CORI (anc. Cora), a town and episcopal see of the province of Rome, Italy, 36m. S.E. by rail from the town of Rome, on the lower slopes of the Volscian mountains, I,3ooft. above sea level. Pop. 7,534 (town), 8,885 (commune). It occu pies the site of the ancient Volscian town of Cora. It was devas tated by the partisans of Marius during the struggle between him and Sulla. It lay just above the older road from Velitrae to Terra cina, which followed the foot of the Volscian hills, but was 6m. from the Via Appia. Three different enceintes, one within the other, enclose the upper and lower town and the acropolis. They are built in "Cyclopean" work, and different parts vary consider ably in the roughness or fineness of the jointing and hewing of the blocks ; but explorations at Norba have clearly proved that this has nothing to do with their relative antiquity. There is a fine single-arched bridge, now called the Ponte della Catena, just outside the town on the way to Norba.
At the summit of the town is a beautiful little Doric tetrastyle temple, belonging probably to the 1st century B.C., built of lime stone. Lower down are two columns of a Corinthian temple dedi cated to Castor and Pollux. The church of Santa Oliva stands upon the site of another temple. The cloister, constructed in 1466-8o, is in two stories. There are remains of a series of large cisterns probably belonging to the imperial Roman period. The chapel of Annunziata outside the town has interesting fres coes of the Roman school of the 15th century.