CHAPTER ONE Urban Corinth: An Introduction G. D. R. Sanders THE GEOGRAPHY OF CORINTH Corinth is located 80 km west of Athens on the south side of the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow neck of land connecting the Peloponnese to mainland Greece (fig. 1.1). The isthmus separates the Corinthian Gulf from the Saronic Gulf, and thus the Ionian Sea from the Aegean. The local geology is dominated by marine and lacustrine sediments laid horizontally in bands of porous sandy and pebbly limestone interbedded with impervious marl clays. Older Jurassic limestone entities, such as Acrocorinth, extrude through the later deposits to heights of over 570 m. Local uplift of the land relative to the sea has created a series of broad terraces terminating in raised beaches marked by vertical cliff faces. The city is situated on two of the terraces—one about 60 m, the other about 90 m above sea level—at the foot of Acrocorinth, about 3 km from the coast of the Gulf of Corinth.1 At the exposure of the interfaces of the limestone and underlying marl at the edges of the terraces are several natural springs of abundant freshwater.2 These springs are notably absent from the region of the isthmus to the east, which to the present has always been sparsely populated and cultivated. By contrast, the land in the plain to 1 Chris L. Hayward, “Geology of Corinth: the Study of a Basic Resource,” in Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (ed. Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis; Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 15–42. 2 Mark E. Landon, “Beyond Peirene: Toward a Broader View of Corinthian Water Supply,” in Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (ed. Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis; Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 43–62. 2 Urban Religion in Roman Corinth the west is fertile and well watered by springs and the seasonal rivers that descend from the Ayios Vasilios valley and Mount Ziria to the south. Not only did geology determine why Corinth is located where it is, but the geological makeup of the Corinthia also provided the basic materials for the city’s construction. The oolitic limestones of the marine sand bars extend from Kenchreai on the Saronic Gulf to Sikyon and have been extensively quarried for stone.3 Quarries can be seen to the east and west of the Temple of Apollo. The freshly exposed portion of this rock is so soft that it can be cut with woodworking tools; indeed, there is evidence that early builders used carpentry techniques in stone construction on the site.4 On exposure to air, the stone gradually forms a hard but brittle surface. So good was this stone, with its rich reddish-yellowish color, that it was exported in bulk at great expense to Delphi and Epidauros and doubtless elsewhere for the construction of temples. Certain of the marl beds are a rich source of mortar and ceramics. The calcarious marl is easily dug and reduced to a fine powder. A little heat applied for a short duration is all that is required to calcine this powder to calcium oxide. The addition of water reduces the oxide to hydroxide, and the result is a white lime cement. These marls were also excavated, powdered, slaked with water, and dried to a malleable clayey consistency. The clay was formed into light weight vessels, painted, fired in a kiln, and then probably doused in water. Whether these vessels should be called ceramic or cement is still being investigated.5 In certain periods, they were exported widely in the Eastern Mediterranean and as far as Spain to the west. Finally, the tectonic fragmentation of the region has ensured the perennial threat of earthquakes. Some of the more severe of these earthquakes have destroyed major structures and have even disrupted the flow of local springs. Scholars have spiced up the written history of Corinth with a liberal garnish of real and imaginary seismic events; these have served to explain disruptions in the archaeological record. Ongoing research by Nicholas Ambraseys, a leading authority in seismic engineering, has shown, however, that we now need to reconsider every seismic event that has been invoked to explain the 3 Chris L. Hayward, “High-Resolution Provenance Determination of Construction-Stone: A Preliminary Study of Corinthian Oolitic Limestone Quarries at Examilia,” Geoarchaeology 11 (1996) 215–34. 4 Robin F. Rhodes, “The Earliest Greek Architecture in Corinth and the 7th-Century Temple on Temple Hill,” in Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (ed. Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis; Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 85–94. 5 This research is being undertaken by G. D. R. Sanders, Louise Joyner, and Ian Whitbread.  Sanders / Urban Corinth: An Introduction 3 destruction of various phases of the city. His findings, which have been gener- ally accepted by geologists and seismologists alike, are that earthquakes in Greece rarely exceeded a magnitude of 6.5 and never exceeded 7.0 on the logarithmic Richter scale. According to Ambraseys and J. A. Jackson, the nature of faults in Greece is such that the range of damage wrought by an earthquake of such a magnitude is limited to a few tens of kilometers from the epicentre. Thus, an earthquake such as the 551 / 52 C.E. earthquake recorded by Procopius at Chaironeia in central Greece clearly did not have the catastrophic effect on Corinth that three generations of scholars have claimed.6 Corinth possessed four harbors. Schoenus and Poseidona were presumably fairly simple docking facilities that served either end of the Diolkos.7 The Di- olkos was a paved portage road built across the 6-km width of the isthmus, with an average gradient of about 1.5%. It was probably constructed by the tyrant Periander in the sixth century B.C.E., and is scored by the wheels of transport vehicles whose wheelbase averaged 1.5 m across. On either side of the paved portion were earthen roads. Historical sources mention six attempts—five suc- cessful and one unsuccessful—to portage warships over the isthmus between 428 and 30 B.C.E. Niketas Oryphas, revealing his familiarity with ancient literature, effected a sixth successful crossing in 881 C.E. Most commentators insist that the Diolkos was used principally for military purposes, but from the vulgar humour of the Thesmophoriazousae of Aristo- phanes, one gets a very different impression.8 Mnesilochos, an interloper among women and himself disguised as a woman, hides his masculinity by pushing his huge stage prop penis back between his legs. When Kleisthenes attempts to find it from behind, Mnesilochus pushes it to the front. This action is repeated several times. Finally, Kleisthenes cries in exasperation, “You have a sort of isthmus, bro’, hauling your prow to and fro more often than the Corinthians [haul ships across the Diolkos].” We can surmise that the Diolkos was actively and regularly used for merchant ships, or else there would be no humor in Kleisthenes’ quip. The triremes that crossed the Diolkos were comparable in size and capacity to the Kyrenia ship (14 m long x 4.2 m wide, laden weight ca. 39 tons). Mr. Sarris, the shipbuilder of the Kyrenia replica, assures me that, properly supported by the keelsom, a ship of those dimensions could be 6 N. N. Ambraseys and A. Jackson, “Seismicity and Associated Strain of Central Greece between 1890 and 1988,”Geophysics Geophysics Journal International 101 (1990) 663–708. 7 G. Raepsaet, “Le Diolkos de l’isthme à Corinthe: son trace, son fonctionnement,” BCH 117 (1993) 233–56. 8 Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazousae (ed. Benjamin Bickley Rogers; LCL; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924) line 648. Since Rogers did not translate the passage, the rendition is mine. 4 Urban Religion in Roman Corinth moved considerable distances—even with its full cargo aboard—without the slightest damage.9 Such traffic must have kept a society of wagoners and their teams of oxen fully occupied. The portage proved so valuable that efforts were made to replace it with a canal. The emperor Nero actually began work on the canal by personally dumping the first shovelful of earth into a golden bucket, using a golden shovel. He died before much progress could be made, but not before his image as the god Herakles had been inscribed in one wall of the cutting. Under Vespasian, about 800 yards of canal were excavated to a depth of 90 feet, using 6,000 Jewish slaves captured in the sack of Jerusalem, before the project was finally abandoned.10 Herodes Atticus, the Athenian teacher of phi- losophy and wealthy patron of extravagant monuments, briefly contemplated the completion of Nero’s and Vespasian’s work but demurred on the grounds that it was hubristic to succeed where emperors had failed. By the time the canal was finally completed in 1893, the Levant trade had waned. Kenchreai on the Saronic Gulf and Lechaion on the Corinthian Gulf were altogether different kinds of harbors. Kenchreai was excavated by the American School of Classical Studies in the 1960s.11 It consists of a settlement on the south slopes of a promontory with a pair of harbor moles encircling a round basin facing southeast. Architecture, pottery, and coins derive from many centuries of occupation and include shrines of the gods (one perhaps dedicated to Isis) and a small early Christian basilica of the sixth century. Lechaion must be considered the principal harbor. Located on the coast north of the city, the harbor consists of a series of landlocked basins accessible from the sea by a narrow channel. The outer works of the harbor included three long moles, two for a square basin and the third to protect the entrance to the inner harbor. Sporadic excavations in the area indicate that the associated settlement was extensive. The most concentrated campaign of archaeological work, that of the American School in the 1960s, revealed an enormous early Christian basilica between the inner harbor and the sea.12 9 M. L. Katzef, “The Kyrenia Ship,” in A History of Seafaring (ed. G. F. Bass; London, 1982) 50–52; and idem and S. W. Katzef, “Building a Replica of an Ancient Greek Merchant- man,” in Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity (ed. H. E. Tzalas; Athens: n.p., 1989) 163–75. 10 On this point, see the essay by David Gilman Romano in this volume (pp. xxx–xxx, esp. xxx). 11 Robert L. Scranton, Jospeh W. Shaw, and Leila Ibrahim, Topography and Architecture, vol. 1 of Kenchreai, Eastern Port of Corinth (Leiden: Brill, 1978). 12 D. I. Pallas, “Korinth,” Reallexikon zur Byzantinischen Kunst (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1966– ) 4:745–811.  Sanders / Urban Corinth: An Introduction 5 Together these four harbors attest the sheer volume of Corinth’s commercial interests at various times. Traffic moving north and south across the isthmus was channeled into narrow corridors along the Kakia Skala or over Mount Geraneion. At one end of the corridor, routes fanned out to Athens and to Thebes and beyond. At the other end, the routes led along the coast west towards Patras, east to Epidauros, and through passes on either side of Acrocorinth into the Peloponnese, to the Argolid and Arcadia. The historical communications network of southern Greece has recently been treated purely as a problem in graph theory. This is an application most useful to economic geographers and perhaps familiar to most of us as the particular talent of the title character in the film Good Will Hunting. Corinth was unsurprisingly found to be at the mathematical and geographical center of the Roman province of Achaia.13 As in modern commerce, whether building a cement factory or opening a downtown bar, location has always been important to commercial success. This much may have occurred to the apostle Paul when he chose Corinth for his ministry. In the middle of the first century C.E., Corinth was a perfect place for the dissemination of goods and ideas—a multilingual, polytheistic, cosmopolitan community visited by travelers, merchants, and seamen from all over the Mediterranean. It is not difficult to imagine why the moral condition of commerce-oriented Corinth, its inhabitants, and visitors still concerned Paul deeply some two hundred years after the infamous cult of Aphrodite on Acrocorinth had closed its doors.14 Well-watered, overlooked by an imposing acropolis, flanked by a large fertile plain to the north and northwest, and located between two seas, Corinth commanded the principal nodal point in the land and sea communications of southern Greece. Its strategic and commercial position was supplemented by valuable natural resources for export, including building materials, excellent clays for ceramics and mortars, wood, and agricultural produce. It was not so much Corinth’s own riches that were being moved, however. The importance of Corinth was as an entrepôt through which the produce of other regions was shipped. 13 G. D. R. Sanders and I. K. Whitbread, Central Places and Major Roads in the Pelopon- nese, BSA 85 (1990) 333–61. 14 On Corinthian Aphrodite, see the essays by John R. Lanci (pp. xxx–xxx) and Charles K. Williams II (pp. XXX–XXX) in this volume. 6 Urban Religion in Roman Corinth HISTORY OF THE CORINTH EXCAVATIONS The American School of Classical Studies at Athens has been excavating at Corinth since 1896. Over the course of the twentieth century, scholarly interests have changed considerably. The earliest excavators were largely concerned with ancient topography and planned to reveal as much of the center of the pre-Roman city as they could. While they revealed large portions of the center of Corinth, their task was made more difficult by Mummius’s sack in 146 B.C.E. and by the foundation of a Roman colony in 44 B.C.E., when the city plan was re-engineered and settlers covered or even tore out the core of the Classical city. The years between 1925 and 1940 saw continued but rather more system- atic clearance of the theater and forum areas. Interest shifted from topographic to taxonomic and chronological concerns. At the time, however, it was still generally the practice to excavate with large teams of nonspecialist laborers under limited supervision. They dug from topsoil to forum level, a depth of 3–4 m, in a single season, and although the recovery of data was far supe- rior to the earlier campaigns, it was not what one would now demand. The excavators generated a large number of books and articles on urban history, buildings, inscriptions, sculpture, ceramics, and minor objects. This litera- ture has shaped present popular conceptions of Corinth and set many of the standards on which archaeologists in the Eastern Mediterranean still rely. From the mid-1960s to the present, the archaeological study of Corinth has undergone a sustained period of ideological and methodological evolu- tion if not revolution. During this exciting intellectual passage, scholars have begun to focus on the human rather than the monumental side of antiquity, and post-Classical archaeology has come into its own. Despite the sheer volume of work undertaken in these thirty-five years, the overall plan of the site has changed remarkably little. Our understanding of the urban and historical landscape, however, has been transformed. Systematic excavation by small teams of trained technicians supervised by a recording archaeologist has permitted close control of the stratigraphic sequences. New procedures for the recording of finds were instituted, context materials and not just remarkable objects were saved, and preliminary reports of work appeared annually in the journal Hesperia. It would be fair to say that now equal por- tions of the research are done by descriptive scientists with hand lenses and microscopes and by researchers engaged in the painstaking archaeological autopsy of earlier records.  Sanders / Urban Corinth: An Introduction 7 Coins have been supplanted by pottery as the currency of chronology. Coins are common and survive well, and they provide refreshingly specific information about their date of issue—but the right coin is rarely found in the right place. Until comparatively recently, ceramics specialists tended to concentrate on fine wares because the accepted bias was that coarse wares were not worth studying because they were not diagnostic. Coarse wares, however, comprise the large majority of finds from any context. Some periods were neglected simply because they were unfashionable, and Late Roman pottery assemblages are a case in point. The study of Late Roman Corinth was driven by coins and disasters until the publication of a Late Roman fine pottery survey by John Hayes in 1972.15 Unfortunately, the heroic efforts of Demetrios Pallas in the basilicas and James Wiseman at the gymnasium came too early to benefit from Hayes’s volume.16 Pottery is ubiquitous in archaeological contexts and can be used to date phases of activity with a fair degree of precision. Kathleen Slane’s volume on the Demeter sanctuary and her specialist articles have given us some idea of what Corinthian pottery looked like through the Roman period.17 It was only with the excavations east of the theater in the 1980s that sufficient quantities of well-excavated deposits, many retained in their entirety, enabled Slane to undertake a thorough diachronic survey of Roman pottery from the foundation of the colony to the beginning of the seventh century.18 This study is based on statistical analyses of number and weight by type and on stratigraphic relations.19 The final publication, which is eagerly anticipated, will be the first complete overview of Roman pottery typology for a Greek site. It will show how the proportions of different pottery types changed over time; also, analysis of imports will allow researchers to identify shifts in economic contacts. This tool will enable scholars to reassess old contexts and redraft our history of the city. Its impact should be felt well beyond Corinth and even Greece. 15 J. W. Hayes, Late Roman Pottery (London: British School at Rome, 1972). 16 Pallas, “Korinth”; and James Wiseman, “Excavations in the Gymnasium Area. 1969– 1970,” Hesperia 41 (1972) 1–42. 17 Slane, Kathleen W. The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: The Roman Pottery and Lamps (Corinth XVIII.2; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 1990). 18 Charles K. Williams II and Orestes H. Zervos, “Corinth, 1988: East of the Theater,” Hesperia 58 (1989) 1–50; for bibliography, see the essay by Charles K. Williams II in this volume (pp. xxx–xxx). 19 Kathleen W. Slane, “Corinth’s Roman Pottery: Quantification and Meaning,” in Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (ed. Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis; Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 321–36. 8 Urban Religion in Roman Corinth The way in which we look at dead Corinthians has also changed. Charles Williams’s excavations south of the Museum encountered a packed cemetery dating to the Frankish period.20 To cope with the excavation and analysis of this complicated mass of evidence, anthropologists Art Rohn and Ethne Barnes were invited to excavate and study the burials.21 Rohn has not only trained our specialist pickmen to articulate burials and then remove them; he has also begun to examine changes in burial practice through time. Barnes is able to discern in bones repetitive stress patterns that betray regular heavy exercise of different kinds. She can also recognize the effects of genetics, illness, malnutrition, and violence. Although they started with Medieval and continued with post-Medieval burials, Rohn and Barnes now include Roman and earlier material in their research. Corinth now has such a range of fascinating pathologies that a special facility was recently opened to house a comparative collection for study. Despite the excavation of many hundreds of Roman tombs, only individual tombs have occasionally been published. In the 1960s, Henry Robinson was invited to excavate in advance of the construction of a drainage channel along the edge of the north terrace of Corinth, where he found several significant graves dating from the first through fifth centuries C.E. Mary Walbank and Kathleen Slane are in the final stages of producing a book-length publication of these discoveries.22 The topography of the Corinthia has received rather patchy coverage, but a comprehensive picture is gradually emerging. James Wiseman’s important extensive survey of the region put many sites on the map.23 Other investigators added topoi to this basic work; two new doctoral theses and a third nearing completion have examined the borders of Corinth with Epidaurus, Sikyon, and Argos.24 The recently completed Eastern Corinthia archaeological survey was an intensive survey of a much smaller territory that will add a new dimen- sion to our understanding of the historical geography. Mary Walbank was 20 Charles K. Williams II, L. M. Snyder, Ethne Barnes, and Orestes H. Zervos, “Frankish Corinth, 1997,” Hesperia 67 (1998) 223–81. 21 Ethne Barnes, “The Dead do Tell Tales,” in Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (ed. Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis; Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 435–43. 22 See the essay by Mary E. Hoskins Walbank in this volume (pp. xxx–xxx). 23 James Wiseman, The Land of the Ancient Corinthians (SIMA 50; Göteborg: P. Åström, 1978). 24 Y. A. Lolos, “The Hadrianic Aqueduct of Corinth,” Hesperia 66 (1997) 271–314; and M. D. Dixon, “Disputed Territories: Interstate Arbitration in the Northeast Peloponnese, ca. 250–150 B.C.” (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 2000).  Sanders / Urban Corinth: An Introduction 9 the first to discuss Roman land division in Corinthia.25 David Romano and Panos Doukellis have since independently extrapolated different schemes of mensuration on the basis of crop marks, field boundaries, and roads.26 In the past couple of years, resistivity survey has added much of topographical interest to the picture presented by the excavated remains.27 The American School has also been active in excavation outside of the city but within its territory. Elizabeth Gebhard and her colleagues have continued the excavations and publication program started by Oscar Broneer at the major Corinthian sanctuary dedicated to Poseidon and Palaimon at Isthmia.28 Timothy Gregory and his colleagues have continued Paul Clement’s work in the Late Roman fortress and Roman baths, also at Isthmia.29 Robert Scranton excavated above and below the water line at Kenchreai.30 In addition to the American work, the British School excavated and published the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora under Humfry Payne and later Richard Tomlinson.31 Many of these diverse threads of more recent research have already appeared as books, as articles in Hesperia, and elsewhere. The most important new synopsis is the volume originating in the 1996 centenary conference.32 It contains twenty-seven papers by active students of Corinth’s archaeology 25 Mary E. Hoskins Walbank, “The Foundation and Planning of Early Roman Corinth,” JRA 10 (1997) 95–130. 26 David G. Romano, “City Planning, Centuriation, and Land Division in Roman Corinth: Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis and Colonia Iulia Flavia Augusta Corinthiensis,” in Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (ed. Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis; Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 279–301; Panagiotis N. Doukellis, “Le territoire de la colonie romaine de Corinthe,” in Structures rurales et sociétés antiques: actes du colloque de Corfou, 14–16 mai 1992 (ed. Panagiotis N. Doukellis and Lina G. Mendoni; Paris: Les belles lettres, 1994) 359–90; and Mary E. Hoskins Walbank, “What’s in a Name? Corinth Under the Flavians,” ZPE 139 (2002) 251–64. 27 The results of this ongoing survey will be published in Hesperia by G. D. R. Sanders and M. Boyd. 28 For bibliography, see the essay by Elizabeth R. Gebhard in this volume (pp. xxx–xxx). 29 Timothy E. Gregory, The Hexamilion and the Fortress (Isthmia V; Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993); and The Corinthia in the Roman Period: Including the Papers Given at a Symposium Held at The Ohio State University on 7–9 March 1991 (ed. Timothy E. Gregory; JRASup 8; Ann Arbor, Mich.: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1993). 30 Scranton, Shaw, and Ibrahim, Topography and Architecture. 31 R. Tomlinson, “Perachora,” in Le Sanctuaire Grec (ed. Albert Schachter and Jean Bingen; Entretiens sur l’Antiquité classique 37; Geneva: Fondation Hardt, 1992) 321–51. For a more recent appraisal of the temple and cult see B. Menadier, “The Sixth Century BC Temple and the Sanctuary and Cult of Hera Akraia, Perachora” (Ph.D. diss., University of Cincinnati, 1995). 32 Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis, eds., Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 10 Urban Religion in Roman Corinth stating their current ideas and features a complete bibliography of Corinth from the Neolithic to Late Medieval periods. In his early years as director, Williams concentrated on the reinterpretation of some seventy years of scholarship by restudying the earlier excavation records and by undertaking new excavations in and around the forum. Over the course of fifteen years he was able to document how the city developed over time, and a brief overview of his synthesis follows below.33 DEVELOPMENT OF THE URBAN AREA The area of the site opened to date concentrates largely on the Roman forum and its surrounds. This zone is the transition, marked by a steep slope (10–20% grade over15 m) between the two terraces on which Corinth was built. Here the natural drainage pattern and spring line has created a fairly broad valley and a relatively easy transition for wheeled and pedestrian traffic between the terraces. The upper valley is occupied by the forum and the lower valley by the Lechaion Road. There is ample evidence for prehistoric settlement dating from the Neo- lithic to sub-Mycenean periods. Corinth is reckoned to have synoecized, that is, emerged as a polity, in the eighth century B.C.E., sending out trading colonies to Syracuse and Corfu. Archaeologically at Corinth there is little evidence for the form and extent of the city. The earliest Geometric period is represented by domestic debris in the valley floor, graves, and a well. In the second half of the eighth century, however, burial was kept separate from the residential area. At the same time, the first stone architecture becomes evident and the watercourses of the springs are artificially channelled. Evi- dence of roads survives. These roads direct traffic from the south and from the southwest towards the north at the mouth of the valley. In the seventh century B.C.E., the first temple was built on the rise to the north of the forum. 34 The street plan developed with the addition of roads parallel to the Geometric streets; these roads also channeled traffic from the south and west towards the north. The Sacred Spring was elaborated and perhaps at this point first had cult associated with it. In the mid-seventh 33 A full bibliography can be found in ibid., which also includes plans illustrating changes in the forum area over time. For more detail, see Williams’s publications in Hesperia. 34 For a survey of Corinth’s sanctuaries with pertinent bibliography see Nancy Bookidis, “The Sanctuaries of Corinth,” in Corinth, the Centenary, 1896–1996 (ed. Charles K. Williams II and Nancy Bookidis; Corinth XX; Princeton, N.J.: ASCS, 2003) 247–60.  Sanders / Urban Corinth: An Introduction 11 century, a small house with a well was constructed to the south of the spring. In the Lechaion Road valley, the Cyclopean fountain was constructed and houses now faced the road towards Acrocorinth. In the sixth and early fifth centuries, the early temple was destroyed (ca. 580 C.E.) to be replaced about forty years later by the Archaic temple that still stands on the site today. The formal approach was from the northeast, but access was supplemented by a monumental ramp leading up from the street that ran past the Sacred Spring to the southeast. To the east of the temple, at the base of the cliff separat- ing it from the valley, a small stoa was built. A cluster of proto-Geometric graves received a temenos, and a small underground shrine was established alongside a new road to Acrocorinth. The later fifth and early fourth centuries saw a rapid organized and for- malized development that gives the impression of a thoroughly urban space. The Peirene Fountain received draw basins, Temple A was constructed to the north, and the Sacred Spring was further developed with a triglyph and metope wall and a curious apsidal temple. A racecourse more or less followed the southernmost Archaic road, and the houses that flanked it were replaced by larger complexes. To the west, the house of a merchant dealing in imported fish fillets was constructed and subsequently removed, and finally a bath complex was established. The main changes in the following period were a realignment of the race track and the construction of the South Stoa. A question that has constantly arisen is the location of the agora. By anal- ogy with the Athenian agora, many would point to the racetrack as evidence that the Corinthian agora was the predecessor of the Roman forum. In the Greek period, however, this area had a relatively steep and continuous slope from the Sacred Spring up to the South Stoa, interrupted only by the racetrack. All roads found to date channel traffic in a general northward direction, while the water supply also supplies the area towards the north. Although it might be argued that the lack of inscriptions in the area of the forum is to be expected in a tyranny, and later an oligarchy, as opposed to a democracy, it is notable that what inscriptions have been found are concentrated at the northeast side of Temple Hill. A better hypothesis, therefore, is that the agora was located immediately to the north of the excavated zone. If it was not an agora, then what were the main functions of the excavated area of the later forum in the Classical period? According to Williams, it was largely dedicated to cult (especially non-Olympian cult), housing, and minor industry. The evidence for cult includes fragments of inscriptions, buildings, temenoi, a racetrack, and twenty-six hero reliefs. The cults attested tend to be of deities with local rather than pan-Hellenic significance and include not only Hellotis, celebrated 12 Urban Religion in Roman Corinth with a torch race on the race track; her sister Kotyto, honored perhaps in the Sacred Spring; Artemis Korinthos; and Peirene; but also Poseidon and Aphrodite, and perhaps Dionysos, Hermes, and the nymphs. Cults of heroes include Zeuxippus and various unknown dead ancestors. In 146 B.C.E., after defeating the Achaian League led by the Corinthi- ans at Lefkopetros on the Isthmus, the Roman general Mummius sacked Corinth. He killed the male population and sold the women and children into slavery. Thereafter Corinth was no longer a political entity but at best an almost-deserted ghost town occupied by a small non-Corinthian popula- tion engaged in cultivation of the agricultural land. Finds identified from this interim period amount to forty-two knidian amphorae stamps, some Megarian bowls, and over ninety coins. The prestige and income from the Isthmian games devolved to Corinth’s northwest neighbor, Sikyon, and the rich agricultural land was auctioned off as ager publicus every two years in Rome. The city was refounded in 44 B.C.E. by Julius Caesar as a colony for 16,000 colonists. Its territory was measured out into portions for the colonists and the city was redeveloped on an orthogonal plan. There is little reason to believe that many of Corinth’s religious traditions survived. Nancy Bookidis has dealt briefly with three of the cults that were resurrected: those of Apollo, Asklepius, and Demeter.35 In the early Roman period, the forum was a huge open space measuring about 200 m east-west and 100 m north-south, and taking its orientation from the surviving South Stoa, which defined its southern edge. The South Stoa was modified, some of its smaller spaces being converted into larger rooms, but it retained its colonnade. Dominating the skyline to the north, the Archaic Temple of Apollo on Temple Hill was flanked by colonnades to the north and south. The colonists had rotated its orientation by 180 degrees to face an approach from the road out of the forum to the west. Its interior colonnade was removed and re-erected in a line running north from the west end of the South Stoa along the road to Acrocorinth. Also to the north was a long basilica flanking the Lechaion Road on one side and the cliff of Temple Hill on the other. The Lechaion Road, entering the forum from the north, ascended a broad stairway through a three-bayed monumental arch. East of the Lechaion Road, Peirene Fountain had been refurbished and extended. The former simple façade of the draw basins was walled off with a series of arches. A rectangular two-story court enclosing a rectangular pool was added to the north. 35 See her essay in this volume (pp. xxx–xxx).  Sanders / Urban Corinth: An Introduction 13 On the east side of the forum stood the Julian Basilica. At forum level this was a cryptoporticus basement. The first story, approached by a stair- case of fourteen steps leading up to a porch, was an open rectangular space measuring 38 x 24 m, with Corinthian columns supporting a clerestory and a marble dado. Inside were sculptures of the imperial family, including Augustus in Pentelic marble, dressed in a toga with a fold draped over his head, and portrayed engaged in sacrifice. He was flanked by his adopted sons Caius and Lucius Caesar, each portrayed in heroic nudity with a chlamys over the shoulder, perhaps as the Dioscuroi. Clearly this building had some high civic function. To the west of the forum stood Temple E, a 6 x 11–column peripteral temple on a low base with long stoas flanking it to the north and south. The identification of the temple has been hotly debated. Some think that it was dedicated to Jove or Zeus based on its size and location, while others re- gard it as the temple of Octavia. In front of the temple was a range of more typically Roman temples and monuments. Two prostyle temples, F and G, were dedicated to Venus and to Clarion Apollo respectively. Built in the Roman style, they stood on high marble-clad podia of concrete and rubble that were approached from the east by a stair. To the north was a fountain house dedicated to Poseidon, decorated with a statue of the god and dolphins, and a circular monument decorated in the Corinthian order and dedicated by Gnaius Cornelius Babbius. South of center in the forum was the rostra, considered by many to be the bema in front of which Paul was brought by the elders of the Jewish community (Acts 18:12). A second topos for those following the travels of Paul in Greece can be found east of the theater, also remodeled to suit Roman taste. An inscription found there reads: ERASTUS PRO AEDILIT[AT]E S(ua) P(ecunia) STRAVIT (“Erastus, in return for his aedileship, laid the pavement at his own expense”). Since the office of aedile can be pretty much equated with that of oikonomos, it is thought that this could be the oikonomos Erastus whose greetings Paul forwards in his letter to the Romans (16:23).36 A hundred years later, the plan of the forum remained much the same, receiving additions such as the odeion, another temple at the west end of the forum, shops to the west of the rostra, and a new basilica south of the South Stoa. 36 For more on Erastus, see the essays by Helmut Koester (pp. xxx–xxx), Steven J. Fri- esen (pp. xxx–xxx), and James A. Walters (pp. xxx–xxx) in this volume, as well as Steven J. Friesen, “Poverty in Pauline Studies: Beyond the So-called New Consensus,” JSNT 26 (2004) 323–61. 14 Urban Religion in Roman Corinth Finally, in the Late Roman period Corinth seems to have been radically transformed. Earthquakes in the late fourth century C.E. and a social call by Alaric and his Goths seem to have reduced the city. The great sanctuaries of the Hellenic deities Demeter and Asklepios, already under legislative pressure to close, apparently did not survive. Efforts were made to refurbish the area of the forum, however—most notably by reappointing Peirene Fountain37 and the west shops, and by converting the central shops into the broadest stairway in the Roman world. In the early fifth century, a city wall was laid out, encompassing the heart of the city. Remote-sensing survey suggests that this wall enclosed only about 25% of the area hitherto envisioned, and as- sertions about the relationships of cemeteries and churches to the city center will clearly have to be revised. The sixth century saw the construction of the first buildings to be dedicated to Christian worship.38 A huge church, the length of two football fields, was built at Lechaion, and smaller basilicas were erected at Kraneion, Skoutela, and in the plain just north of the city. At what should have been an auspicious time, Christian Corinth fell victim first to bubonic plague and its high mortality levels, and subsequently to a deep economic depression that lasted, as the archaeology of the site witnesses, for five hundred years. 37 See the essay by Betsey A. Robinson in this volume (pp. xxx–xxx). 38 See my other essay in this volume (pp. xxx–xxx).