Corinthia (Corinth)
Corinthia occupies the corner in the northeast Peloponnese. It borders Achaea to the west, the Corinthian Gulf to the north, the Saronic Gulf to the east, Argolis to the south and Arcadia to the southwest. In the northeast of the city of Corinth was perfectly placed at the southern and narrowest part of the Isthmus to control the north-south land route between the Peloponnese and Central Greece, as well as the short east-west overland crossing (≈6 km) between the gulfs through the ports of Lechaeum (west) and Cenchreae (east).
The Acrocorinth, the citadel, although it could provide a place of refuge and was later heavily fortified as a military stronghold, it is too high to be a normal acropolis and so the city lay by the springs at its northern foot, some two to three miles from the sea. The area was occupied continuously from the Late Neolithic but during the Late Bronze Age seems to have been eclipsed by Korakou on the coast. As the Mycenaean civilisation gradually collapsed the Dorians under the leadership according to tradition Aletes (a descendant of Heracles), migrated into the area in about the eleventh century BC and occupied Corinth.
The sixth king of the Aletes Dynasty was named Bacchis and his descendants were the Bacchiadae, under whom Corinth founded Corcyra (c.733 BC) off the northwest coast of Greece, and Syracuse (also c.733 BC) on the east coast of Sicily; led the way in shipbuilding and naval warfare; and developed a great pottery industry. With trade augmented by taxes and transit tolls on freight crossing their Isthmus, Corinth became one of the wealthiest city-states in all of Greece. It was also around this time that Corinth annexed part of the northern Isthmus from Megara.
Corcyra became a hostile competitor and heavily defeated its mother city in a naval Battle at Sybota in c.664 BC. About 657 BC the Bacchiad Dynasty was overthrown by tyrant Cypselus (r.c.657-c.625 BC), whose most lasting and valuable political legacy was the western expansion achieved by the founding of colonies at Leucas, Ambracia and Anactorium on the route to Italy and Sicily.
Cypselus’ son Periander (r.c.625-c.585 BC) laid a dragway (diolkos) across the Isthmus to allow ships to be dragged from one gulf to the other, and levied dues for its use. Corcyra was brought under control, while new Corinthian colonies were founded c.600 BC at Apollonia Illyrica in Illyria and Potidaea in Chalcidice. He established links with Thrasybulus of Miletus (fl.c.590 BC) and married the daughter of Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, whom he later deposed. Periander was predeceased by his sons and was succeeded by his nephew Psammetichus (named after Periander’s Egyptian ally Psammetichus II (r.595-589 BC)), who was soon deposed and replaced by a narrow oligarchy.
• Sicyon
Sicyon was a town on the Corinthian Gulf, about twelve miles (≈19 km) to the northwest of Corinth. The city and the main area of occupation were located in a triangular coastal plain bounded by the rivers Asopus and Helisson. In 303 BC the city was destroyed by the Macedonian Demetrius-I (53; r.294-283 BC). He rebuilt the city immediately but in a better defensive position.
The city is connected with important myths. Adrastus, ultimately the only survivor of the Seven against Thebes, was expelled from Argos. He joined his mother’s father Polybus at Sicyon, married his daughter and succeeded him as king before returning to Argos. The Sicyonians maintained a cult of Adrastus. After the collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation, Phalces, son of Temenus, the king of Dorian Argos, took possession of Sicyon, which then became subordinate to Argos.
In c.650 BC the Dorian aristocracy at Sicyon gave way to a century of tyranny under the Orthagorids: Orthagoras, Myron-I, Aristonymos, Myron II, Isodemos, Cleisthenes and Aeschenes. Orthagoras made his reputation as a soldier, gained control of the Sicyonian frontier guards and used them to seize power. Orthagoras’ brother Myron-I built the Treasury at Delphi to commemorate his Olympic victory in 648 BC. The reign of Cleisthenes (r.c.600-c.570 BC) was marked by a strong anti-Argive Dorian movement. The three traditional Dorian tribes were given derogatory names; Argive religious entertainment was replaced by a new festival of the popular deity Dionysus, and the cult of Adrastus was spoiled by the importation of relics of the rival Theban hero, Melanippus. In the First Sacred War (c.595-c.586 BC) he played a leading part in Crisa’s destruction and for a while seems to have controlled the sea approach to Delphi. His daughter Agariste married Megacles (2) after her suitors had spent a year in the tyrant’s palace; their son was the Athenian Cleisthenes (c.570-c.507 BC), and their granddaughter was Agariste, mother of Pericles (c.495-429 BC). In c.555 BC Aeschines was deposed by Spartan intervention, and Sicyon became Sparta’s ally.
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