Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/696

 678 COBINTHOS. had been sent to the League with the ultunatiim of the senate. The Achaean tiroope were at once de- feated, and L. Muramios entered Corinth unopposed. The vengeance which he took npon the unhappj city was fearful. All the males were put to the sword, and the women and children sold as slaves. Corinth was the richest dtj in Greece, and aboanded in statues, paintings, and other works of arL The most valuable woi-ks oJP art were carried to Rome; and after it had been pillaged bj the Roman soldiers, it was at a given signal set on fire; and tlins was ex- tinguished what Cicero calls the lumen totius Graecias (b.o. 146). (Strab. viii. p. 381 ; Pol. xl. 7; Pans. u. 1. § 2, vu. 16. § 7; Liv. EpiL 52; Flor. iL 16; Oros. v. 3; Veil. Pat. L 13; Cic. |7ro Xe^. Man, 5.) Corinth remained in ruins f<Mr a centnrj. The site on which it had stood was devoted to the gods, and was not allowed to be inhabited (Macrob. SaL iii. 9); a portion of its territory was given to the Sicyonians, who undertook the superintendence of the Isthmian games (Strab. viii. p. 381) ; the remainder became part of the ager publicus, and was consequently in- cluded in the voctigalia of the Roman people. (Lex Thoria, c 50; Cic. ie Leg, Agr. I 2, ii. 19.) The greater part of its commerce passed over to Delos. In B.C. 46 Julius Caesar determined to rebuild Co- rinth, and sent a numerous colony thither, consisting of his veterans and freedmen. (Strab. viii. p. 381 ; Pans. iL 1. § 2; Pint Goes. 57 i Dion Cass, xliii. 50; Died. Excerpt, p. 591, Wess.; Plin. iv. 4.s. 5.) Henceforth it was called on coins and inscriptions GOLOmA IVUA CORINTH VS, alsO LAYS IVU GO- Rurr., and c. i. o. a., i. e., Colonia Julia Corinthus Augusta. The colonists were called CorinthiensM, and not Corinthii, as the ancient inhabitants had been named. (Festus, p. 60, ed. Miiller.) It soon rose again to be a prosperous and populous city; and when St. Paul visited it about 100 years after it had been rebuilt by the colony of Julias Caesar, it was. the residence of Junius Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia. {Acta Apost, xviii. 12.) St. Paul founded here a flourishing Christian church, to which he ad- dressed two of his epistles. When it was visited by Pausanias in the second century of the Christian era, it contained numerous public buildings, of which he has given us an account; and at a still later period it continued to be the capital of Acliaia. (Uterocl. p. 646; Bockh, Inscr, Grace, no. 1086.) III. Art, Literaturb, Charactxr, &c It has been already rotioed that Corinth was one of the earliest scats of Grecian art. (Strab. viii. p. 382.) It was in this city that painting was said to have been invented by Ardicas, Cleophantus, and Cleanthes (Plin. xxxv. 5), and at the time of its cap- ture by the Romans it possessed some of the finest paintings in Greece. Among these was the celebrated picture rf Dionysus by Aristeides of Thebes, for which Attains offered the sum of 600,000 sesterces, and which was afterwards exhibited at Rome in the temple of Ceres. (Strab. viii. p. 381 ; Plin. xxxv. 8.) The numerous splendid temples which the wealth of the Corinthians enabled them to erect gave an impulse to architecture; and the most elaborate order of architecture was, as is well known, named after them. Statuaiy also flourished at Corinth, which was particularly celebrated for its works in bronze; and the name of Aet CorinthiiKuinwaa given to the finest kind of bnmze. (See DicL of Ant. ^, 25, 2nd ed.) One of the earlier works of Corinthian coRTirrinis. art, which retained its celebrity in later times, the celebrated chest of Cypselos, made of codar wood and adorned with figures. It was dedicated at Olympia, where it was seen by Pausanias, who has given a minute description of it (v. 17, seq.). The Corinthian vases of terra ootta were among the finest in Greece; and such was their beauty, that all the cemeteries of the city were ransacked by the colo- nists of Julius Caesar, who sent them to Rome, where they fetched enormous prices. (Strab. viii^ p. 381.) In the time of Periander poetiy likewise flouriabed at Corinth. It was here that Aritni introduced those imjKOvements into the dithyramb, which caused him to be regarded as its inventor, and which led Pindar to speak of Corinth as the city in which Momt' aZ(nrvoos ii^e?. (Herod, i. 23 ; Pind. OL xiiL 31.) Among the most ancient Cyclic poets we also find the names of Aeson, Eumelus, and Eumolpus, all of whom were natives of Corinth. (Schd. eui Pmd, I. c.) But after the time of Periander little attoitioa was paid to literature at Corinth; and among the illustrious writers of Greece not a single Corinthian appears. It is mentioned by Cicero that Corinth did not produce an orator {BruL 13) ; aiid Dei- narchus, the last and least important of the Attic orators, is no exception, smce, though a native ci Corinth, he was brought up at Athens, and prac- tised his art in the latter city. The wealth of the Corintluans gave rise to Inxnry and sensual indulgence. It was the most Uoentious city in all Greece ; and the number of merchants who frequented it caused it to be the favourite resort of courtezans. The patron goddess of the city was Aphrodite, who had a splendid temple on the Acro- corinthus, where there were kept more than a tboa- sand sacred female slaves Q«p6bovKoi) for the service of strangers. (Strab. viii. p. 378.) Hence they are called by Pindar {Fragm. p. 244, Bergk) Uo- Koply$^, In no other city of Greece do we find this institution of Hieroduli as a regular part of the worship of Aphrodite; and there can be no doabt that it was introduced into Corinth by the Phoe- nicians. [See above, p. 675, a.] Many of the Co- rinthian courtezans, such as Lais, obtained such high sums as often to ruin the merchants who viated the city; whence arose the proverb (Strab. viii. p. 378) : — o6 wvurrhf Mpbs 4$ K6pip0o¥ Mf b wAovr : which Horace renders (^Ep, i. 17. 36): — " Non cuivis homini coutingit adire Corinthnm.'* So celebrated were the Corinthian courtezans, that they gave rise to many other proverbial expressions. (KopiyOuiCecrtfmss/uaar^s-cveiy ^ irmptip, Pollux, ix. 6. §75; Kopti^ia fc^pii, i.e. a courtezan, PJat. Rep, iii. p. 404, d. ; so Kopivffk weur. Poll. x. 7. § 25 ; Suidas, $, v, x^'ipof ; Miiller, Dor, iv. 4. § 6.) IV. Topography of thr Citt ahd of tui^ Port-Towns. Of the topography of the ancient city before it> destruction by Mummins we know next to nothing . but of the new city which was built by the RomaL colonists, both Strabo (viii. p. 379) and Pausanian (ii. 2, seq.) have left us an account. The followinir is the description of Strabo : — "A lofty mountain, called Acrocorinthus, being 3| stadia in perpen- dicular height and 30 stadia in the ascent by tbo