{PDF EPUB} the City of Corinth and the Secret Diary by LA Francis
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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The City of Corinth and the Secret Diary by L.A. Francis Corinth Legends and History. Corinth is the name of an ancient Greek polis (city-state) and nearby isthmus that lent its name to a set of Panhellenic games, a war, and a style of architecture. In works attributed to Homer, you may find Corinth referred to as Ephyre. Corinth in the Middle of Greece. That it is called 'isthmus' means it is a neck of land, but the Isthmus of Corinth serves as more of a Hellenic waist separating the upper, mainland part of Greece and the lower Peloponnesian parts. The city of Corinth was a rich, important, cosmopolitan, commercial area, having one harbor that allowed trade with Asia, and another that led to Italy. From the 6th century B.C., the Diolkos, a paved route up to six meters wide designed for a fast passage, led from the Gulf of Corinth on the west to the Saronic Gulf on the east. Passage From the Mainland to the Peloponnese. The land route from Attica into the Peloponnese passed through Corinth. A nine-kilometer section of rocks (the Sceironian rocks) along the land route from Athens made it treacherous—especially when brigands took advantage of the landscape—but there was also a sea route from the Piraeus past Salamis. Corinth in Greek Mythology. According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus, a grandfather of Bellerophon—the Greek hero who rode Pegasus the winged horse—founded Corinth. (This may be a story invented by Eumelos, a poet of the Bacchiadae family.) This makes the city not one of the Dorian cities—like those in the Peloponnese—founded by the Heracleidae, but Aeolian). The Corinthians, however, claimed descent from Aletes, who was a descendant of Hercules from the Dorian invasion. Pausanias explains that at the time when the Heracleidae invaded the Peloponnese, Corinth was ruled by descendants of Sisyphus named Doeidas and Hyanthidas, who abdicated in favor of Aletes whose family kept the throne for five generations until the first of the Bacchiads, Bacchis., gained control. Theseus, Sinis, and Sisyphus are among the names from mythology associated with Corinth, as the second century A.D. geographer Pausanias says: Pre-Historic and Legendary Corinth. Archaeological finds show that Corinth was inhabited in the Neolithic and early Helladic periods. Australian classicist and archaeologist Thomas James Dunbabin (1911-1955) says the nu-theta (nth) in the name Corinth shows it is a pre-Greek name. The oldest preserved building survives from the 6th century B.C. It is a temple, probably to Apollo. The earliest ruler's name is Bakkhis, who may have ruled in the ninth century. Cypselus overthrew Bakkhis' successors, the Bacchiads, c.657 B.C., after which Periander became the tyrant. He is credited with having created the Diolkos. In c. 585, an oligarchical council of 80 replaced the last tyrant. Corinth colonized Syracuse and Corcyra at about the same time it got rid of its kings. Pausanias gives another account of this early, confusing, legendary period of Corinthian history: Classical Corinth. In the middle of the sixth century, Corinth allied with Spartan, but later opposed the Spartan King Cleomenes' political interventions in Athens. It was aggressive actions of Corinth against Megara that led to the Peloponnesian War. Although Athens and Corinth were at odds during this war, by the time of the Corinthian War (395-386 B.C.), Corinth had joined Argos, Boeotia, and Athens against Sparta. Hellenistic and Roman Era Corinth. After the Greeks lost to Philip of Macedonia at Chaeronea, the Greeks signed terms Philip insisted on so he could turn his attention to Persia. They made oaths not to overthrow Philip or his successors, or one another, in exchange for local autonomy and were joined together in a federation that we today call the League of Corinth. Members of the Corinthian League were responsible for levies of troops (for use by Philip) depending on the size of the city. Romans besieged Corinth during the second Macedonian War, but the city continued in Macedonian hands until the Romans decreed it independent and part of the Achaean confederacy after Rome defeated the Macedonians a Cynoscephalae. Rome kept a garrison in Corinth's Acrocorinth—the city's high spot and citadel. Corinth failed to treat Rome with the respect it demanded. Strabo describes how Corinth provoked Rome: Roman consul Lucius Mummius destroyed Corinth in 146 B.C., looting it, killing the men, selling the children and women, and burning what remained. By the time of the New Testament's St. Paul (author of Corinthians ), Corinth was a booming Roman town, having been made a colony by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.—Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis. Rome rebuilt the city in Roman fashion, and settled it, mostly with freedmen, who grew prosperous within two generations. In the early 70s A.D., Emperor Vespasian established a second Roman colony at Corinth—Colonia Iulia Flavia Augusta Corinthiensis. It had an amphitheater, a circus, and other characteristic buildings and monuments. After the Roman conquest, the official language of Corinth was Latin until the time of Emperor Hadrian, when it became Greek. Located by the Isthmus, Corinth was responsible for the Isthmian Games, second in importance to the Olympics and held every two years in the spring. Also known as: Ephyra (old name) Examples: The highpoint or citadel of Corinth was called the Acrocorinth. Thucydides 1.13 says Corinth was the first Greek city to build war galleys: The City of Corinth and the Secret Diary by L.A. Francis. Acts 18:2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, Acts 18:5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Acts 19:1 It happened that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples. 1 Corinthians 1:2 to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours: 2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: 2 Corinthians 1:23 But I call God for a witness to my soul, that I didn't come to Corinth to spare you. 2 Timothy 4:20 Erastus remained at Corinth, but I left Trophimus at Miletus sick. kor'-inth (Korinthos, "ornament"): A celebrated city of the Peloponnesus, capital of Corinthia, which lay North of Argolis, and with the isthmus joined the peninsula to the mainland. Corinth had three good harbors (Lechaeum, on the Corinthian, and Cenchrea and Schoenus on the Saronic Gulf), and thus commanded the traffic of both the eastern and the western seas. The larger ships could not be hauled across the isthmus (Acts 27:6, 37); smaller vessels were taken over by means of a ship tramway with wooden rails. The Phoenicians, who settled here very early, left many traces of their civilization in the industrial arts, such as dyeing and weaving, as well as in their religion and mythology. The Corinthian cult of Aphrodite, of Melikertes (Melkart) and of Athene Phoenike are of Phoenician origin. Poseidon, too, and other sea deities were held in high esteem in the commercial city. Various arts were cultivated and the Corinthians, even in the earliest times, were famous for their cleverness, inventiveness and artistic sense, and they prided themselves on surpassing the other Greeks in the embellishment of their city and in the adornment of their temples. There were many celebrated painters in Corinth, and the city became famous for the Corinthian order of architecture: an order, which, by the way, though held in high esteem by the Romans, was very little used by the Greeks themselves. It was here, too, that the dithyramb (hymn to Dionysus) was first arranged artistically to be sung by a chorus; and the Isthmian games, held every two years, were celebrated just outside the city on the isthmus near the Saronic Gulf. But the commercial and materialistic spirit prevailed later. Not a single Corinthian distinguished himself in literature. Statesmen, however, there were in abundance: Periander, Phidon, Timoleon. Harbors are few on the Corinthian Gulf. Hence, no other city could wrest the commerce of these waters from Corinth. According to Thucydides, the first ships of war were built here in 664 B.C. In those early days Corinth held a leading position among the Greek cities; but in consequence of her great material prosperity she would not risk all as Athens did, and win eternal supremacy over men: she had too much to lose to jeopardize her material interests for principle, and she soon sank into the second class. But when Athens, Thebes, Sparta and Argos fell away, Corinth came to the front again as the wealthiest and most important city in Greece; and when it was destroyed by Mummius in 146 B.C., the treasures of art carried to Rome were as great as those of Athens. Delos became the commercial center for a time; but when Julius Caesar restored Corinth a century later (46 B.C.), it grew so rapidly that the Roman colony soon became again one of the most prominent centers in Greece.