks. The United States first imprisoned him at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, then transported him to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina. He died there a few months later of causes reported as an internal infection or malaria. Because of his renown, Osceola attracted visitors in prison, including renowned artist George Catlin, who painted perhaps the most well-known portrait of the Seminole leader.