CORINTH (Gk. 1C6piveos, Korinthos; said to have been called in early times Ephyra). An ancient city of Greece, situated at the south end of the isthmus connecting the northern division of Greece with the Peloponnesus. Its citadel was the Acroeorinthus, an isolated bill 1881; feet. high. with precipitous sides, and com manding one of the finest views in Greece. At the northern foot of this hill lay the city of Corinth, on a broad terrace nearly 200 feet above the level of the isthmus. In the llom•ric epic Ephyra is mentioned as the home of Sisyphus and Bellero phon, but the city does not ,:(0111 to have played a great part in the heroic age, and appears in dependence upon the rulert of Myceme, with which place it was connected by a very early sys tem of roads. Discoveries of pre-Myeemean pot tery in graves show that there was a settlement at the foot of the Acrocorinthus in very early times, but as yet few remains of the MycenHan :toe have come to light. The growth of the city ;-eems to have occurred after the Dorian conquest of the Peloponnesus. and to have been especially tavored by the development of the intercourse with the west: for this its situation with har bors on both the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs gave it peculiar advantages, which were further enhanced by alliances with Samos and Chal cis on Euthea. By the end of the eighth century B.C., Corinth was the chief trading city of Greece, and the extent of its trade is shown by the num ber of Corinthian vases found in Italian graves, as well as by the testimony of ancient writers. Among the colonies founded by Corinth at this period was Syracuse. The government was a strict oligarchy under the leadership of the family of the Bacchiad, but when, early in the seventh century n.c., Corcyra successfully main tained her independence of the mother city, a revolution occurred, and Cypselus became tyrant (c.657 n.c.). Under his rule and that of his son. Periander, the prosperity of the city in creased, Corcyra and Epidaurus were reduced, and the establishment of Potida-a on the north ern coast of the _Egean gave Corinth a share in the rich trade of Macedon and Thrace. About B.O. 582 the tyrants were overthrown, and a moderate oligarchy established. which seems to have remained as the usual form of government, though occasionally interrupted by democratic revolutions. Like the other cities of Pelopon nesus (except Argos), Corinth became a member of the Laced:cmonian League, and played her part in the Persian wars. The great develop ment of Athenian power was a serious blow to the commercial interests of Corinth, and accord ingly we find the city active in promoting the Peloponnesian War. After the fall of Athens, the Corinthians became jealous of the Spartan rule, and formed an alliance with Thebes and Athens, which led in n.c. 395 to the Corinthian War. Later, Corinth returned to the Spartan alliance, and supported the city in the war waged with the Thebans under Epaminondas. Three years after the battle of Ch:eronea (B.C. 338), it was garrisoned by the Macedonians, who held it until B.C. 196, with the exception of B.C. 242 to B.C. 223, when it was occu pied by Aratus for the Achw.an League. When the freedom of Greece was proclaimed by the Romans, Corinth was restored to the Achlean League.
Having become the centre of the last uprising of Greece against the Roman power, it was utterly destroyed (me. 146) by L. Mummius, the Roman general, and for a whole century it continued in ruins. In B.C. 46 Julius Caesar rebuilt it, and it afterwards became the capital of the Roman Province of Achaia; and altliongh it never again attained its early importance, it became both prosperous and powerful. Saint Paul planted a Christian church here, to which he addressed two epistles. In A.D. 1458 it was conquered by the Turks under Mohammed II., was taken by the Venetians in 1687, and retaken by the Turks in 1715, who held it till 1823. Reduced to ashes in the Revolutionary War, and again utterly de stroyed by an earthquake in 1858, Corinth is now rebuilt in a more convenient position on the shore of the Gulf of Corinth. Ancient Corinth was sur rounded by walls, having a circuit of about four and one-half miles, or, including the Acrocorin thus, of eight miles. It had two harbors LeeIffrum, on the Gulf of Corinth (q.v.), and e'en elirctr, on the Saronie Gulf, opening into the Egeati. The former was connected with the city by two parallel walls. The wealth and prosperity of Cor inth made it the seat of luxury and licentiousness. Besides the sea deities Poseidon and Amphitrite, Aphrodite claimed a large share in the religion of the city, and her temple alone is said to have had 1000 courtesans as sacred slaves. The Co rinthian hettera- were famous throughout Greece. In the earlier period Corinth was famous for its work in clay and bronze. and even in later times 'Corinthian bronze' was almost as precious as gold. Though devoted to art, and filled with costly paintings and statues at the time of its capture by numnius, the city does not occupy a prominent place in either art or literature, and but few Corinthians except Periander and Ti moleon appear among the famous names of Greece. Before 1896 the chief remains of an cient Corinth were the foundations on the Acro co•inthus and the seven columns of a very early Doric temple, probably of the time of Periander. In 1896 excavations were begun by the American School of Classical studies at Athens, and al though few works of art or inscriptions have been found, the discoveries have furnished a sure basis for the topography of the ancient city, of which the traveler Pausanias (q.v.) gives a de tailed description. The chief sites determined are the Theatre, the Fountains of Pirene and Glance, the road to Lechamm, the Propyhea, and the Agora to which it led, and the identification of the old temple with the Temple of Apollo. The mediNval walls are still in a fair state of preservation. Consult: E. Curtius. Peloponnesos (Gotha, 1851-52) ; Wilish, Beitroge zur inneren Geschichte des alien 'Corinth (Zittau. 18S7) ; id., Geselticlitc Korintlis von den Perserkricgen his zum di-eissigjii-hrigen &Wen (Zittan, 1896) ; these pamphlets contain also a bibliography of Corinthian history. The reports of the Ameri can excavations are published in the American Journal of Archcrology, 2d series, vol. i., et seq. (New York, 1897), a popular account by Direc tor Richardson, in the Century Magazine (New York, 18991; and by Cooley in Records of the Past, T. (Washington. 1902).