town or village

Corinth

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Events

1. 146 BCThe Romans destroy Corinth
2. c. AD 51Gallio, proconsul of Achaia, at Corinth

In ancient writers

• Strabo, Geography 8.6.20 — Corinth is called wealthy because of its trade: it sits on the Isthmus and commands two harbours, one towards Asia and one towards Italy, so goods pass easily between the seas while sailors avoid the dangerous Cape Malea.
• Strabo, Geography 8.6.23 — After the Corinthians insulted Roman envoys, Lucius Mummius razed the city in 146 BC; Polybius saw soldiers playing dice on famous paintings thrown on the ground.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.1.2 — Corinth is no longer inhabited by old Corinthians but by colonists sent by Rome: Mummius laid it waste after the Achaean war, and Caesar refounded it.

Questions

• Where was Corinth?

History

Corinth stands at the isthmus joining the Peloponnese to mainland Greece, below the citadel of Acrocorinth, with one harbour on each sea: Lechaeum on the Gulf of Corinth and Cenchreae on the Saronic Gulf. Under the tyrants Cypselus and Periander, in the seventh and early sixth centuries BC, it became a rich trading city; ships were hauled across the isthmus on a paved way, the diolkos, and the temple of Apollo was built in the sixth century BC.

In the classical age Corinth was Athens' rival and Sparta's ally; in 337 BC Philip II gathered the Greeks there in the League of Corinth. As a leading city of the Achaean League it fought Rome, and in 146 BC Lucius Mummius sacked it, put most of those found there to the sword and sold the women and children. The site lay desolate until Julius Caesar founded a Roman colony there in 44 BC, settled largely with freedmen. Corinth became the seat of the proconsul of Achaia.

Paul came from Athens and lodged with Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers lately expelled from Rome. When the synagogue turned against him he taught next door in the house of Justus; Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed, and Paul stayed eighteen months. The Jews brought him before the proconsul Gallio, who refused to judge the case. An inscription at Delphi dates Gallio's year in office to 51–52, which makes this one of the firmest dates in Paul's life. Apollos later worked here. Paul wrote two letters to the church, and Romans was probably written from Corinth: it commends Phoebe of Cenchreae and sends greetings from Erastus, the city treasurer.

Nero began to cut a canal through the isthmus in AD 67, but the work was abandoned. About AD 96, by the usual dating, the church of Rome wrote to the Corinthians the letter known as 1 Clement. Earthquakes shook the Peloponnese in the later fourth century, and when Alaric's Goths overran Greece in 395–396 they took Corinth without a fight.

Scripture: Acts 18:1–11; Acts 18:12–17; Acts 18:18; Acts 18:27–19:1; 1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1; Rom 16:1; Rom 16:23

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (11)

Acts 18:1

After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth;

Acts 18:8

And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

Acts 18:11

And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Acts 18:12

And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,

Acts 18:18

And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.

Acts 19:1

And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

1 Cor 1:2

Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

2 Cor 1:1

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

2 Cor 1:23

Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.

2 Cor 10:14

For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:

2 Tim 4:20

Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Paul's second journey →
• Where Paul's letters went →