Putnam 10-Year-Old Named Champion Of Ancient History In International Competition

A Putnam County Schools student has been named a champion in the International History Olympiad Competition.

10-year-old Taylor Chen won in Ancient History out of 27 states and 15 countries. He first what first got him interested in Ancient History was the Wikipedia page for Roman Emperors.

Chen said his favorite part of the competition was the simulation portion.

“For example in the Alexander the Great simulation, you have to be one of the diadochi or one of Alexander the Great’s generals and you have to decide what happens after he dies,” Chen said. “It’s basically a topic and you have to get into teams and discuss what you think should happen.”

Chen said that he practiced every day, all day, with the help of his mom. He said he got help from his dad who funded the trip, and his brothers who helped him keep his spirits up.

Chen said he feels proud that he was named a champion, especially when there were other contestants from all over the world. His favorite historical fact centers on the Crisis of the Third Century, which ran from 235 to 284 A.D.

“Not a lot of people know about all of the emperors in the Crisis of the Third Century, I can’t even remember all of them,” Chen said. “There are some obscure ones like Saloninus and almost all of the emperors at that time get killed after about a year or less of their ruling. Everybody was fighting everybody else at that time.”