Probably Corfe Castle (_Corfes geat_, _Corf geat_, _Corve_, _Corph_) was

an early Anglo-Saxon settlement. According to William of Malmesbury the

church was founded by St Aldhelm in the 7th century. In 1086 the abbey

of Shaftesbury held the manor, which afterwards passed to the Norman

kings, who raised the castle. Its date is disputed, but the town

dependent on it seems to have grown up during the 13th century, being

first mentioned in 1290, when an inquisition states that the mayor has

pesage of wool and cheese. The rights of the burgesses seem to have been

undefined, for frequent commissions attest to encroachments on the

rights of warren, forest and wreckage belonging to the royal manor. In

1380-1381 at an inquisition into the liberties of Corfe Castle, the

jurors declared that from time immemorial the constable and his steward

had held all pleas and amerciaments except those of the mayor's court of

Pie Powder, but that the town had judgment by fire, water and combat.

The tenants, or "barons," elected themselves a mayor and coroners, but

the constable received the assize of ale. Elizabeth in 1577 gave

exclusive admiralty jurisdiction within the island of Purbeck to Sir

Christopher Hatton, and granted the mayor and "barons" of Corfe the

rights they enjoyed by prescription and charter and that of not being

placed on juries or assizes in matters beyond the island. Charles II.

incorporated Corfe Castle in 1663, the mayor being elected at a court

leet from three nominees of the lord of the manor. Corfe Castle first

returned two representatives to parliament in 1572, but was

disfranchised in 1832. A market for each Saturday was granted to Corfe

in 1214, and in 1248 the town obtained a fair and a market on each

Thursday, while Elizabeth granted fairs on the feasts of St Philip and

St James and of St Luke; both of these still survive. As early as the

14th century the quarrying and export of marble gave employment to the

men of Corfe, and during the 18th century the knitting of stockings was

a flourishing industry.

See T. Bond, _History and Description of Corfe Castle_ (London and

Bournemouth, 1883).

CORFINIUM, in ancient Italy, the chief city of the Paeligni, 7 m. N. of

Sulmona in the valley of the Aternus. The site of the original town is

occupied by the village of Pentima. It probably became subject to Rome

in the 4th century B.C., though it does not appear in Roman history

before the Social War (90 B.C.), in which it was at first adopted by the

allies as the capital and seat of government of their newly founded

state under the name Italia (this form, not Italica, is vouched for by

the coins). It appears also as a fortress of importance in the Civil

War, though it only resisted Caesar's attack for a week (49 B.C.).

Whether the Via Valeria ran as far as Corfinium before the time of

Claudius is uncertain: he, however, certainly extended it to the

Adriatic, and at the same time constructed a cross road, the Via Claudia

Nova, which diverged from the Via Claudia Valeria at a point 6 m.

farther north, and led past Peltuinum and Aveia to Foruli on the Via

Salaria. Another road ran S.S.E. past Sulmo to Aesernia. It was thus an

important road centre, and must have been, in the imperial period, a

town of some size, as may be gathered from the inscriptions that have

been discovered there, and from the extent rather than the importance of

the buildings visible on the site (among them may be noted the remains

of two aqueducts), which has, however, never been systematically

excavated. Short accounts of discoveries will be found in _Notizie degli

Scavi_, _passim_, and a museum, consisting chiefly of the contents of

tombs, has been formed at Pentima. In one corner of a large enclosed

space (possibly a _palaestra_) was constructed the church of S. Pelino.

The present building dates from the 13th century, though its origin may

be traced to the end of the 5th when it was the cathedral of the see of

Valva, which appears to have been the name of Corfinium at the close of

the Roman period. (T. AS.)

CORFU (anc. and mod. Gr. [Greek: Kerkyra] or [Greek: Korkyra], Lat.

_Corcyra_), an island of Greece, in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of

Albania or Epirus, from which it is separated by a strait varying in

breadth from less than 2 to about 15 m. The name Corfu is an Italian

corruption of the Byzantine [Greek: Korypho], which is derived from the

Greek [Greek: Koryphai] (crests). In shape it is not unlike the sickle

(_drepan[=e]_), to which it was compared by the ancients,--the hollow

side, with the town and harbour of Corfu in the centre, being turned

towards the Albanian coast. Its extreme length is about 40 m. and its

greatest breadth about 20. The area is estimated at 227 sq. m., and the

population in 1907 was 99,571, of whom 28,254 were in the town and

suburbs of Corfu. Two high and well-defined ranges divide the island

into three districts, of which the northern is mountainous, the central

undulating and the southern low-lying. The most important of the two

ranges is that of San Salvador, probably the ancient Istone, which

stretches east and west from Cape St Angelo to Cape St Stefano, and

attains its greatest elevation of 3300 ft. in the summit from which it

takes its name. The second culminates in the mountain of Santi Deca, or

Santa Decca, as it is called by misinterpretation of the Greek

designation [Greek: hoi Hagioi Deka], or the Ten Saints. The whole

island, composed as it is of various limestone formations, presents

great diversity of surface, and the prospects from the more elevated

spots are magnificent.

Corfu is generally considered the most beautiful of all the Greek isles,

but the prevalence of the olive gives some monotony to its colouring. It

is worthy of remark that Homer names, as adorning the garden of

Alcinous, seven plants only--wild olive, oil olive, pear, pomegranate,

apple, fig and vine. Of these the apple and the pear are now very

inferior in Corfu; the others thrive well and are accompanied by all the

fruit trees known in southern Europe, with addition of the Japanese

medlar (or loquat), and, in some spots, of the banana. When undisturbed

by cultivation, the myrtle, arbutus, bay and ilex form a rich brushwood

and the minor _flora_ of the island is extensive.

The common form of laud tenure is the _colonia perpetua_, by which the

landlord grants a lease to the tenant and his heirs for ever, in return

for a rent, payable in kind, and fixed at a certain proportion of the

produce. Of old, a tenant thus obtaining half the produce to himself was

held to be co-owner of the soil to the extent of one-fourth; and if he

had three-fourths of the crop, his ownership came to one-half. Such a

tenant could not be expelled except for non-payment, bad culture or the

transfer of his lease without the landlord's consent. Attempts have been

made to prohibit so embarrassing a system; but as it is preferred by the

agriculturists, the existing laws permit it. The portion of the olive

crop due to the landlord, whether by _colonia_ or ordinary lease, is

paid, not according to the actual harvest, but in keeping with the

estimates of valuators mutually appointed, who, just before the fruit is

ripe, calculate how much each tree will probably yield. The large old

fiefs (_baronie_) in Corfu, as in the other islands, have left their

traces in the form of quit-rents (known in Scotland by the name of

feu-duties), generally equal to one-tenth of the produce. But they have

been much subdivided, and the vassals may by law redeem them. Single

olive trees of first quality yield sometimes as much as 2 gallons of

oil, and this with little trouble or expense beyond the collecting and

pressing of the fallen fruit. The trees grow unrestrained, and some are

not less than three hundred years old. The vineyards are laboured by the

broad heart-shaped hoe. The vintage begins on the festival of Santa

Croce, or the 26th of September (O.S.). None of the Corfu wines is much

exported. The capital is the only city or town of much extent in the

island; but there are a number of villages, such as Benizze, Gasturi,

Ipso, Glypho, with populations varying from 300 to 1000. Near Gasturi

stands the Achilleion, the palace built for the Empress Elizabeth of

Austria, and purchased in 1907 by the German emperor, William II.

The town of Corfu stands on the broad part of a peninsula, whose

termination in the citadel is cut from it by an artificial fosse formed

in a natural gully, with a salt-water ditch at the bottom. Having grown

up within fortifications, where every foot of ground was precious, it is

mostly, in spite of recent improvements, a labyrinth of narrow,

tortuous, up-and-down streets, accommodating themselves to the

irregularities of the ground, few of them fit for wheel carriages. There

is, however, a handsome esplanade between the town and the citadel, and

a promenade by the seashore towards Castrades. The palace, built by Sir

Thomas Maitland (?1759-1824; lord high commissioner of the Ionian

Islands, 1815), is a large structure of white Maltese stone. In several

parts of the town may be found houses of the Venetian time, with some

traces of past splendour, but they are few, and are giving place to

structures in the modern and more convenient French style. Of the

thirty-seven Greek churches the most important are the cathedral,

dedicated to Our Lady of the Cave ([Greek: he Panagia Speliotissa]); St

Spiridion's, with the tomb of the patron saint of the island; and the

suburban church of St Jason and St Sosipater, reputed the oldest in the

island. The city is the seat of a Greek and a Roman Catholic archbishop;

and it possesses a gymnasium, a theatre, an agricultural and industrial

society, and a library and museum preserved in the buildings formerly

devoted to the university, which was founded by Frederick North, 5th

earl of Guilford (1766-1827, himself the first chancellor in 1824,) in

1823, but disestablished on the cessation of the English protectorate.

There are three suburbs of some importance--Castrades, Manduchio and San

Rocco. The old fortifications of the town, being so extensive as to

require a force of from 10,000 to 20,000 troops to man them, were in

great part thrown down by the English, and a simpler plan adopted,

limiting the defences to the island of Vido and the old citadel; these

are now dismantled.

_History._--According to the local tradition Corcyra was the Homeric

island of Scheria, and its earliest inhabitants the Phaeacians. At a

date no doubt previous to the foundation of Syracuse it was peopled by

settlers from Corinth, but it appears to have previously received a

stream of emigrants from Eretria. The splendid commercial position of

Corcyra on the highway between Greece and the West favoured its rapid

growth, and, influenced perhaps by the presence of non-Corinthian

settlers, its people, quite contrary to the usual practice of Corinthian

colonies, maintained an independent and even hostile attitude towards

the mother city. This opposition came to a head in the early part of the

7th century, when their fleets fought the first naval battle recorded in

Greek history (about 664 B.C.). These hostilities ended in the conquest

of Corcyra by the Corinthian tyrant Periander (c. 600), who induced his

new subjects to join in the colonization of Apollonia and Anactorium.

The island soon regained its independence and henceforth devoted itself

to a purely mercantile policy. During the Persian invasion of 480 it

manned the second largest Greek fleet (60 ships), but took no active

part in the war. In 435 it was again involved in a quarrel with Corinth

and sought assistance from Athens. This new alliance was one of the

chief immediate causes of the Peloponnesian War (q.v.), in which Corcyra

was of considerable use to the Athenians as a naval station, but did not

render much assistance with its fleet. The island was nearly lost to

Athens by two attempts of the oligarchic faction to effect a revolution;

on each occasion the popular party ultimately won the day and took a

most bloody revenge on its opponents (427 and 425). During the Sicilian

campaigns of Athens Corcyra served as a base for supplies; after a third

abortive rising of the oligarchs in 410 it practically withdrew from the

war. In 375 it again joined the Athenian alliance; two years later it

was besieged by a Lacedaemonian armament, but in spite of the

devastation of its flourishing countryside held out successfully until

relief was at hand. In the Hellenistic period Corcyra was exposed to

attack from several sides; after a vain siege by Cassander it was

occupied in turn by Agathocles and Pyrrhus. It subsequently fell into

the hands of Illyrian corsairs, until in 229 it was delivered by the

Romans, who retained it as a naval station and gave it the rank of a

free state. In 31 B.C. it served Octavian (Augustus) as a base against

Antony.

Eclipsed by the foundation of Nicopolis, Corcyra for a long time passed

out of notice. With the rise of the Norman kingdom in Sicily and the

Italian naval powers, it again became a frequent object of attack. In

1081-1085 it was held by Robert Guiscard, in 1147-1154 by Roger II. of

Sicily. During the break-up of the Later Roman Empire it was occupied by

Genoese privateers (1197-1207) who in turn were expelled by the

Venetians. In 1214-1259 it passed to the Greek despots of Epirus, and in

1267 became a possession of the Neapolitan house of Anjou. Under the

latter's weak rule the island suffered considerably from the inroads of

various adventurers; hence in 1386 it placed itself under the protection

of Venice, which in 1401 acquired formal sovereignty over it. Corcyra

remained in Venetian hands till 1797, though several times assailed by

Turkish armaments and subjected to two notable sieges in 1536 and

1716-1718, in which the great natural strength of the city again

asserted itself. The Venetian feudal families pursued a mild but

somewhat enervating policy towards the natives, who began to merge their

nationality in that of the Latins and adopted for the island the new

name of Corfu. The Corfiotes were encouraged to enrich themselves by the

cultivation of the olive, but were debarred from entering into

commercial competition with Venice. The island served as a refuge for

Greek scholars, and in 1732 became the home of the first academy of

modern Greece, but no serious impulse to Greek thought came from this

quarter.

By the treaty of Campo Formio Corfu was ceded to the French, who

occupied it for two years, until they were expelled by a Russo-Turkish

armament (1799). For a short time it became the capital of a

self-governing federation of the Hephtanesos ("Seven Islands"); in 1807

its faction-ridden government was again replaced by a French

administration, and in 1809 it was vainly besieged by a British fleet.

When, by the treaty of Paris of November 5, 1815, the Ionian Islands

were placed under the protectorate of Great Britain, Corfu became the

seat of the British high commissioner. The British commissioners, who

were practically autocrats in spite of the retention of the native

senate and assembly, introduced a strict method of government which

brought about a decided improvement in the material prosperity of the

island, but by its very strictness displeased the natives. In 1864 it

was, with the other Ionian Islands, ceded to the kingdom of Greece, in

accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants. The island has again

become an important point of call and has a considerable trade in olive

oil; under a more careful system of tillage the value of its

agricultural products might be largely increased.

Corfu contains very few and unimportant remains of antiquity. The site

of the ancient city of Corcyra ([Greek: Kerkyra]) is well ascertained,

about 1-1/2 m. to the south-east of Corfu, upon the narrow piece of ground

between the sea-lake of Calichiopulo and the Bay of Castrades, in each

of which it had a port. The circular tomb of Menecrates, with its

well-known inscription, is on the Bay of Castrades. Under the hill of

Ascension are the remains of a temple, popularly called of Neptune, a

very simple Doric structure, which still in its mutilated state presents

some peculiarities of architecture. Of Cassiope, the only other city of

ancient importance, the name is still preserved by the village of

Cassopo, and there are some rude remains of building on the site; but

the temple of Zeus Cassius for which it was celebrated has totally

disappeared. Throughout the island there are numerous monasteries and

other buildings of Venetian erection, of which the best known are

Paleocastrizza, San Salvador and Pelleka.

AUTHORITIES.--Strabo vi. p. 269; vii. p. 329; Herodotus viii. 168;

Thucydides i.-iii.; Xenophon, _Hellenica_, vi. 2; Polybius ii. 9-11;

Plutarch, _Quaestiones Graecae_, ch. xi.; H. Jervis, _The Ionian

Islands during the Present Century_ (London, 1863); D. F. Ansted, _The

Ionian Islands in the Year 1863_ (London, 1863); Riemann, _Recherches

archeologiques sur les Iles ioniennes_ (Paris, 1879-1880); J. Partsch,

_Die Insel Korfu_ (Gotha, 1887); B. Schmidt, _Korkyraische Studien_

(Leipzig, 1890); B. V. Head, _Historia Numorum_ (Oxford, 1887), pp.

275-277; H. Lutz in _Philologus_, 56 (1897), pp. 71-77; also art.

NUMISMATICS: Greek, S "Epirus." (E. GR.; M. O. B. C.)

CORI (anc. _Cora_), a town and episcopal see of the province of Rome,

Italy, 36 m. S.E. by rail from the town of Rome, on the lower slopes of

the Volscian mountains, 1300 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 6463. It

occupies the site of the ancient Volscian town of Cora, the foundation

of which is by classical authors variously ascribed to Trojan settlers,

to the Volscians (with a later admixture of Latins), and to the Latins

themselves. The last is more probable (though in that case it was the

only town of the Prisci Latini in the Volscian hills), as it appears

among the members of the Latin league. Coins of Cora exist, belonging at

latest to 350-250 B.C. It was devastated by the partisans of Marius

during the struggle between him and Sulla. Before the end of the

Republic it had become a _municipium_. It lay just above the older road

from Velitrae to Terracina, which followed the foot of the Volscian

hills, but was 6 m. from the Via Appia, and it is therefore little

mentioned by classical writers. It is comparatively often spoken of in

the 4th century, but from that time to the 13th we hear hardly anything

of it, as though it had almost ceased to exist. The remains of the city

walls are considerable: three different _enceintes_, one within the

other, enclose the upper and lower town and the acropolis. They are

built in Cyclopean work, and different parts vary considerably in the

roughness or fineness of the jointing and hewing of the blocks; but

explorations at Norba (q.v.) have proved that inferences as to their

relative antiquity based upon such considerations are not to be trusted.

There is a fine single-arched bridge, now called the Ponte della Catena,

just outside the town on the way to Norba, to which an excessively early

date is often assigned.

At the summit of the town is a beautiful little Doric tetrastyle temple,

belonging probably to the 1st century B.C., built of limestone with an

inscription recording its erection by the _duumviri_. It is not known to

what deity it was dedicated; and there is no foundation for the

assertion that the porphyry statue of Minerva (or Roma) now in front of

the Palazzo del Senatore, at Rome, was found here in the 16th century.

Lower down are two columns of a Corinthian temple dedicated to Castor

and Pollux, as the inscription records. The church of Santa Oliva stands

upon the site of a Roman building. The cloister, constructed in

1466-1480, is in two storeys; the capitals of the columns are finely

sculptured by a Lombard artist (G. Giovannoni in _L'Arte_, 1906, p.

108). There are remains of several other ancient buildings in the modern

town, especially of a series of large cisterns probably belonging to the

imperial period. Some interesting frescoes of the Roman school of the

15th century are to be found in the chapel of the Annunziata outside the

town (F. Hermanin in _L'Arte_, 1906, p. 45).

See G. B. Piranesi, _Antichita di Cora_ (Rome, n.d., c. 1770); A.

Nibby, _Analisi della Carta dei Dintorni di Roma_ (Rome, 1848), i. 487

seq. (T. AS.)

CORIANDER, the fruit, improperly called seed, of an umbelliferous plant

(_Coriandrum sativum_), a native of the south of Europe and Asia Minor,

but cultivated in the south of England, where it is also found as an

escape, growing apparently wild. The name is derived from the Gr.

[Greek: koris] (a bug), and was given on account of its foetid, bug-like

smell. The plant produces a slender, erect, hollow stem rising 1 to 2

ft. in height, with bipinnate leaves and small flowers in pink or

whitish umbels. The fruit is globular and externally smooth, having five

indistinct ridges, and the mericarps, or half-fruits, do not readily

separate from each other. It is used in medicine as an aromatic and

carminative, the active principle being a volatile oil, obtained by

distillation, which is isomeric with Borneo camphor, and may be given in

doses of 1/2 to 3 minims. On account of its pleasant and pungent flavour

it is a favourite ingredient in hot curries and sauces. The fruit is

also used in confectionery, and as a flavouring ingredient in various

liqueurs. The essential oil on which its aroma depends is obtained from

it by distillation. The tender leaves and shoots of the young plant are

used in soups and salads.

CORINGA, a seaport of British India, in the district of Godavari and

presidency of Madras, on the estuary of a branch of the Godavari river.

The harbour is protected from the swell of the sea by the southward

projection of Point Godavari, and affords a shelter to vessels during

the south-west monsoon; but though formerly the most important on this

coast it has been silted up and lost its trade. The repairing and

building of small coasting ships is an industry at Tallarevu in the

vicinity. In 1787 a gale from the north-east occasioned an inundation

which swept away the greater part of Coringa with its inhabitants; and

in 1832 another storm desolated the place, carrying vessels into the

fields and leaving them aground. Of Europeans the Dutch were the first

to establish themselves at Coringa. In 1759 the English took possession

of the town, and erected a factory 5 m. to the south of it.

CORINNA, surnamed "the Fly," a Greek poetess, born at Tanagra in

Boeotia, flourished about 500 B.C. She is chiefly known as the

instructress and rival of Pindar, over whom she gained the victory in

five poetical contests. According to Pausanias (ix. 22. 3), her success

was chiefly due to her beauty and her use of the local Boeotian dialect.

The extant fragments of her poems, dealing chiefly with mythological

subjects, such as the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, will be

found in Bergk's _Poetae Lyrici Graeci_.

Some considerable remains of two poems on a 2nd-century papyrus

(_Berliner Klassikertexte_, v., 1907) have also been attributed to

Corinna (W. H. D. Rouse's _Year's Work in Classical Studies_, 1907; J.

M. Edmonds, _New Frags. of ... and Corinna_, 1910).

CORINTH, a city of Greece, situated near the isthmus (see CORINTH,

ISTHMUS OF) which connects Peloponnesus and central Greece, and

separates the Saronic and the Corinthian gulfs on E. and W. The ancient

town stood 1-1/2 m. from the latter, in a plain extending westward to

Sicyon. The citadel, or Acrocorinthus, rising precipitously on the S. to

a height of 1886 ft. was separated by a ravine from Oneium, a range of

hills which runs E. to the isthmus entrance. Between this ridge and the

offshoots of Geraneia opposite a narrow depression allowed of easy

transit across the Isthmus neck. The territory of Corinth was mostly

rocky and unfertile; but its position at the head of two navigable gulfs

clearly marked it out as a commercial centre. Its natural advantages

were enhanced by the "Diolcus" or tram-road, by which ships could be

hauled across the Isthmus. It was connected in historic times with its

western port of Lechaeum by two continuous walls, with Cenchreae and

Schoenus on the east by chains of fortifications. The city walls

attained a circuit of 10 m.

I. _History._--In mythology, Corinth (originally named Ephyre) appears

as the home of Medea, Sisyphus and Bellerophon, and already has over-sea

connexions which illustrate its primitive commercial activity. Similarly

the early presence of Phoenician traders is attested by the survival of

Sidonian cults (Aphrodite Urania, Athena Phoenicice, Melicertes, i.e.

Melkarth). In the Homeric poems Corinth is a mere dependency of Mycenae;

nor does it figure prominently in the tradition of the Dorian

migrations. Though ultimately conquered by the invaders it probably

retained much of its former "Ionian" population, whose god Poseidon

continued to be worshipped at the national Isthmian games throughout

historic times; of the eight communal tribes perhaps only three were

Dorian. Under the new dynasty of Aletes, which reigned according to

tradition from 1074 to 747, Corinthian history continues obscure. The

government subsequently passed into the hands of a small corporation of

nobles descended from a former king Bacchis, and known as the Bacchidae,

who nominated annually a Prytanis (president) from among their number.

The maritime expansion of Corinth at this time is proved by the

foundation of colonies at Syracuse and Corcyra, and the equipment of a

fleet of triremes (the newly invented Greek men-of-war) to quell a

revolt of the latter city.

But Corinth's real prosperity dates from the time of the tyranny

(657-581), established by a disqualified noble Cypselus (q.v.). and

continued under his son Periander (q.v.). Under these remarkable men,

whose government was apparently mild, the city rapidly developed. She

extended her sphere of influence throughout the coast-lands of the

western gulf; by the settlement of numerous colonies in N.W. Greece she

controlled the Italian and Adriatic trade-routes and secured a large

share of the commerce with the western Greeks. In Levantine waters

connexions grew up with the great marts of Chalcis and Miletus, with the

rulers of Lydia, Phrygia, Cyprus and Egypt. As an industrial centre

Corinth achieved pre-eminence in pottery, metal-work and decorative

handicraft, and was the reputed "inventor" of painting and tiling; her

bronze and her pottery, moulded from the soft white clay of Oneium, were

widely exported over the Mediterranean. The chief example of her early

art was the celebrated "chest of Cypselus" at Olympia, of carved cedar

and ivory inlaid with gold. The city was enriched with notable temples

and public works (see S ARCHAEOLOGY), and became the home of several

Cyclic poets and of Arion, the perfecter of the dithyramb.

The tyranny was succeeded by an oligarchy based upon a graduated money

qualification, which ruled with a consistency equalling that of the

Venetian Council, but pursued a policy too purely commercial to the

neglect of military efficiency. Late in the 6th century Corinth joined

the Peloponnesian league under Sparta, in which her financial resources

and strategic position secured her an unusual degree of independence.

Thus the city successfully befriended the Athenians against Cleomenes I.

(q.v.), and supported them against Aegina, their common commercial rival

in eastern waters. In the great Persian war of 480 Corinth served as the

Greek headquarters: her army took part at Thermopylae and Plataea and

her navy distinguished itself at Salamis and Mycale. Later in the

century the rapid development of Athenian trade and naval power became a

serious menace. In 459 the Corinthians, in common with their former

rivals the Aeginetans, made war upon Athens, but lost both by sea and

land. Henceforward their Levantine commerce dwindled, and in the west

the Athenians extended their rivalry even into the Corinthian Gulf.

Though Syracuse remained friendly, and the colonies in the N.W.

maintained a close commercial alliance with the mother-city, the

disaffection of Corcyra hampered the Italian trade. The alliance of this

latter power with Athens accentuated the rising jealousy of the

Corinthians, who, after deprecating a federal war in 440, virtually

forced Sparta's hand against Athens in 432. In the subsequent war

Corinth displayed great activity in the face of heavy losses, and the

support she gave to Syracuse had no little influence on the ultimate

issue of the war (see PELOPONNESIAN WAR). In 395 the domineering

attitude of Sparta impelled the Corinthians to conclude an alliance with

Argos which they had previously contemplated on occasions of friction

with the former city, as well as with Thebes and with Athens, whose

commercial rivalry they no longer dreaded. In the ensuing "Corinthian

War" the city suffered severely, and the war-party only maintained

itself by the help of an Argive garrison and a formal annexation to

Argos. Since 387 the Spartan party was again supreme, and after Leuctra

Corinth took the field against the Theban invaders of Peloponnesus

(371-366). In 344 party struggles between oligarchs and democrats led to

a usurpation by the tyrant Timophanes, whose speedy assassination was

compassed by his brother Timoleon (q.v.).

After the campaign of Chaeronea, Philip II. of Macedon summoned a Greek

congress at Corinth and left a garrison on the citadel. This citadel,

one of the "fetters of Greece," was eagerly contended for by the

Macedonian pretenders after Alexander's death; ultimately it fell to

Antigonus Gonatas, who controlled it through a tyrant. In 243 Corinth

was freed by Aratus and incorporated into the Achaean league. After a

short Spartan occupation in 224 it was again surrendered to Macedonia.

T. Quinctius Flamininus, after proclaiming the liberty of Greece at the

Isthmus, restored Corinth to the league (196). With the revival of its

political and commercial importance the city became the centre of

resistance against Rome. In return for the foolish provocation of war in

146 B.C. the Roman conquerors despoiled Corinth of its art treasures and

destroyed the entire settlement: the land was partly made over to Sicyon

and partly became public domain.

In 46 Julius Caesar repeopled Corinth with Italian freedmen and

dispossessed Greeks. Under its new name _Laus Julii_ and an Italian

constitution it rapidly recovered its commercial prosperity. Augustus

made it the capital of Achaea; Hadrian enriched it with public works.

Its prosperity, as also its profligacy, is attested by the New

Testament, by Strabo and Pausanias. After the Gothic raids of 267 and

395 Corinth was secured by new fortifications at the Isthmus. Though

restricted to the citadel, the medieval town became the administrative

and ecclesiastical capital of Peloponnesus, and enjoyed a thriving trade

and silk industry until in 1147 it was sacked by the Normans. In 1210 it

was joined to the Latin duchy of the Morea, and subsequently was

contended for by various Italian pretenders. Since the Turkish conquest

(1459) the history of Corinth has been uneventful, save for a raid by

the Maltese in 1611 and a Venetian occupation from 1687 to 1715.

AUTHORITIES.--Strabo, pp. 378-382; Pausanias ii. 1-4; Curtius,

_Peloponnesos_ (Gotha, 1851), ii., 514-556; E. Wilisch, _Die

Altkorinthische Thonindustrie_ (Leipzig, 1892) and _Geschichte

Korinth's_ (1887, 1896, 1901); G. Gilbert, _Griechische

Staatsaltertumer_ (Leipzig, 1885), li. pp. 87-91. (M. O. B. C.)

II. _Archaeology and Modern Town._--The modern town of New Corinth, the

head of a district in the province of Corinth (pop. 71,229), is situated

on the Isthmus of Corinth near the south-eastern recess of the Gulf of

Corinth, 3-1/2 m. N.E. from the site of the ancient city. It was founded

in 1858, when Old Corinth was destroyed by an earthquake. It is

connected by railway with Athens (57 m.), with Patras (80 m.), and with

Nauplia (40 m.), the capital of Argolis. Communication by sea with

Athens, Patras, the Ionian Islands and the shores of the Ambracian Gulf,

is constant since the opening of the Corinthian ship canal, in 1893. It

has not, however, attained great prosperity. It has broad streets and

low houses, but is architecturally unattractive, like most of the

creations of the time of King Otto. Its chief exports are seedless

grapes ("currants"), olive-oil, silk and cereals. Pop. (1905) about

4300.

Old Corinth passed through its various stages, Greek, Roman, Byzantine,

Turkish. After the War of Liberation it was again Greek, and, being a

considerable town, was suggested as the capital of the new kingdom of

Greece. The earthquake of 1858 levelled it to the ground with the

exception of about a dozen houses. A mere handful of the old inhabitants

remained on the site. But fertile fields and running water made it

attractive; and outsiders gradually came in. At present it is an untidy,

poverty-stricken village of about 1000 inhabitants, mostly of Albanian

blood. Like the ancient city, it spreads out over two terraces, one

about 100 ft. above the other. These were formed in different geological

ages by the gulf, which had in historical times receded to a distance of

1-1/4 m. from the city. At the nearest point to the city was laid out

the harbour, Lechaeum, a basin dug far into the shore and joined with

the city by long walls. At about the middle of the two terraces, 1-1/2

m. long, the edge of the upper one was worn back into a deep

indentation, probably by running water, possibly by quarrying. Here was

the heart of the ancient city. At the lower end of the indentation is

the modern public square, shaded by a gigantic and picturesque plane

tree, nourished by the surplus water of Pirene. As the visitor looks

from the square up the indentation he sees on a height to the right a

venerable temple ruin, and, directly in front, Acro-Corinth, rising over

1500 ft. above the village. Even from the village, the view over the

gulf, including Parnassus with its giant neighbours on the N., Cyllene

and its neighbours on the W., and Geraneia on the N.E., is very fine.

But from Acro-Corinth the view is still finer, and is perhaps

unsurpassed in Greece.

The excavations begun in 1896 by the American school of Classical

Studies at Athens, under the direction of Rufus B. Richardson, have

brought to light important monuments of the ancient city, both Greek and

Roman.

The first object was the locating of the agora, or public square, first

because Pausanias says that most of the important monuments of the city

were either on or near the agora; and secondly because, beginning with

the agora, he mentions, sometimes with a brief description, the

principal monuments in order along three of the principal thoroughfares

radiating from it. In the first year's work twenty-one trial trenches

were dug in the hope of finding a clue to its position. Somewhat less

than a quarter of a mile to the N.W. of the temple, set back into the

edge of the upper terrace, there was found, under 20 ft. of soil, a

ruined Roman theatre built upon the ruins of a Greek theatre. This

theatre was, according to Pausanias, on the street leading from the

agora towards Sicyon, and so to the west of the agora. Another trench

dug across the deep indentation to the E. of the temple revealed a broad

limestone pavement leading from the very northern edge of the city up

through the indentation, in the direction of Acro-Corinth. It required

little sagacity to identify it with the street mentioned by Pausanias as

leading from the agora towards Lechaeum. It was practically certain that

by following up this pavement to its point of intersection with the road

from Sicyon the agora would be discovered.

[Illustration: CORINTH showing sites of excavations]

The limestone pavement, with long porches on either side, was found to

stop at the foot of a marble staircase of thirty-four steps of Byzantine

construction, underneath which appeared a Roman arrangement of the two

flights with a platform halfway up. The top flight led up to the

propylaea. The remains of the propylaea above ground are few; but the

foundations are massive and well laid, at the end of the upper terrace

where it is farthest worn back. These foundations are clearly those of a

Roman triumphal arch, which perhaps took the name "propylaea" from an

ancient Greek structure on the same spot. This arch appears on Roman

coins from Augustus to Commodus; according to Pausanias it bore two

four-horse chariots, one driven by Helios and the other by Phaethon, his

son, all in gilded bronze.

Although a considerable part of the agora has been excavated, none of

the statues which Pausanias saw in it have been discovered. On the upper

(S.) side are excellent foundations of a long porch. On the N. side,

stretching westward from the propylaea, are two porches of different

periods. The older one, which still existed in Roman times, was backed

up against the temple hill, which was cut away to make room for it. An

ancient staircase, 15 ft. broad, led down from the temple hill into the

lower area of the broad pavement, from which access to the agora and the

Pirene was easy.

To the E. of the paved road and close up against the agora itself, only

at a much lower level, was found, buried under 35 ft. of earth, the

famous fountain Pirene, tallying exactly with the description of

Pausanias, as "a series of chambers that are like caves, and bearing a

facade of white marble." This Pirene originally had a two-storey facade

of Roman fashion made of limestone, but, before the time of Pausanias,

it had received a covering of marble which has now fallen off, but has

left traces of itself in the holes drilled into the limestone, in the

rough hacking away of the half columns, and in the numerous marble

fragments which lay in front of the facade. This was not, however, the

earliest form of Pirene. It was built up in front of a more simple Greek

fountain-structure which consisted of seven cross-walls placed under the

edge of the stratum forming the upper terrace. Six chambers were thus

formed which showed the chaste beauty of Greek workmanship, while the

stratum of native rock which covered them gave a touch of nature and

made them caves. The walls ended at the front in the form of an _anta_

delicately carved. On a parapet at the rear of each chamber a single

slender Ionic column between two _antae_ supported an Ionic entablature.

The stuccoed walls were striped horizontally and vertically with red on

a blue field, on which appear fishes swimming. The chambers were really

reservoirs, filled by the water which flowed along their backs.

We know nothing further about the Greek system, but in the Roman

adjustment the water was led from this series of cisterns into a large

rectangular basin which formed the centre of a quadrangle 50 ft. square.

In the N.E. corner is a hole through which it was drained, and at the N.

end a flight of five steps led down into it. Besides the four orifices

through which water flowed into it there were two other holes about 4

in. lower down to keep the basin from overflowing. Two uses of water are

mentioned by Pausanias, "The water," he says, "was sweet to drink," and

also good for tempering bronze. It seems clear then, that the basin was

at stated times used for the latter purpose, and was converted into a

tank. The bronze was plunged into the water in a red hot condition, and

thus acquired its peculiar excellence.

In Byzantine times five columns, of various diameters, with no two bases

of the same size, bearing Corinthian capitals, were set up about 6 ft.

in front of the facade. Blocks of marble which had seen use elsewhere

ran from them back into the facade, which was hacked away in rough

fashion to receive them. Probably these blocks formed the floor of a

balcony, a tawdry marble addition.

Pirene was at all times the heart of the city. Here it was that Athena

helped Bellerophon to bridle Pegasus; and hence she received the epithet

of "the Bridler," Chalinitis. The importance of the fountain is attested

by the fact that the Greek poets and the Delphic oracle instead of

saying Corinth said, "the city of Pirene." That it was a place of common

resort is shown by Euripides (_Medea_, 68 f.), where it is said that the

elders were to be found "near the august waters of Pirene, playing

draughts ([Greek: pessoi])." The quadrangle, with its walls 20 ft. high,

and its three apses probably covered with half domes, provided

considerable shade. There is reason for supposing that the marble

coating of the facade, and perhaps the erection of the quadrangle, also

covered with marble, were the work of Herodes Atticus, and therefore

just completed when Pausanias saw them. A base on which stood a statue

of Herodes' wife, Regilla, was found close to the facade, inscribed with

fulsome praise, stating that the statue was "set up by order of the

Sisyphaean Senate at the outpouring of the streams." Two inscriptions of

Roman times make the identity of Pirene certain, if there could be any

doubt in the face of the exact agreement of Pausanias's description with

the structure.

Of the surviving monuments of the Greek city the most important is the

temple of Apollo. While it was probably badly wrecked by the Romans at

the sack of the city, its massive columns with the entablature survived.

That it was restored and was in use in Roman time is shown by the fact

that both the seven columns still standing and two fallen columns

discovered in the excavations, to say nothing of several fragments of

others, have a thick coating of Roman stucco laid over the finer Greek.

The style of the temple points to 600 B.C., when Periander was at the

height of his power. According to Herodotus he made his doubtful

adherents deposit pledges of faithfulness in the temple of Apollo. Quite

near the W. end of the temple is the fountain Glauc[=e] cut out of a

cube of rock, apparently left standing when the material for the temple

was quarried around it. In it were carved out four chambers or

reservoirs all connected and a porch consisting of three pillars between

two _antae_ in which the side walls ended. The water coming down from

Acro-Corinth was introduced from behind. Approached by a flight of steps

partly rock-cut, it had at the rear of the porch a balustrade with

marble lions' heads through which the water overflowed. Two of these

heads were found. The top of the system of reservoirs was too heavy for

the slender cross walls and pillars, only the stumps of which remain; a

collapse took place, by which the porch and the W. compartment were

carried away. From its location only about 50 yds. from the temple it

seems to have been the temple fountain. It was named after the second

wife of Jason, Glauc[=e], who plunged into it to quench the fire of the

poisoned bridal garments given her by Medea.

It is not surprising that monuments were found of which there is no

record in ancient writings. Such was a very ancient fountain W. of the

propylaea, 25 ft. below the surface. Under remains of the Roman city

appeared a triglyphon of porous stone with an extent from N. to S. of

about 30 ft. At the N. end it turned westward at an obtuse angle and

extended about 10 ft. in that direction. The system is about 4 ft. high.

While the colours on the metopes and triglyphs had faded somewhat, the

border above them, topped with a cornice projecting 6 in., retained a

most brilliant maeander pattern of red, blue and yellow, while below

these were two bands of godroons of blue and red. On the top of this

system as a foundation were set several statue bases, one bearing the

signature of Lysippus, which shows that the system stood there at least

as early as the 4th century B.C. Some parts of it may have been taken

from older buildings, but not the cornice nor the corner metope block

which formed an obtuse angle. Near the middle of the long side is an

opening; and from it a flight of seven steps led down to a trapezoidal

chamber, on the back wall of which are two lions' heads of bronze,

through which water, conducted in long semi-cylindrical channels of

bronze, from behind the wall, poured out into pitchers for which holes

are cut in the floor. Channels for the overflow were cut along the back

and sides of the chamber. All this was once approached from the front at

the level of the floor, long before the triglyphon was set up, 7 ft.

above it. Considering its depth this fountain must be dated back to the

5th century, probably near the beginning. The style of the lions' heads

would hardly admit a later date. This is the only case of an ancient

Greek fountain of such an early date, unaltered and intact. The pains

taken to preserve it suggest that it was invested with a sacred

character.

Sculptures in large numbers, both of the Greek city and the Roman, are

collected in the new museum erected by the Greek government near the

plane tree. The finest of the Greek sculptures is the head of a youth

found in the orchestra of the theatre at a depth of 23 ft. It lacks only

the lower part of the bridge of the nose, and has style and character,

resembling Myron's heads in shape and in the hair. A large fragment of a

relief also of early date, represents two dancing maenads half

life-size. Most impressive is a colossal female figure of grand style

and excellent drapery. If not an original of the 5th century it is one

of the finest of copies. Of the great amount of Roman sculpture the best

single piece is a head of Dionysus under the influence of wine, crowned

with a wreath of ivy, his right hand thrown carelessly over his head.

The fine execution is all that differentiates it from the numerous

copies in various museums. The most important sculptures of the Roman

period, however, are a group of colossal figures supporting an

entablature, a large part of which has been recovered. One of the

figures, a barbarian captive, effeminate like those which appear on

Roman triumphal arches, is practically intact. Another, its counterpart,

is preserved down to the hips. These differ from Caryatids, which bear

the architrave on their heads. Here a pilaster forming the back of the

figure receives a Corinthian capital, upon which the architrave rests;

and the figures merely brace up the pilaster. Two of these figures stood

at the end of a re-entrant curve, several pieces of which are preserved.

Two female heads of like proportions belong to the system, since the

backs of their heads are cut away in the same manner as the male heads.

The building to which the figures belonged, a porch, extended westward

from the propylaea; and may be traced for 45 ft. All that is left of it

is the core of _opus incertum_.

The excavations brought to light vases and fragments of vases, of nearly

every period except the Mycenaean. On the N. side of the hill on which

stands the village schoolhouse, from which one looks across the

indentation to the Apollo temple, several vertical shafts in the

limestone stratum were found, and underneath it in horizontal passages

were bodies surrounded with vases. These are pre-Mycenaean, and their

only ornament is scratches, into which white matter has been pressed.

There are over fifty of these vases, of multiform shapes. By the side of

the Lechaeum road, near the steps leading to the propylaea, were found

in deep diggings thirteen early Geometric vases. Proto-Corinthian vases

also were everywhere strongly represented. The best find of pottery,

however, was an Old Corinthian celeb[=e] ([Greek: kelebe], drinking

vessel), about a foot high, in forty-six fragments, found in a well, 30

ft. below the surface. On one side are a boar and a leopard confronting

each other, and on the other side two cocks in the same heraldic

arrangement. On the projecting plates supported by the handles are

palmettes.

Two inscriptions in the Old Corinthian alphabet came to light. But, on

the whole, inscriptions before the Roman times were almost entirely

lacking. One inscription, though of late date, deserves mention. On a

marble block broken away at both ends, which in a second use was a

lintel, we read [Greek: AGOGEEBR], which can only be [Greek: synagoge

Hebraion] (synagogue of the Hebrews).

The excavations were confined to a small part of the city, but there is

little doubt that it was the most important part. By good fortune the

earth here was very deep. On the higher level of the agora and the

Apollo temple, where the depth of earth is comparatively slight, there

is little hope of important finds. There is no hope of finding the great

bronze Athena, which stood in the middle of the agora. To the west,

beyond the theatre, one might find the temple of Athena Chalinitis and

the fountain Lerna, and somewhere near Glauce, the Odeum and the tomb of

Medea's children; but it is more likely that they have disappeared. On

the Lechaeum road, on which a bewildering wealth of fountains and

statues is enumerated, only the Baths of Eurycles below the plane tree

were found; deep diggings were made into them, and the foundations of

the facade laid bare. This great complex was apparently supplied with

water from Hadrian's aqueduct from Lake Stymphalus. On the street going

eastward from the agora nothing is mentioned between it and the city

wall. This level eastern part was probably given up to fine houses, all

traces of which have perished. Outside the gate, apparently, was the

famous Craneion, shaded by cypress trees, and near it the tombs of Lais

and Diogenes, a precinct of Bellerophon and of Athena Melaenis. The

number of temples and shrines enumerated by Pausanias along the road

leading up to Acro-Corinth is bewildering. Here were represented Isis

and Serapis, Helios, the Mother of the Gods, the Fates, Demeter and

Persephone; but no trace of these temples remains. At the highest point

of the road, according to Pausanias, there stood the famous temple of

Aphrodite, but the remains excavated at this point seem to be those of

a late tower, and the few foundations below it do not resemble those of

a temple. We are equally unfortunate in regard to Strabo's splendid

marble Sisyphaeum just below the summit. The fountain Pirene, "behind

the temple," still exists, but so much earth has accumulated about it

that one now approaches it by going down a ladder. The water is so

crystal clear that one inadvertently steps into it. The identity of name

with that of Pirene in the city is justified by the fact that the upper

spring is the source of the Pirene below.

See, for details, the _American Journal of Archaeology_ (from 1896).

(R. B. R.)

CORINTH, a city and the county-seat of Alcorn county, Mississippi,

U.S.A., situated in the N.E. part of the state, about 90 m. E. by S. of

Memphis, Tennessee. Pop.(1890) 2111; (1900) 3661 (1174 negroes); (1910)

5020. It is served by the Mobile & Ohio and the Southern railways; and

by a branch of the Illinois Central connecting Jackson, Miss., and

Birmingham, Ala. It has woollen mills, cotton compresses, clothing,

furniture, and spoke and stave factories and machine shops, and is a

cotton market. Because of its situation and its importance as a railway

junction, Corinth played an important part in the western campaigns of

the Civil War. After the first Confederate line of defence had been

broken by the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson (February 1862),

Corinth was fortified by General P. G. T. Beauregard, and was made the

centre of the new line along the Memphis & Charleston railway, "the

great East and West artery of the Confederacy." Grant's advance on this

centre, then defended by General A. S. Johnston, led to the battle of

Shiloh, fought on April 6/7 about 20 m. N.E. of Corinth; after this

engagement Beauregard withdrew to Corinth. General H. W. Halleck, with a

greatly superior force, cautiously and slowly advanced upon the

Confederate position, consuming more than a month in the operation.

During the night of the 29th of May Beauregard evacuated the place

(which was occupied by the Federals on the following day), and

re-established his line at Tupelo. Corinth then became the headquarters

of the Union forces under General W. S. Rosecrans, who on the 3/4 of

October 1862 was fiercely attacked here by General Earl von Dorn, whom

he repulsed, both sides suffering considerable losses in killed and

wounded, and the Confederates leaving many prisoners behind.

CORINTH, ISTHMUS OF, an isthmus of Greece, dividing the Gulf of Corinth

from the Saronic Gulf. Ships were sometimes dragged across it in ancient

times at a place called the Diolcus ([Greek: dielkein], to pull or cut

through). Nero, in A.D. 67, began cutting a canal through it; but the

project was abandoned. In 1893 a ship canal was opened, with its western

entrance about 1-1/4 m. N.E. of the little town of New Corinth. It was

begun in 1881 by a French company, which ceased operations in 1889, a

Greek company completing the undertaking. The canal is about 70 ft.

broad, nearly 4 m. long, and 26 ft. deep. It shortens the journey from

the Adriatic to the Peiraeus by 202 m., but foreign steamships seldom

use it, as the narrowness of the canal and the strength of the current

at times render the passage dangerous. About 1 m. from its western end

it is crossed by the iron bridge of the Athens and Corinth railway.

Traces of the Isthmian wall may still be seen parallel to the canal; it

was constructed, at an unknown date, for the fortification of the

Isthmus. Just to the S. of it, and about 1/2 m. from the sea are the

remains of the Isthmian precinct of Poseidon and its stadium, where the

Isthmian games were celebrated. This precinct served also as a fortress.

Within it have been found traces of the temple of Poseidon and other

buildings. (E. GR.)

CORINTHIANS, EPISTLES TO THE, two books of the Bible (New Testament).

The two letters addressed to the Christian church at Corinth are, with

Romans, the longest of the Pauline epistles. They possess a singular

interest and value, due to the apostle's close acquaintance with the

members of the church addressed and their circumstances. In consequence

of this intimate character the First Epistle to the Corinthians presents

a picture, unrivalled in fulness and colour, of the life of a Pauline

church, while the Second Epistle, written out of strong feeling, gives a

revelation of the innermost feelings and characteristic temperament of

Paul himself, such as is not elsewhere to be found. Dealing, as both

epistles do, with concrete problems of morals and with such tendencies

of thought and life as find their parallel in all times, they are full

of instruction to the modern Church; and this instruction increases in

effectiveness the better we come to understand ancient modes of thought

in their diversity from our own.

Lofty and vivid expression of the apostle's thought on the highest

themes is also to be found here--witness the "Hymn to Love" (1 Cor.

xiii.), the declaration of the resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 51-57), or the

list of signatures of the true servant of God (2 Cor. vi. 3-10). In

important historical statements, also, these epistles stand second to

none, not even to Galatians--as may be indicated by a reference to the

words about the institution of the Lord's supper (1 Cor. xi. 23-26) and

the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. xv. 1-8); or to the

autobiographical utterances in which Paul explains that he was once a

persecutor of Christians (1 Cor. xv. 9), mentions his escape from

Damascus (2 Cor. xi. 32 f.), describes his coming to Corinth (1 Cor. ii.

1 ff.), enumerates his sufferings for the Gospel (2 Cor. xi. 16-31),

tells of his visions (2 Cor. xii. 1-9). In the Corinthian epistles we

come in contact, as nowhere else, with the man Paul and his daily life.

The history of Paul's relations with Corinth can be made out from the

Acts and the Epistles with considerable clearness. The chronology of

Paul's life is not at any point surely determinable within a range of

less than five years, but it must have been in the autumn of one of the

years A.D. 49-53 (the usual chronology has fixed on A.D. 52) that the

arrival of Paul in Corinth took place as described in Acts xviii. 1. In

his so-called second missionary journey Paul had been driven by

irresistible inner impulses to push on into Greece the missionary work

already begun in Asia Minor. First he preached in the province of

Macedonia, where the work opened auspiciously at Philippi, Thessalonica

and Beroea; then, apparently driven out by the violent opposition of the

Jews, he moved on to Achaea, and after rather unsuccessful attempts to

secure converts among the philosophers of Athens came to Corinth.

This ancient city, taken and destroyed by the Romans in 146 B.C., had

been refounded by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony in 46 B.C., settled

with Italian colonists, and made a residence of the Roman governor. Its

situation on the isthmus of Corinth made it a stage on the greatest of

the trade routes between Rome and the East, and it was at this time the

commercial capital of Greece. The traditions of licentiousness and

sensuality associated with the worship of Aphrodite, which had given

rise to the sinister word _corinthianize_, increased the natural

tendencies of a great city to wickedness and wanton luxury. Here, as in

all great centres of trade and industry, there was a body of Jews, with

a synagogue. The conditions of life in Corinth--the heathen

surroundings, the temptations to vice, the competition and disputes of

trading life, the controversial arguments of Jews, the alertness of mind

of a lively city people, the haughty temper of the inhabitants of the

capital--all these are to be seen reflected in the earnest paragraphs of

Paul's two epistles.

The founding of the church in Corinth (cf. 1 Cor. iv. 15) and nearly

everything important that we know of Paul's first visit there will be

found, well told, in Acts xviii. 1-18, a passage for which, evidently,

the writer of the history had excellent sources of information. Of the

somewhat chastened spirit with which Paul came he himself tells in 1

Cor. ii. 1-5. His success was prompt and large, and in the year and six

months of his stay a vigorous church was gathered, including Aquila and

Priscilla, as well as Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, of whom we

hear again in 1 Cor. i. 14; whether Sosthenes, who seems to have

succeeded Crispus in his office (Acts xviii. 17), was afterwards

converted and became the Christian brother mentioned in i Cor. i. 1

cannot be known. The church evidently consisted mainly of Gentile

converts, but with some Jews (i Cor. x. 14, "flee from idolatry"; xii.

2, "when ye were Gentiles "; vii. 18, "was any man called being

circumcised?").

The apostle's next long stay was at Ephesus, whither he seems to have

gone in the course of the same year in which he left Corinth (A.D.

51-55) and where he stayed three years. Before he arrived at Ephesus

Aquila and Priscilla, who had settled there, made the acquaintance of

Apollos, a Jew from Alexandria, well-educated and zealous, who with

imperfect Christian knowledge was preaching the gospel of Jesus to his

fellow-countrymen in the synagogue. He presently went to Corinth and

carried on Christian work there with success (Acts xviii. 24-28), "I

planted," says Paul (1 Cor. iii. 6), "Apollos watered." From this point

on our information comes from the epistles, of which the first was

written from Ephesus before Pentecost of the year in which Paul left

that city, i.e. A.D. 54-58 (1 Cor. xvi. 8).

It appears that the church grew in numbers, for Paul refers in 2 Cor. i.

1 to "saints who are in all Achaea." Its membership was mostly of humble

people (1 Cor. i. 26-29), but probably not exclusively so, for Crispus

and Stephanas (who with his household was able to render services that

may well have been costly, 1 Cor. xvi. 15), Gaius and Erastus (Rom. xvi.

23), would appear to have been persons of substance. The references to

law-suits perhaps imply fairly prosperous traders, the tone of the

letters suggests considerable education and a reasonable degree of

property on the part of many (though not all) of the readers.

The first need of the church for help from Paul seems to have grown out

of the dangers from surrounding heathenism. In 1 Cor. v. 9 we read of a

letter in which Paul had directed the Christians "not to have company

with fornicators." This letter, so far as we know, opened the

correspondence which was maintained during the three years of Paul's

stay in Ephesus, whence there was easy and frequent communication with

Corinth. He refers to it in order to explain the injunction which had

been (perhaps wilfully) misunderstood and exaggerated.[1]

While at Ephesus Paul was visited by persons of the household of Chloe

(1 Cor. i. 11), and by Stephanas with Fortunatus and Achaicus (probably

his slaves, xvi. 17). From them and from a letter (vii. 1), which was

brought perhaps by Stephanas, he was able to gain the intimate knowledge

which the epistles everywhere reveal. The letter from Corinth must have

contained inquiries as to practical conduct with regard to marriage

(vii. 1), meat offered to idols (viii. 1), and the "spiritual gifts"

(xii. 1), and may well have related to other matters, such as the

collection of money for Jerusalem (xvi. 1), the visit of Apollos (xvi.

12), the position of women (xi. 2). Paul's reply includes many other

topics. When it was sent, his trusted helper Timothy had also started on

his way (probably through Macedonia) to Corinth, to contribute there to

the edification of the Christians (iv. 17, xvi. 10). The letter itself

was doubtless sent by the hand of returning Corinthians, possibly by the

unnamed brethren referred to in xvi. 11, and was expected to arrive

before Timothy.

_First Epistle._--The first epistle (in many respects the most

systematic of all Paul's letters) is a pastoral letter, dealing both

with positive evils that need correction, and with difficult questions

of practice and of thought upon which advice may be valued. Through it

all there is a genial undercurrent of confidence in the personal loyalty

of the Corinthian church to Paul, its founder and father. We shall be

aided to understand its contents by a brief summary of the tendencies

and conditions at Corinth which it reflects.

First of all there was a lack of supreme devotion to the Cause itself,

which led the Corinthians to forget that they were first, last and

always Christians, and so to form factions and parties. Of these there

were distinguished at least three, attached to the names respectively of

the founder Paul, of the learned Apollos, and of the great

pillar-apostle at Jerusalem, Peter, besides, as many hold, a fourth,

which arrogantly claimed to be the party of Christ (i. 12). What were

the precise motives and principles of these parties cannot be

determined. They do not in any case seem to represent recognizable

definite points of view with regard to the controverted matters that

are taken up in the epistle. Yet some conjectures are possible. Paul and

Apollos were personally on friendly terms (xvi. 12, cf. iii. 5-9, iv.

6), and were understood to be in fundamental agreement. But doubtless

the more elaborate discourses of Apollos were admired, and Paul's

teaching seemed in contrast bare, plain and crude (cf. 2 Cor. x. 10).

The contrast between the Hellenic and Jewish types of thought may well

have played a part also. Paul seems to be replying to such criticisms

brought against him when he declares that he deliberately chose to bring

to Corinth not the "wisdom of men" but the "power of God" (i. 17, ii.

1-5), and informs them that he has a store of wisdom for those who are

ready for it (ii. 6). On the other hand the party of Cephas must have

had Jewish-Christian leanings. A little later, in the second epistle,

such a tendency is seen breaking out into violent opposition to Paul.

The "Christ-party," if, as is probable, it existed, must also have been

a party with a Judaizing turn (cf. 2 Cor. x. 7, xi. 22 f.), perhaps of a

more extreme character. The danger of shattering the solid front of the

Christian church against surrounding heathenism was keenly felt by Paul,

as nearly every one of his epistles testifies. How serious it was at

Corinth is shown by the long passage (chaps, i.-iv.) in which he points

out that sectarianism is a mark not of superior but of inferior maturity

and devotion.

Other difficulties arose from various causes. The influences of the

heathen world, from which most of the Corinthian Christians had come and

to which their friends and neighbours belonged, were always with them,

and the problems created by these relations were very numerous.

Christianity had brought over and had even intensified the moral code of

Judaism, and, especially in the relations of the sexes, this brought a

strain upon the naturalistic impulses and lower standards of converts

trained in a different system.

Again, there were law-suits in the ordinary courts, a natural result of

the frictions and strains of an oriental trading community. To Paul this

was abhorrent, and here too he urges a complete break with their past.

With regard to the social customs of meals at which meat that had been

offered in heathen sacrifices was a part, and of feasts actually at

heathen temples, doubtful questions arose. Was it a denial of the faith

to eat such food or not? Mixed marriages, too, had their problems; ought

the believing wife to separate herself? Ought the believing husband to

insist that his heathen wife stay with him against her will? And,

further, in the case of slaves, does the consciousness of Christian

manhood give a new motive for trying to gain worldly freedom? In all

these matters Paul gives sensible advice. There were clearly two groups

of Christians, the "weak," or scrupulous, whose principle was to

abstain, and the "strong," or free, who maintained that the morally

insignificant must not usurp a place to which it has no right. Paul

sides with neither, but follows two principles, one that the church and

its members must be kept pure, the other that the moral welfare not only

of the individual but of his neighbour must be the controlling motive.

Not due so much to heathen influences as to the natural tendencies of

imperfect and passionate human nature were other conditions. The most

striking incident here, and one which gave Paul much concern, was the

case of a man who after his father's death had married his own

stepmother ("the case of incest"). That this was rare in the ancient

world and generally abominated both by Jews and Greeks made it seem to

Paul the more imperative that this stain on the Christian church should

be removed. His language shows his indignation and grief that the

Corinthians themselves have not already taken the matter in hand.

Besides these troubles from heathenism there were questions of

asceticism; the Greek reaction against naturalism held that nature was

vile and marriage wrong. Paul had a qualified tendency to asceticism,

but he shows excellent good sense in his discussion of these delicate

matters.

A different set of difficulties arose from the freedom into which

Christianity had introduced persons from all classes of life. What

degree of freedom was permissible to a Christian woman? How far must a

woman of the lower classes who became a Christian subject herself to the

restrictions of a higher class of society? Might a woman, as a free

child of God, take part in the Christian public meeting?

Also in matters pertaining to the common religious life of the new

society the new situation raised new problems. How should reasonable

order be maintained in the wholly democratic forms of the church

devotional meeting? What value should be assigned to the different

religious functions or "spiritual gifts"? Did any of them confer the

right to a consciousness of God's special favour? Again, the celebration

of the Lord's supper, which was associated with a proper meal, was

marred by exhibitions of selfishness and irreverence that needed

correction.

The great variety of practical problems present to the anxious minds of

the Corinthians themselves and of germinant abuses revealed to the

paternal scrutiny of the apostle, opens to us some notion of the

exciting times in which the Corinthian Christians stood, and explains

the intensity and detailed concern of the apostle. From every side and

at every moment new and often difficult questions were arising; to every

one of them belonged remoter relations that made it profoundly

important. It is by no accident that Paul is in the habit of treating

the simplest moral issues by reference to the highest principles of his

theology. From the situation at Corinth we gain an idea of what was

taking place in many cities, but in the seething life of so great a

capital with more rapid and varied development.

Of strictly intellectual and theological problems or errors only one is

treated systematically, although at many other points in the practical

discussions we can detect the theoretical basis cf the errors combated

and the theological foundations of Paul's own judgments. Questions about

the resurrection, however, had appeared, of a rationalistic nature and

evincing an Hellenic failure to understand the Jewish view. In his reply

Paul shows that he too recognizes the significance of the Greek's

difficulties and he presents a conception which, fortunately for the

later Church, does some measure of justice to the superior scientific

insight of their attitude.

_Second Epistle._--After the despatch of First Corinthians there took

place, it would appear, the riot in the theatre at Ephesus (Acts xix. 23

ff.), to which 2 Cor. i. 8 seems to refer. On leaving Ephesus Paul went

to Troas (2 Cor. ii. 12), then to Macedonia, and from Macedonia (2 Cor.

vii. 5, viii. 1, ix. 2) he wrote Second Corinthians. This must have been

in the autumn of one of the years A.D. 54-58, nearly or quite a year

after First Corinthians was written (cf, "a year ago," 2 Cor. viii. 10,

ix. 2 and 1 Cor. xvi. 1-4). In the meantime there had been exciting

developments in Paul's relations with Corinth, the course of which we

can partly trace by the aid of the second epistle. These events explain

the great difference in tone between the second epistle and the first.

Several allusions in Second Corinthians show that Paul had already twice

visited Corinth (2 Cor. ii. 1, xii. 14, xii. 21, xiii. 2). The second of

these visits is not mentioned in Acts; it is referred to by Paul as

having a painful character. The most natural hypothesis is that, in

consequence of a growing spirit of insubordination on the part of the

Corinthians, Paul found it necessary to go to Corinth from Ephesus

(probably by sea direct) at some time after First Corinthians was

written. Of what happened on this visit, which the writer of Acts has

naturally enough thought it unnecessary to mention, we seem to learn

further from certain passages in the letter (2 Cor. ii. 5-11, vii. 9)

which refer to some sort of an insult to Paul for which there has now

been repentance and which the apostle heartily forgives. For the

offender he entreats also the pardon of the church. It may well be that

the sad affair had to do with the gross offender of the "case of incest"

(1 Cor. v. 1-8), who with the support of his fellow Christians may have

refused to conform to Paul's imperative commands. We may suppose an

angry scene, possibly an attack of Paul's bodily ailment (especially if

the "thorn in the flesh" be understood to be epilepsy), the immediate

triumph of the adversaries, Paul's speedy departure in grief. If, as

other scholars hold, the offender was not the same as in the first

epistle, the general picture of the visit will not have to be much

changed.

Besides making this visit it is probable that Paul also wrote to Corinth

a letter, now lost, intended to secure the result of which the

unfortunate visit had failed (ii. 3, 4, 9, vii. 8, 12). It, is, however,

possible that the allusions merely refer to I Cor. v., in which case it

is not necessary to assume this intermediate letter. The letter, if

there was one, may have been sent by Titus, whom Paul in any case

commissioned to go to Corinth and try to mend matters. Paul describes

his anxiety over this last resource in touching language (ii. 12, 13).

Disappointed that Titus did not meet him at Troas, he moved on to

Macedonia, and there (vii. 5-9) was rejoiced by the coming of the envoy

with good news of the complete return of the Corinthians to integrity

and loyalty.

Second Corinthians was Paul's response to this friendly attitude

reported by Titus. It went by the hand of Titus, who was promptly sent

back to complete the work he had so well begun (viii. 6, 16-24). In

company with him (viii. 18) was sent a brother (unnamed) who had already

been appointed as the representative of the churches to accompany Paul

in carrying to Jerusalem the great collection of money now nearly

completed. The greater part of the epistle consists of the outpouring of

Paul's thankful and loving heart (chaps, i.-vii.), together with

directions and exhortations relating to the collection.

But the epistle contains evidence of another and a disagreeable side to

the affairs of the Corinthian church. Especially the last four chapters,

but also references in the earlier chapters, show that virulent personal

opponents of Paul and his work had been exercising an evil activity. It

is not easy to discover the precise relation of these persons to the

parties at Corinth or to the series of events which have just been

sketched, but we can well understand that their presence and efforts

played a large part in the history. We learn that Jewish Christians (xi.

22) had come to Corinth, doubtless from Jerusalem, with letters of

recommendation (iii. 1). They urged their own claims as apostles (though

not of the twelve), and set themselves up as superior to Paul (xi. 5,

xii. 11, v. 12, xi. 18). Paul calls them "false apostles" (xi. 13-15),

and declares that they preach "another Jesus, another Spirit, another

Gospel" (xi. 4). That in Paul's judgment his influence with the

Corinthian church depended on overthrowing the power of these disturbers

of the peace is plain, and this accounts for the strenuous, and

occasionally violent, tone of his polemic in chapters x.-xiii. As we

compare them with the Judaizers of Galatia it seems that their polemic

was less on the ground of principles and doctrines, and more a personal

attack. Paul does not much argue, as he does in Galatians, against the

inclination of Gentile Christians to subject themselves to the Law (yet

note the contrast of the old veiled covenant and the new open

revelation, iii. 4-18, esp. iii. 6); he is engaged in personal defence

against charges of carnal motives (x. 2), perhaps even of embezzlement

(xii. 16-18), and also of fickleness (i. 12-ii. 4). When he ironically

calls himself a "fool" (xi. 1, 16, 17, 19, 21, xii. 6-11), he is

doubtless taking up their term of abuse, and in many of the hard

passages of this most difficult of all Paul's epistles we may suspect

that half-quoted flings of the enemy glimmer through his retort. From 2

Cor. x. 7, xi. 22 it may be inferred that these Jewish Christians had

something to do with the "Christ-party" of which we seem to hear in the

first epistle.

To the tact and firmness of Titus must be ascribed much of the

successful issue of these dealings with the Corinthians. Paul spent the

following winter at Corinth (Acts xx. 2, 3); while there he wrote the

Epistle to the Romans, which in its milder tone gives clear indication

that the day of violent controversy with Judaizing emissaries like those

who came to Galatia had passed. There was indeed, as might have been

expected, trouble from enemies among the Jews, but Paul escaped the

danger, and with the money for the mother church, the collection of

which had so long lain near his heart, he was able to start for

Jerusalem in the spring of one of the years 55-59 (See PAUL).

In later time (circ. A.D. 95) we hear from the epistle of Clement of

Rome that the Corinthian church paid full honour to Paul's memory; and

circ. A.D. 139, the excellent Catholic (though Hebrew) Christian

Hegesippus found himself deeply refreshed by the honest life and the

fidelity to Christian truth of the descendants and successors of the

Christians over whom Paul had laboured with such faithful oversight and

so many anxious tears.

_Critical Questions._--The manuscript evidence for the Corinthian

epistles is the same as for the other epistles of Paul (see BIBLE: New

Testament). Of early attestation the amount is rather greater for First

Corinthians than for other epistles. Not only were both epistles

included without question in the Pauline canon of Marcion (circ. A.D.

150) and in the Muratorian list (end of 2nd century), and known to

various Gnostic sects of the 2nd century, but Clement of Rome (circ.

A.D. 95) makes a specific reference (xlvii. 1) to the fact that the

Corinthians "received the Epistle of the blessed Apostle Paul," and

proceeds with an unmistakable quotation from 1 Cor. i. 11-13. Other

quotations from First Corinthians are found in Clement, Ignatius,

Polycarp, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria,

Tertullian, while use of the epistle can probably be detected in Hermas.

Second Corinthians was, and still remains, less quotable, but it is

probably used by Polycarp, perhaps by Ignatius, and by the presbyters

known to Irenaeus, and it was freely used by Theophilus, Irenaeus,

Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian.

The only serious doubt of the genuineness of First and Second

Corinthians has been that of the so-called Dutch school of critics, in

the latter part of the 19th century, and forms a part of their attempt

(the first since that of Baur) entirely to reconstruct the history of

early Christianity. Their view that the Corinthian epistles are the

product of a body of progressive Christians in the 2nd century, who

ascribed to a legendary Paul the advanced views they had themselves

developed, has not commended itself to critics, and seems to be burdened

by nearly all possible difficulties. The genuineness of both epistles

is, in fact, amply attested not only by early writers, but by the surer

proof of complicated and consistent concreteness, with perfect

adaptation to all we know of Paul and of the passing circumstances of

the earliest days of Christianity in Greece. For a writer a century

later to have composed the Corinthian epistles and then successfully

passed them off as the work of Paul could be explained only by an

hypothesis of inspiration! It would have been as difficult as to forge a

daily newspaper. It is to be observed that the two epistles are so

intimately connected by their contents with Romans and Galatians that

the four together support one another's genuineness.

In Second Corinthians two important questions of integrity have been

much discussed. (1) 2 Cor. vi. 14-vii. 1 is a passage somewhat distinct

from its context, and introduced by a seemingly abrupt break in the

sequence of thought. It is, therefore, held by some (including G.

Heinrici) to be an interpolation by another writer, by others (as A.

Hilgenfeld) to be a part of the letter referred to in 1 Cor. v. 9. But

the arguments against Pauline authorship are not convincing; there is

after all a certain real connexion to be traced between the section and

vi. I; and the resemblance to the substance of 1 Cor. v. 9 is natural in

any case. (2) More important is the question as to 2 Cor. x.-xiii. Since

J. S. Semler (1776) it has been held by careful scholars that these

chapters are written in a tone of excited irritation which is out of

accord with the genial tone of gratified affection and confidence that

pervades chaps, i.-ix. Hence such scholars as A. Hausrath, R. A.

Lipsius, O. Pfleiderer, P. W. Schmiedel, A. C. M'Giffert have adopted

the view that these four chapters were not written as part of Second

Corinthians, but, while unquestionably from Paul's hand, were from a

separate letter (the "Vier-kapitel-Brief"), probably the same as that

supposed to be referred to in 2 Cor. ii. 3-9, vii. 8-12. This theory is,

however, probably not correct, for while, on the one hand, it is based

on an exaggeration of the differences and a neglect of certain lines of

connexion between the chaps, x.-xiii. and chaps, i.-ix., on the other

hand the identification supposed is made difficult by several facts.

Thus these chapters contain no mention whatever of the offender of 2

Cor. ii. 5-11, of whose case the intervening letter must have mainly

treated; again, x. 1, 9, 10, 11 imply a previous sharp rebuke already

administered, such as is hardly accounted for merely by First

Corinthians; and finally, xii. 18 implies that these four chapters were

not written until after Titus's visit, that is, that they were written

at just the same time as Second Corinthians.

An apocryphal correspondence of Paul and the church at Corinth,

consisting of the church's letter and Paul's reply, had canonical

authority in the Syrian church in the 4th century (Aphraates, Ephraem).

It is preserved in Armenian and Latin manuscripts, and is now known to

have been a part of the Acts of Paul, written in the 2nd century. The

letters relate to the condemnation of certain Gnostic views. For a

translation see Stanley's _Epistles of St Paul to the Corinthians_ (4th

ed., 1876), PP. 593-598. See Harnack, _Geschichte der altchristlichen

Literatur_, i. pp. 37-39, ii. 1, pp. 506-508; Bardenhewer, _Geschichte

der altkirchlichen Literatur_, i. pp. 463-467; Hennecke,

_Neutestamentliche Apokryphen_, pp. 362-364, 378-380.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--On the Corinthian Epistles consult the _Introduction to

the New Testament_ of H. Holtzmann (1885, 3rd ed. 1892); B. Weiss

(1886, 3rd ed. 1897, Eng. trans. 1887); G. Salmon (1887); A. Julicher

(1894, 5th and 6th ed. 1906, Eng. trans. 1904); T. Zahn (1897-1899,

2nd ed. 1900); and the articles in the Bible dictionaries, especially

those by A. Robertson in Hastings's _Dictionary_. See also _Lives of

Paul_; and the general works on the _Apostolic Age_ of C. von

Weizsacker (1886, 2nd ed. 1892); O. Pfleiderer, _Das Urchristentum_

(1887, 2nd ed. 1902, Eng. trans. 1906); and A. C. M'Giffert (1897).

Especially valuable for 1 and 2 Corinthians is E. von Dobschutz,

_Christian Life in the Primitive Church_ (1902, Eng. trans. 1904).

In English, Dean Stanley's work (1855, 4th ed. 1876) is now out of

date. On First Corinthians reference may be made to the works of T.

Evans in _Speaker's Commentary_ (1881); T. C. Edwards (1885); C. J.

Ellicott (1887); Fr. Godet (1886-1887, Eng. trans. 1887); on both

epistles to those of H. A. W. Meyer (5th ed. 1870, Eng. trans.

1877-1879) and J. J. Lias, in _Cambridge Greek Testament_ (1886-1892).

F. W. Robertson's classic _Sermons on St Paul's Epistles to the

Corinthians_ (1859) should not be neglected. In German there are

commentaries of much value by G. Heinrici (1880--1887) and in

Heinrici's revision of Meyer's _Kommentar_ (8th ed., 1896-1900), and

by P. W. Schmiedel in _Hand-Commentar_ (1891, 2nd ed. 1892). For

further literature see Robertson's art, "Corinthians, First Epistle to

the," in Hastings's _Dictionary of the Bible_. On early attestation

see A. H. Charteris, _Canonicity_ (1880), and the Oxford Committee's

_New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers_ (1905). (J. H. RS.)