About Corinth

Rex Banks

The city of Corinth was situated on the narrow isthmus which connects mainland Greece with the Peloponnesus and was on the great line of traffic between East and West.  The city possessed two harbors, one either side of the isthmus.  Situated about fifty miles southwest of Athens, it was capital of the Roman province of Achaia.  Historians usually divide the history into two major periods:

·         The occupation that occurred from early Greek times until its destruction by Rome in 146 BC.  The city is often referred to as “Greek Corinth” in this period.

·         The occupation that occurred from 44 BC when Julius Caesar established it as a colony through the Byzantine period.  The city is often referred to as “Roman Corinth” in this period.

Although the following quotes are quite long they provide useful information about Corinth in the first century.

David G. Horrell:

"Military victory was won by the Romans under Lucius Mummius and they ransacked the city of Corinth in 146 BCE burning buildings and slaughtering the inhabitants. A century later in 44BCE the city was refounded as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar. While complete destruction and desolation in the period 146 – 44 BCE should not be assumed, 44BCE clearly marked a significant new beginning in Corinth's history. Not only did it mean the establishment of Roman administration but also the settlement there of a new population, colonists from Rome comprising freedpersons, urban plebs and possibly army veterans. The Roman province of Achaia was formed in 27BCE and Corinth probably served as capital of the province" (The Social ethos of the Corinthians correspondence:  David G. Horrell pp. 64, 65).

So Roman Greek Corinth was under Roman administration and the refounding involved the settlement "of a new population, colonists from Rome."

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor also provides useful information in his comments on a letter likely dating from the second half of the first century AD:

"What is unique in the letter on behalf of the Argives is the insight we get into the attitude of other cities of the Peloponnese to the Corinth that Paul knew. They clearly felt that Corinth had become so Romanized that it was in fact a 'foreign country' ... It had abandoned its Greek heritage. It had effectively repudiated 'the laws and customs of ancient Greece' ... which its fathers had maintained preferring 'the [Roman] laws they now have' ... It aligned itself with the customs of its recent friend Rome rather than with those of its ancient neighbour Argos ... it did not continue the tradition of gymnastic or musical contests' but opted for a 'foreign spectacle' namely the hunting (and  by implication gladiatorial) shows in vogue in Rome'"  (St. Paul's Corinth: text and archaeology By Jerome Murphy-O'Connor p. 97).

Commenting upon this same letter Bruce W. Winter says:

"It is clear that the Argive petition provides nonliterary confirmation of Corinth's loyalty, preference for and adherance to Roman customs and laws at the end of the Julio-Claudian Principates. Its importance lies in the fact that this was not a religious travel guide, a salacious novel, an oration, or a philosophical dissertation of a student of rhetoric, but an official petition sent to the governor of the province following the city's unsuccessful legal challenge in the courts. Therefore the comments Argos made about Corinth can be taken to be a correct reflection of its legal and cultural ethos. This first century petition thus provides evidence that, in the very decade when the Christian church was being established in Corinth, it was consciously a colony that was Roman in its outlook and cultural emphasis, and was specifically criticised for being so by the city of Argos ..." (After Paul left Corinth: the influence of secular ethics and social change p. 20).

Discussing the Corinthian correspondence David W. J. Gill says that "One of the recent issues has been a discussion over how Roman the colony was." He comments:

"If we are to understand the background or cultural context of these letters we need to read them against the backdrop of a Roman colony, not a Greek city.  Institutions, legal procedures, social customs, architecture, public images and to some extent language owed more to Rome than to the Greek world" (The Importance of Roman Portaiture for Head Coverings in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 Tyndale Bulletin 41.2, 1990  p. 245).

He adds:

"First it should be remembered that the colony was in effect a new foundation, as the city had lain desolate for over a century. Although the archaic temple overlooking the forum is essentially Greek (there were some Roman modifications to the internal structure), the public buildings and temples are essentially Italian; in layout parts of the city even recall the Forum of Augustus at Rome. This may be contrasted with Athens, which remained a Greek city ... At Corinth public inscriptions are predominantly in Latin rather than Greek,  this is especially noticeable when identical texts are found elsewhere in Greece" (Gill pp. 258, 259).

Winter makes the interesting point that "there are eight Latin names among the seventeen Corinthian Christians whom Paul mentions .... While the fact that some Christians possessed  Latin names does not ipso facto indicate Roman citizenship in every case their presence at the very least provides important evidence of the influence of Romanitas" (p. 15). Later he concludes:

"Whether rich or poor, bond or free, the cultural milieu which impacted life in the city of Corinth was Romitas This does not mean that there were no ethnic minorities, but it does mean that the dominant and transforming cultural influence was Rome" (p. 22).

He sums up:

“The implications of our findings have an important bearing on the selection of sources on which to base our subsequent explorations. It would be inappropriate to search for ethics, customs, etc in ancient classical Greece or Hellenistic eras rather than the late Republic and early Roman period. This does not mean that sources written in Greek from the latter period  may not be germane to our explorations, but that in dealing with Roman Corinth we must be aware of the Roman influences that had played the role in shaping life in Corinth for more than a century"  (p. 20).

In a 2010 book authored by specialists in inscriptions, architecture, sculpture, coins, tombs, pottery, Dr Benjamin W Millis sums up his research as a classical philologist and his observations remind us not to lose sight of the Greek factor: 

“The picture that I have tried to present is one of a society that was neither completely Roman nor completely Greek but one that navigated both cultures. Corinth was a Roman colony ….This Roman city however had deep even dominant Greek roots some of which were manifest  in the mediating role Corinth played between east and west. This was a city which was capable whether consciously or not of presenting different faces in different circumstances and contexts. The Roman face appears most obviously in public display in Roman contexts in the city centre where anything else would have been inappropriate and out of place.  In sharp contrast private contexts present a very different and notably Greek face. This conclusion is not meant to imply that the romitas of the colonists was a veneer or a façade to be shed at will but that this group of people had found a way to navigate effectively between both worlds (Corinth in Context – Comparative Studies in Religion and Society Steve Friesen, Daniel N. Schowalter, James Walters pp. 34, 35).

 Conclusion