Corinth

Geography

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  If ever a city was built on the proverbal "crossroads", it must be Corinth, which is built on the isthmus between the Peloponnese and the mainland and commands the road from north to south at the place where it intersects with the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf
• Acrocorinth with source (Upper Peirene)
• Two ports (Lechaeum and Cenchreae)
• Diolkos; sanctuary of Isthmia; possibility to build a wall across the isthmus

Corinth, Mycenaean kylix	Corinth, Orientalizing jar with a lion, a sphinx, and a goose	Corinth, Protocorinthian vase with a rooster	Corinth, Plate with Demeter

Archaic Age

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  Apparently not an important place in Mycenaean times. There were some people living over there, but it was not a major town, comparable to Mycene or Thebes
• Lechaeum was more occupied
• Early eighth century, Dorian Greeks settled near the Lower Peirene source between the Acrocorinth and Lechaeum; this is the real funding of Corinth
• Power to an elite group called the Bacchiads
• Colonies in Corcyra and (in 733 BCE) Syracuse
• c.657 BCE: Coup of Cypselus, who becomes tyrant

Corinth, Archaic figurine of Zeus	Corinth, Stone lion	Corinth, Stone lion	Corinth, Stone lion, Colored reconstruction

• 

  Cypselus built the temple of Apollo
• More colonies (e.g., Epidamnus, Naucratis); trade with Carthage and Etruria
• c.627 BCE: Succeeded by Periander
• c.585 BCE: End of the tyranny in Corinth
• c.582 BCE: First Isthmian Games
• c.550 BCE: Displaced as main urban center in Greece by Athens
• Usually friendly to both Athens and Sparta (member of the Peloponnesian League)

Classical Age

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  Although Herodotus ignores this, Corinth played an important role in the Persian Wars; the Greek HQs were at Isthmia; the Greek victory monument in Delphi mentions that the city had contributed 5,000 hoplites (compared to Sparta's 10,000 and Athens' 8,000)
• After the Athenian annexation of Megara, Corinth and Athens share a border; the good relations are over
• 432BCE: Corinth is one of the cities that forces Sparta to launch the Archidamian War and Decelean War against Athens (431-421, 413-404)
• When Sparta became too powerful, Corinth joined the anti-Spartan coalition of Athens, Argos, and Thebes in the Corinthian War (395-387)
• Xenophon wrote his Hellenica in Corinth
• 344-337 BCE: Intervention of Timoleon in Syracuse
• 338 BCE: the Macedonian king Philip II organizes the Greek city states in the Corinthian League, which is used by his son Alexander the Great in his attack on the Persian Empire (Alexander met Diogenes in Corinth)

Corinth, Relief of Kore (archaizing)	Acrocorinth, Hellenistic statuette of Aphrodite	Corinth, Lechaeum Road	Corinth, Lower Peirene

Hellenistic Age

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  After the death of Alexander, the city is occupied by various rulers: in 308, Ptolemy I Soter; in 304 Demetrius I Poliorcetes
• There is an Antigonid (i.e., Macedonian) garrison on the Acrocorinth; the garrisons at Corinth, in Peiraeus (the port of Athens), and in Chalcis are called "the fetters of Greece"
• 243 BCE: In a surprise attach, Aratus of Sicyon captures the fortress and convinced Corinth to join the Achaean League
• 224 BCE: The Macedonians recover Corinth
• 197 BCE: After the Macedonians have been defeated by Rome, Corinth becomes the capital of the Achaean League
• 146 BCE: The Romans sack Corinth, which, although not completely deserted, is essentially abandoned