Corinth, << KAWR ihnth, >> was an important city of ancient Greece. It was founded in prehistoric times on the isthmus that connects the Peloponnesus with the rest of Europe. According to the Greek poet Homer, it was the home of the legendary characters Bellerophon, Medea, and Sisyphus.
Corinth was favorably situated for trade by land. It also had good harbors at Cenchreae and Lechaeum, on either side of the isthmus. By 750 B.C., Corinth had become the wealthiest city of ancient Greece. Except for two periods (454-404 B.C. and 146-44 B.C.), it maintained economic supremacy for about 1,300 years.
In 734 B.C., Corinthians founded colonies at Corcyra (now Corfu), an Ionian island west of Greece, and at Syracuse in Sicily. In 581 B.C., they instituted the Isthmian Games, a national festival held every second year in honor of their principal god, Poseidon. Corinth was famous for its skilled workers in bronze and clay and for its naval architects. Because of commercial and political rivalry with Athens, Corinth instigated the Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 B.C.).
The Romans destroyed the city in 146 B.C., but later rebuilt it by order of Julius Caesar. Emperor Augustus made it the capital of the Roman province of Achaea. Saint Paul visited Corinth in A.D. 51 and founded a church there (see Corinthians, Epistles to the).
In the Middle Ages (about the A.D. 400’s through the 1400’s), the city was largely confined to its citadel, Acrocorinth. American archaeologists began excavations in Corinth in 1896.
