Download Corinth: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Greek City-State AudioBook Free
Modern perceptions of Classical Greece are almost invariably predicated on Athens and Sparta, but Corinth was also a key city-state in antiquity. When St. Paul stopped at in 51 CE, the Corinth he found was actually a comparatively new city, having been built a little over 100 years recently, but he found a city five times bigger than Athens in those days and one which was the capital of a prosperous province. However, historic Corinth had actually been founded in the 10th century BCE and was, for the majority of its record, the richest dock and the greatest city in every of Greece. Corinth had a population more than 90,000 in 400 BCE, but the Romans leveled this original city in 146 BCE, eradicating all the male inhabitants and selling the women and children into slavery. The few that survived fled to Delos, and then for the next 100 years the site was deserted until Julius Caesar rebuilt it in 44 BCE. The story of the rise and fall of the powerful polis is intriguing, as are the reasons for historic Corinth's reputation throughout the Greek world because of its licentiousness. One of the Greek words for fornication was korinthiazomai, even though the city's association with sacred prostitutes scandalized modern day Athenians in particular, it also made the town a favorite destination for many Greeks. Corinth was also where so much of what became named Greek skill and architecture was first developed, and it was here that Eastern influence on Greece can first and most obviously be recognized.
