Ancient Corinth

Start with the ground under your feet. It is pale, dusty, and scattered with fragments of worked stone. Some of it was cut by Greek hands. Much more was laid by Roman ones. Above you, the light is hard and white for most of the day, and cicadas fill the olive trees with a dry, steady buzz. Behind everything, a great grey rock rises out of the plain. Keep it in view. It matters to this story.

That rock is Acrocorinth, the citadel that guarded this city for thousands of years. Below it lies Ancient Corinth, one of the most powerful cities of the Greek world. Its wealth came from geography. Corinth sat beside a narrow neck of land, the isthmus, between two seas. One sea led west toward Italy. The other led east toward the Aegean and Asia. Whoever held this ground could tax the trade that crossed it.

The Corinthians found a clever way to use that position. Ships sailing around the southern Peloponnese faced a long and dangerous voyage. So the Corinthians built a paved trackway across the isthmus, called the Diolkos. Crews could drag ships, or at least their cargo, over land from one sea to the other. That trackway is not inside this site. But it explains the money behind what you see here — the temples, the fountains, the long rows of shops.

Now turn toward the columns on the low hill. This is the Temple of Apollo, and it is the oldest standing structure in the city. It dates to the sixth century BCE. Seven Doric columns still stand. Doric is the plainest Greek style, with thick shafts and simple, cushion-like tops. Look closely and you may notice something unusual. Each shaft is cut from a single block of limestone, not stacked in drums. That made them heavy, solid, and very hard to topple.

Here is the first surprise. These columns survived a disaster that erased almost everything else around them. In 146 BCE, a Roman army under the general Lucius Mummius captured Corinth. The city had led a Greek revolt against Rome. The punishment was severe. The men were killed, the women and children were sold, and the city was looted and burned. For about a century, this place stood largely empty. The temple remained, a silent marker on its hill.

Then, in 44 BCE, Julius Caesar refounded Corinth as a Roman colony. Many of the new settlers were freed slaves and veterans from Italy. They built a new city on the old foundations. So most of the ruins around you are Roman, not classical Greek. The broad open space below the temple was the Roman forum, the civic heart of the colony. Shops lined its edges. Officials met here. Merchants argued about prices in Greek and Latin.

Walk toward the middle of the forum and look for a raised stone platform. This is the bema, a speaker's platform used by Roman officials. It holds a special place in Christian history. The apostle Paul lived in Corinth in the middle of the first century and worked here as a tentmaker. According to the Book of Acts, local opponents brought him before the Roman governor Gallio. Many scholars believe this platform is where that hearing took place. Gallio dismissed the case.

Paul later wrote letters to the community he had founded here. Two of them survive in the New Testament as the letters to the Corinthians. One passage, about love being patient and kind, is now read at weddings around the world. It is strange to think about. Those famous words were first written to a small, quarrelling group of people who shopped in this forum and drew water from these fountains.

And water was everything here. Find the Peirene Fountain, set low on the edge of the forum. You will see a façade of arches, and behind them, deep basins fed by a natural spring. The Romans rebuilt and decorated it several times. Legend has it that the winged horse Pegasus drank here, and that the hero Bellerophon tamed him at this spring. Myth or not, the fresh water was real. It helped a large city survive in a dry landscape.

Nearby, look for the Lechaion Road. Its smooth limestone paving runs north, toward the old harbour of Lechaion on the Corinthian Gulf. Wheeled carts, porters, and sailors moved along this route between the port and the forum. Notice the steps, the gutters, and the bases of the shops beside it. This is the second surprise. You can still follow a real Roman street with your feet, and the stones still carry the wear of traffic.

Corinth also gave its name to something you have seen many times. The Corinthian column is the most decorative Greek style, with a capital covered in carved acanthus leaves. A Roman writer, Vitruvius, told a tale about it. In his story, a sculptor saw a basket left on a young girl's grave, with acanthus leaves growing around it. He copied the shape in stone. It is a lovely story, but treat it as legend rather than record. Look for fallen Corinthian capitals around the site.

All of this came back to light through patient work. Archaeologists from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens began excavating here in the late nineteenth century, and the work continues today. The small museum on the site holds many of their finds. You will see painted pottery, which Corinth once exported across the Mediterranean. You will also see Roman statues and mosaics. Give the museum some time. It turns broken foundations back into a living city.

Before you leave, stand still near the Temple of Apollo and look up at Acrocorinth. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Venetians, and Ottomans all held that rock at different times. The city at its feet rose, fell, and rose again. Earthquakes later shook the Roman town many times. Yet these seven columns are still standing in the same place, with the same plain grey stone, under the same hard light.

As you walk back toward the gate, listen again. The cicadas are still buzzing. The dust is still pale under your shoes. Somewhere beyond the trees, the modern village carries on with its ordinary day. Take one more look along the forum. Imagine the shouts of traders, the splash of the fountain, and a traveller from Tarsus making tents in a small rented shop. Then let the place go quiet again.