Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/356

 352 CORIANDER CORINTH planade laid out with avenues and trees, and containing a statue of Count Schulenburg, who defended the city for the Venetians against the Turks in 1716. The citadel contains the bar- racks, arsenal, hospital, the former residence of the British commissioner, now occupied by the Greek government, and a lighthouse. There are two other fortresses, Fort Neuf, at the west end of the town, and Vido on a small island 1 m. distant. The streets are Italian in style, some having arcades like those of Padua and Bologna, but are irregular, and the houses are small. There are a cathedral, several an- cient churches, a university, gymnasium, ec- clesiastical seminary, and other schools. The town is supplied with water brought in pipes a distance of 7 m. It is the residence of a Greek archbishop and of a Catholic bishop. It communicates with Otranto in Italy by weekly packets, and with Trieste, Athens, Gibraltar, and England by steamers sailing twice a month ; and is connected with Otranto and with Malta by submarine telegraphs. It was the capital of the Ionian republic. CORIANDER, the fruit of coriandrum sativum, an annual umbelliferous plant. It is a native of Italy, but now grows wild in most parts of Europe, and is brought from thence to the United States. The flowers emit a disagree- Coriander. able odor when bruised, but the fruit has a pleasant fragrance. The fruits, or seeds as they are called, are about an eighth of an inch in diameter and globular in shape. They have an aromatic odor and taste. Their virtue de- pends on a volatile oil, which is obtained by distillation. Coriander is used in medicine only to correct the action and cover the taste of other drugs, and render them acceptable to the stomach. It may be given in the dose of half a drachm or more. Confectioners use it as a flavoring article. CORIGLI1NO, a town of S. Italy, in the prov- ince and 26 m. N. E. of the city of Cosenza, situ- ated near the mouth of a river of the same name ; pop. about 13,000. It is poorly built, and the streets are narrow. It contains an aqueduct, five churches, six convents, and a few public buildings. Licorice is made here on a large scale, and there is considerable trade in timber, wine, oranges, lemons, and olives. The best manna of Calabria is produced in the neighbor- hood. On an eminence overlooking the town is a feudal castle with massive towers and a deep trench. Near by is the site of the an- cient city of Sybaris, famed for the voluptuous- ness of its inhabitants. CORINTH, a city of ancient Greece, in the Peloponnesus, 48 m. W. of Athens, near the S. W. extremity of the isthmus which connects that peninsula with central Hellas, and sepa- rates the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs. It was situated some distance from each coast, at the foot of the Acrocorinthus, and in the centre of the Corinthia, a subject territory extending around the city on every side, but of very limited extent, bounded N. by the Corinthian gulf, N. E. by Megaris, E. by the Saronic gulf, S. by Argo- lis, and W. by Sicyonia. It was in most part& mountainous and barren ; the rocky sides of the Geranean range on the north, the sandy plain of the isthmus, and the rugged Onean hills offered no reward for the labors of the husbandman. The plain N. W. of the city, extending along the coast in the direction of Sicyon, was, however, so fertile and valuable for market gardening, that to possess "what lies between Corinth and Sicyon " became a proverbial expression for great wealth. The most striking natural feature in the Corinthia was the Acrocorinthus, the acropolis of Cor- inth. This is a rocky isolated hill rising abruptly to the height of 1,886 ft., and is in natural defences the strongest mountain fortress of Europe. At the N. base of this stood the ancient city, which was 5 m. in cir- cumference, though its entire perimeter, en- closing the Acrocorinthus, was upward of 10m. It had two excellent port towns, viz. : Lechseum on the gulf of Corinth, with which it was con- nected by means of two parallel walls, and Cenchrea} on the Saronic gulf. Of the topog- raphy of the city as it existed in the flourishing periods of Grecian history we are compara- tively ignorant. Of the Roman city afterward built upon its ruins we have the account of Pausanias, who visited it in the 2d century of our era. He describes many fine buildings and other monuments of the former magnificence of the city. In the port Lecheeum he specifies the temple of Neptune and a brazen statue of that god, and at Cenchrea} a temple of Venus and a stone statue. He describes the agora or forum as surrounded by temples and adorned with columns and statues. In this stood the statues of Bacchus and of Diana of the Ephe- sians; here too was the temple of Fortune, with its statue of Parian marble; here the temple dedicated to all the gods, adjoining which was a fountain surmounted by a brazen Neptune. Near by stood statues of Apollo