CORINTH BACKGROUND.

Corinth is well-known from the 2 Letters of the apostle Paul in the New Testament, 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Corinth is also mentioned in Acts as part of Paul's missionary travels.
Ancient Corinth was a city-state (polis) on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnese to mainland Greece, roughly between Athens and Sparta. It was one of the largest and most important cities in Greece, with a population of 90,000 in 400 BC. The Romans demolished the city-state in 146 BC, built a new city in its place in 44 BC, and later made it the provincial capital of Greece.
The site of Corinth was occupied from at least as early as 6,500 BC, always the settlement acted as a centre of trade, but a dramatic drop in ceramic remains occurred during 2,500-2,300BC and only sparse ceramic remains in the site appeared in the period immediately before the Mycenaean. The site remained not heavily occupied again until around 900 BC, when the Dorians settled there.
According to Hellenic myth, the city was founded by Corinthos, a descendant of the god Helios (Sun), while other myths suggest that it was founded by the goddess Ephyra, a daughter of the Titan Oceanus. There is evidence that the city was destroyed around 2,000 BC. It seems that Corinth was also the site of a Mycenaean palace-city.
Following a myth, Sisyphus, king of Ephyra, and son of King Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete, was the founder of a race of ancient kings at Corinth. He was the father of Glaucus, Ornytion, Almus, and Thersander by the nymph Merope, the brother of Salmoneous (who hate each other), and the grandpa of Bellerophon (slayer of monsters) through Glaucus.  The king Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce but was avaricious and deceitful. He killed travelers and guests. The evil action was considered a violation of the code of hospitality (Xenia). He took pleasure in these killings because they allowed him to maintain his iron-fisted rule.
Zeus then ordered Thanatos, Death, to chain Sisyphus down below in Tartarus. Sisyphus was curious as to why Hermes, whose job was to guide souls to the Underworld, had not appeared on this occasion.
He asked Thanatos to demonstrate how chains worked. As Thanatos was granting him his wish, Sisyphus seized the opportunity and trapped Thanatos in the chains instead. Once Thanatos was bound by the strong chains, no one died on earth. This caused an uproar especially for Ares, who was annoyed that his battles had lost their fun because his opponents would not die, and so he intervened.
Ares freed Thanatus and turned Sisyphus over to him. His soul was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity.
Corinth, under the tightly-knit Doric clan and the ruling kinship group was a backwater in the 8th and 7th BC, a period of expanding Corinthian power until it became a unified state. In 733BC, Corinth established colonies at Corcyra in the Ionian Sea, 2nd largest of the Ionian Islands, and Syracuse in Sicily. By 730BC Corinth emerged as a highly advanced Greek city with at least 5,000 people.
Aritotle tells the story of Philolaus of Corinth, a Dorian who was a lawgiver at Thebes. He became the lover of Diocles, an athlete that became the winner of the Olympic games. They lived together for the rest of their lives and were buried in builded tombs near one another. Philolaus' tomb points toward the Corinthian country while Diocles' faces away. In 657BC, Cypselus representing the tyrants, who usually seized the power at the head of some popular support. After the traditional king was assassinated, he was a Dorian, but not from the royal lineage. He was the son of Eetion and a disfigured woman named Labda, who was a member of the Dorian family.
Aristotle reports that Cypselus had made a vow that if he became master of the city, he would offer Zeus the entire property of the Corinthians. Accordingly, he commanded them to make a return of their possessions.
In classical times, Corinth rivaled Athens and Thebes in wealth, based on the Isthmian traffic and trade. Until the mid-6th century, Corinth was a major exporter of black-figure pottery to city-states around the Greek world. Corinth had a temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, employing some thousands temple prostitutes. The city was renowned for these prostitutes who served the wealthy merchants and the powerful officials who frequented the city. Referring to its exorbitant luxuries, Horace is quoted as saying: "Not everyone is able to go to Corinth."
The city had 2 main ports: to the West on the Corinthian Gulf, Lechaion which connected the city to its Western colonies and Magna Graecia, while to the East on the Saronic  Gulf, Kenchreai which served the ships coming from Athens, Ionia, Cyprus and the Levant. Both ports had docks for the city's large navy
By 332BC, Alexander the Great was in control of Greece. Under his successors, Greece was a contested ground, and Corinth was occasionally taken as a battleground. In 308BC, the city was captured from the Antigonids by Ptolemy I, who claimed to come as a liberator of Greece. In 253/2 Alexander of Corinth resolved to challenge the Macedonian supremacy and seek independence as a tyrant. He was poisoned in 247BC and after his death a Macedonian king retook the city. After the Roman intervention in 197BC the city was permanently brought into the Achaean League. The Achaeans took control of the entire Peloponnesus and made Corinth its capital. In 146BC, Rome declared war and captured Corinth, killing all the men and sold the women and children into slavery before burning the city. Under Romans, Corinth was rebuilt as a major city and had a large and mixed population of Romans, Greeks, and Jews.
The city was largely destroyed in the earthquakes of 365CE and 375CE followed by Alaric's invasion in 396CE. Alaric (Visigoth) is best known for his sack of Rome. The city was rebuilt on a monumental scale, but covered a much smaller area than previously.
During the reign of Justinian I (527-565), a large stone wall was erected from the Saronic to the Corinthian gulfs, protecting the city and the Peloponnese peninsula from the barbarian invasions from the North. Corinth declined from the 6th century on. In November 856CE, another earthquake devastated the city killing an estimated 45,000 people. In 1147, the city was sacked by Sicilian Normans under Roger of Sicily carrying off many captives, most notably silk weavers. The city never fully recovered from the Norman sack.
During the Greek War of Independence, 1821-1830 the city was destroyed by the Ottoman forces. The city was officially liberated in 1832 after the treaty of London. In 1858, the village surrounding the ruins of Ancient Corinth was destroyed by another earthquake, leading to the establishment of New Corinth 3km (1.9 mi) NE of the ancient city.