However, not much is known about the people that originally lived there during this time. One of the most important of these public projects was the ancient road that led from the ports that was designed to haul ships from the water and onto the mainland. The road itself also facilited trade throughout Ancient Greece and allowed for the easy transport of goods. Besides the road, we know that there was an ancient market, temples, arcades, fountains, shops, bathhouses, a theater, cemeteries, and other important buildings.
This city-state thrived until around B. However, rather than leave it as is, they decided to rebuild it. In 44 B. Later on, the Apostle Paul traveled here to spread the word about Jesus Christ. Much of his efforts have been documented in the Book of Corinthians in the Holy Bible. Even still, Corinth was still one of the major city-states in Ancient Greece. It is also important to note that there are parts of Corinth that are still standing today. Corinth joined an association of Greek states known as the Archaean League around B.
A conflict arose with the Romans over the city of Sparta and Corinth declared war on Sparta. Corinth was quickly overtaken and destroyed.
It lay in ruin until the time of Julius Caesar. In 44 B. Julius Caesar designated Corinth as a Roman colony and began to rebuild it. Corinth became populated with freedmen and the poor. Syrians, Egyptians, and Jews made up the rest of the population. During the reign of the Roman emperors Tiberius and Claudius, the city underwent extensive reconstruction and prosperity. This was again due in part to its ideal location along important trade routes.
This may be why Paul decided to make Corinth his base location in Greece; this thought is reinforced when one considers the reception Paul received in Athens. The culture can easily be identified with the Roman culture. To celebrate its legendary origins, each successive culture that ruled Corinth built its own increasingly elaborate enclosure for the fountain.
Layers of History. It became a major city in the 8th century BCE and was known for its architectural and artistic innovations including the invention of black-figure pottery. One of the most famous style of ancient Greek vase painting, black-figure ware depicts human and animal forms in black silhouettes on a cream or red background. During this time, the Corinthians excavated the fountain grotto and embellished it with a six chambered structure. Taking this victory as a starting point, Rome soon controlled all of Greece.
The Romans decorated the Fountain of Peirene lavishly, painting lively frescoes of aquatic life around the walls of the original Greek grotto and adding an elaborate facade in the 3rd century CE that is still in evidence today. Around the year , as the Western Roman Empire was in sharp decline, Corinth came under the political control of the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire centered in Constantinople.
Subscribing to the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, the Byzantines built a small chapel in one corner of the Fountain of Peirene in the late 10th century. By the 14th century, after years of neglect and earthquakes, the columns of the fountain had sunk into the ground.
Americans began excavating the Fountain of Peirene in , digging through the many layers of later occupation to find the ancient Roman and Greek architecture beneath. Today, the Greek people view the Fountain of Peirene as a national treasure.
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