A major state in the north east Peloponnese (south Greece) with the city lying at the foot of a large acropolis (Acrocorinth). Its ports lay on the Gulf of Corinth, facing west, which helps account for its colonizing activity from the 8th century BC on. It also controlled the isthmus for north-south traffic by land, and the overland haulage of shipping east-west. It was a major beneficiary of the early orientalizing styles of Greece and its pottery was dominant in the Greek world from the 8th to early 6th century BC. It was a centre also for early examples of Doric architecture and sculpture. In the 5th century it sided with much of the rest of Greece against Athens; in the 4th it headed an unsuccessful League against the advance of Macedon. Its destruction by L.Mummius in 146 BC marks the beginning of the Romanization of Greece, but it was refounded as a Roman colony in 44 BC, and flourished.
Above: View of Corinth © Adolf H. Borbein
