Corinth

Corinth (Korinthos), mentioned in Homer's Iliad, where it is also referred to by the name Ephyrē, one of the most important cities of ancient Greece, strategically situated on the Isthmus joining north Greece to the Peloponnese, between two important seas (the Ionian and Aegean), and therefore destined to be a great maritime power. Also, it was situated at the focal point of north–south and, more importantly, east–west trade routes. It was easier to drag small ships across the Isthmus (see next entry) or unload from ships on one side and reload on to different ships on the other, than to undertake a long and stormy voyage around the Peloponnese.

Corinth is connected with the early history of Greek literature through Arion and Eumelus. In myth it is associated with Sisyphus and his descendants; Medea and Jason fled there after the former contrived the murder of Jason's uncle Pelias. It was occupied by the Dorians c.900 BC. The tradition was that from 747 until 657 BC the city was ruled by the Dorian oligarchy of the Bacchiadae, under whom Corinth founded Corcyra and Syracuse in 733, and remains found on the site attest the city's widespread foreign contacts. In 657 the Bacchiads were overthrown by the tyrant Cypselus and under him and his son Periander (c.625–585 BC) Corinthian power and prosperity reached their zenith. Three years after Periander died, to be succeeded by his nephew Psammetichus, the tyranny fell and was replaced by an oligarchy which maintained friendship with Sparta and Athens. With the growth of Athenian imperialism in the second half of the fifth century relations with Athens deteriorated, and disputes between Athens and Corinth over Corcyra and Potidaea (another Corinthian colony) led to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431. Corinthians were one of the most active and persistent opponents of Athens throughout the war, but Corinth later joined Athens, Argos, and Boeotia to make war against the tyrannical rule of Sparta (the Corinthian War, 395–386 BC). The war ended with the Peace of Antalcidas (a Spartan general), engineered with the aid of Persia. In the war against Philip II of Macedon, Corinth joined Athens in the cause of Hellenic freedom. After the defeat of the Athenians and Thebans at Chaeronea (338), it was at Corinth that Philip summoned a congress of Greek states to form a confederacy under Macedonian supremacy. Later, Corinth became one of the principal strongholds of the Achaean League. It afterwards passed into Macedonian control until Flaminius' victory over Macedon in 198–196, when it was declared free like all other Greek cities and became the chief city of the Achaean League. In the course of Rome's operations against the League it was completely sacked by Mummius in 146 BC in revenge for the insults suffered by the Roman ambassadors, and its population slaughtered or enslaved. It was the extinction, as Cicero said, of ‘the light of all Greece’. The Greek Anthology contains a moving lament by a contemporary poet (9. 151). After a century's desolation it was refounded by Julius Caesar as a colony (46 BC). When the apostle Paul visited it about a hundred years later it was the capital of the Roman province of Achaea, and a prosperous and populous city. It became notorious for luxury and excessive refinement; the adjective ‘Corinthian’ was in former times used in English with this connotation.