An ancient
Greek city and
polis, located just west of
the Isthmus. Corinth became a powerful mercantile power in
Greece in the 6th century BCE, under the tyranny of the
Bacchiads, and although the
polis joined the
Peloponnesian League that was lead by
Sparta, Corinth managed to preserve a great amount of independence. All through the 6th and 5th centuries BC, and until the breaking of the
First Peloponnesian War, Corinth was the most amicable
polis towards
Athens within the
Peloponnesian League, and managed to prevent the application of many sanctions that
Sparta wanted to lay on the
polis that was quickly growing to become its main competitor over the supremacy in
Greece.
Corinth participated in the Persian War and had the second largest and most efficient fleet in Greece (after Athens)
It was, in fact, only after the great dispute over Curcyra broke between Athens and Corinth, that Sparta managed to get the League to declare war over Athens, heralding the First Peloponnesian War.
During the Second Peloponnesian War, however, Corinth switched sides, and, seceding from the Peloponnesian League, united with Argos creating one united polis that dominated all of the North-Eastern Peloponnesian Peninsula. When Sparta won the war, it forced the united polis to separate into the two former components.
During the Third Peloponnesian War Corinth quite often switched sides (as did most of the Greek poleis).
After the occupation of Greece by Philip II of Macedonia, Corinth became one of the important centers of the Greek province. It retained this position until the Third Macedonian War in which Rome conquered Greece. As a retaliation of Greek mutiny attempts Corinth was then utterly destroyed.
The city was later rebuilt.