Caesar's new city was called Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthia, whose name later changed to Iulia

Corinthus Augusta during Augustus' reign, presumably as a result of Augustus trying to associate
himself with his adopted father's works. The new city was built in a conventional Roman grid
pattern, and, like Athens, was adorned with a variety of monuments sponsored by rich and
influential Romans and Greeks. From 27 BCE, it was the seat of the proconsul of Achaea, and was
famously rich and glamorous in the days of the early Empire, so much so that Horace quotes a
Greek and Roman proverb, non licet omnibus adire Corinthum, which means not everyone can
go to Corinth; although it was an object of desire for people across the Roman world, visiting or
living in the famous metropolis was beyond many people's means. The ancient institution of sacred
prostitution at the temple of Aphrodite continued to flourish in Roman times, and was one of the
things the city was both famous and notorious for; Corinth had long been associated with luxury
and licentiousness, both as an object of revulsion and of fascination and allure, and there was once a
slang verb korinthiazein in Greek, literally translating as to do a Corinthian, which translated as
either to live a decadent lifestyle or simply to fuck. [pause to celebrate using the word fuck in
a university presentation]
The city was refounded as a colony of the Flavian family during the reign of Vespasian (an act that
must surely have confused the locals, since the city had been flourishing since Caesar's time), and
was further renamed as Colonia Iulia Flavia Augusta Corinthiensis. In this time, the city expanded
into the wider plain and towards the Isthmus. Many important monuments that we will be visiting,
such as Temple E, were constructed around this time, as well as numerous public works projects
such as paved roads in the city and expansions on the road networks in the rural countryside. The
city was a popular target for renovation by Roman emperors until the 2nd century.
In the 3rd century, Corinth entered a period of decline. Like Athens, it was badly damaged in 267 by
the invading Heruls. In the middle of the fourth century, it suffered a devastating earthquake, and
was again partially sacked by an army of Goths under Alaric in 395. However, the city's fortunes
recovered enough during the later stages of antiquity for it to become the capital of the Byzantine
Theme of the Peloponnese sometime around the year 800. There's a lot of Byzsntine, Frankish, and
Turkish history of the city, as well as an interesting siege during the Greek War of Independence
the Acrocorinth was a particularly important fortress during the Middle Ages and Early Modern
Period, controlling the Isthmus between the Peloponnese and the rest of Greece but frankly none
of that is particularly relevant to Roman Corinth, so I'm just glossing over it. Does anyone have any
questions about the history of Roman Corinth?
Let's move on to the sites. We're currently standing on the Lechaion Road, which linked the city to
Lechaion, a harbour-town on the Corinthian Gulf, which served as Corinth's principal port to its
western colonies in Italy and Sicily in the archaic and classical period. The Lechaion Road in the
Roman period was over two and a half metres wide, with pavements for pedestrians on either side,
and rows of shops and other important buildings. The street was once lined with statues. Pausanias
mentions statues of a seated Hermes, with a mountain goat; a Poseidon; a Leukothea; a Palaemon,
riding a dolphin; and an Artemis. Reported as still in use by the 10th century CE, this street fell into
disrepair some time after.
On the left are the Baths of Eurykles, excavated from 1965-1968 by the American School. The
baths take their name from Gaius Iulius Eurykles, a Lacedaemonian magnate [look him up and find
a date]. They are constructed from from a wide variety of different marbles; Numidian pinkishyellow, Proconnesian white, Karystian light green, Euboean red-grey, and deep purplish-red marble
from Cape Tainaron in the Peloponnese. Granite and green porphyry were also used, as well as the
usual poros and concrete. This wide variety of expensive materials, some of which had to be
imported great distances, would have made the bath an extremely expensive project.

The approach to the bath features a colonnade of white marble built on a foundation of poros. The
colonnade had a two-step stylobate and a mosaic flooring, of which some tesserae have survived;
what it originally depicted is unknown. At some point, a latrine was cut into the west wall of the
colonnade, and several drains installed. The faade of the bath, estimated at about 11 metres tall,
was built on a concrete foundation. It consisted of a long front and two wings splitting off in the
north and south, divided into an upper and lower section. Both sections were decorated with
Corinthian columns of Karystian marble and Numidian marble, with the additional use of
Proconnesian and Euboean marble on the upper level. Niches decorated with carvings in Euboean
marble have been found in both wings and the central faade, as well as nine windows on each
level, which were probably glazed, given the shards of window glass found around the faade.
There was probably originally a pool at the base of the faade. This structure was periodically
damaged by earthquakes from the fourth century onwards, before being finally destroyed in an
earthquake in the seventh century.
The building consisted of seven rooms and a number of external service areas. It held the usual
Roman amenities of the frigidarium, the caldarium, and the tepidarium, as well as several rooms of
uncertain purpose. After the fourth-century earthquakes, various service areas were built around the
outside of the bath, with no consideration for the bath's external appearance; the faade was likely
too damaged already for the fourth-century Romans to care too much about aesthetics of their
additions. The bath of Eurykles is the best excavated bath complex in Corinth, but there were many
others; as a city with a high degree of Romanisation, Roman-era Corinth had far more Roman
amenities than the more Greek city of Athens. There is a second large bath complex 200 metres
north of the Forum, which is still being excavated, and a third bath north of the theatre. Four smaller
baths have also been found in various places throughout Corinth.

Peribolos of Apollo
Sacred precinct; enclosed space surrounded by walls and columns, likely dedicated to
Apollo, although this identification is uncertain, based on reconstructions of Pausanias
Assuming it is the shrine of Apollo Pausanias mentions, it once contained a statue of the
god and a painting remarked on by Pausanias of Odysseus killing Penelope's suitors
Still contains (maybe) a relief depicting a wealthy merchant and his ship; this figure has
been tentatively identified as the person who originally commissioned the peribolos.
Basilica of the Lechaion Road
Built in the first century CE
Captives' faade abutting the Forum; six outsize statues of Phrygian captives, standing
on pillars of the Corinthian order
On the left side of the Lechaion, we can find the Peirene fountain, which Jonathan has
already covered throughout the Greek period. I'll give you a rundown of architectural
developments throughout the Roman period. The spring was probably still used by local
farmers for some time after the sack of Corinth, until Caesar's refounding the city. The
Romans built four oblong tanks hewn into the rock, with a total capacity of about 400 litres,
which fed into three permanently-full basins. The walls during the initial phase of Roman
reconstruction were largely built from rubble from earlier Greek buildings. A faade of
poros stone was built a generation after the initial Roman renovations at the spring. The
Roman faade featured six arched openings and two rows of half-columns, Doric on the
bottom and Ionic on the top. This faade was excavated in 1926 and found to be slumping
dangerously forward, a condition which appears to have been going on since ancient times,
likely caused by an earthquake. This damage had become severe enough by the fourth
century that a monumental two-story second faade was constructed in front of the first one,
connected to the Roman propylaia. It was decorated, like the first Roman faade, with Doric
half columns in the lower story and Ionic columns on the upper, and embellished with

polychrome marbles, murals, and statues, such as that of the nymph Peirene (for whom the
spring is named).
Propylaia of the Forum
Triumphal arch with three openings
Two gilded bronze chariots on top; one of Helios, the other of his son Phaethon
Associated with Corinth's foundation myth and the triumph of Helios over Poseidon
[look this up]
At the end of the Lechaion Road, we can find the major Roman forum of Corinth, which
was the commercial and administrative heart of the city in the Roman period.
Still quite clearly visible in the centre of the forum is foundations of the old bema,
running in a line from northeast to southwest. The Corinthian bema was a close
reconstruction of the imperial Rostra in Rome, a statement of Roman authority in this
part of the world, although it took inspiration for some of its features from, of all places,
the Erechtheion in Athens. This is where the provincial proconsul would hold public
events such as judicial hearings; to any Christians or people interested in the history of
Christianity among you, the Corinthian bema was, according to tradition, where Paul
defended himself before the proconsul Lucius Iunius Gallo in 51/52 CE.
There are two rows of shops radiating northeast and southwest from the bema. The
forum is flanked on the east and west by shops, while the north side is largely taken up
by a stoa; there was also a stoa on the south side, beyond the central shopping area. A
gilded statue of Ephesian Artemis once stood at the centre of the forum.
The north stoa is not terribly well-preserved, but enough elements survive to allow
some deductions; it was fronted with a single two-storey faade and decorated with
half-columns along some stretches of the wall, although not others. Fragmentary
pieces of a Doric cornice found on the site suggest the presence of a Doric
entabulature around the top of the building, with every fourth triglyph positioned
over a supporting column. The stylobate, unusally, has only a single step; this is
probably due to the irregularity of the ground in the forum, which necessitated
placing many buildings at unusual heights with unusual foundation arrangements.
The south stoa, renovated in Roman times, housed a vaulted bouleterion, and
together these two buildings were the seat of the city's administration in Roman
times.
On the east side of the forum square is a large building called the Julian basilica, most
likely a structure dedicated to the Gens Iulia and the imperial family, hence the name,
although this identification is not entirely certain.
On the western end of the forum, we can find six small podium temples, dedicated to
important deities of the city of Corinth. They were developed between the years 35 and
190 CE.
Included shrines to Venus-Fortuna, Heracles, and the emperor Commodus, as well as
a pantheon.
Located among the shrines is the Babbius monument. Commissioned by Cnaeus Babbius
Philinus, a duovir of Greek origin, before the middle of the first century CE, the Babbius
monument is a monopteros1 circular building with eight fluted pillars of the Corinthian
order, built on a foundation of concrete and poros. It was constructed from blue and
white marble, although traces of the marble bear a red sheen, so it was likely treated in
places in some unknown fashion. Its form was quite simple and minimalistic on the
lower levels, but the upper reaches has a high amount of detail; apart from the elaborate
Corinthian capitals, the architrave bears a complex decorative arrangement of tiny
pincones, Lesbian leaf patterns, and a frieze of anthemia. The Babbius monument may
once have housed a statue of Aphrodite, although there is some disagreement on the

1 With a row of pillars only no interior building.

matter, and many reconstructions have the monument empty.

On a raised platform above the old forum, we can find the remains of a Roman-era building
known as Temple E. Temple E was first discovered by a trial trench dug in 1901, which
exposed the outline of a characteristically Roman podium. However, major excavations
were not carried out at the side until 1931; between 1931 and 1932, most of the temple's
ground plan was carefully dug out. As the incredibly evocative name Temple E indicates,
there is a lot scholarly debate concerning its ancient purpose. Due to its size, it was almost
certainly mentioned by Pausanias, but exactly which of the buildings mentioned by
Pausanias Temple E matches up with is unknown. Some scholars think it was dedicated to
Octavia and the Gens Iulia, and thus to the Imperial Cult, while others think it was devoted
to Iupiter Capitolinus.
Whomever it was dedicated to, Temple E was a peripteral 2 temple of a mixed Greco-Roman
style. It rests on mixed foundations of poros stones mixed with concrete along the northern
and eastern edge and opus incertum everywhere else, covered with a layer of Acrocorinthian
limestone. Above the foundation was a podium made of characteristic Roman opus
incertum, built with irregularly shaped blocks of poros, tile, and terracotta, fixed together
with mortar, and encased in marble of the marble surface, nothing remains. The temple
itself was hexastyle, with twelve unfluted Corinthian columns along the longer sides
(including the corner columns), so it's 6 by 12. The capitals of these columns display a great
deal of variation, so there were likely several different masons working on them, but on the
whole they are not elaborate. There was probably a frieze of a floral or scroll design on the
architrave, and an inscription in bronze letters. Fragments of a possible acroterium have
been found, depicting a Nereid riding a dolphin.
The temple's cella is long and narrow, and the pronaos is fairly shallow, both features likely
borrowed from local Greek styles, rather than purely Roman. Attempts to reconstruct its
must rely almost wholly on speculation. It was floored with marble; shards of various
colours of marble have been found, likely forming a pattern that we will never know. There
were almost certainly niches or bases by the door, on the east side, for statues; other than
that, there is no evidence for interior decoration. The walls were made of marble, one block
thick, and may have been pierced below the ceiling by a row of narrow windows, although
this is speculation. The building was originally surrounded by an Ionic peristasis, which was
later replaced with a peristasis in the Corinthian style.
Apart from the aforementioned Nereid acroterium, several pieces of statuary have been
found in the ruins, including the head of a Tyche statue, several heads of unknown female
figures, and part of the torso of a male nude. These pieces have been observed to have a
remarkable resemblance to several statues in the Erechtheion and the Parthenon, especially
to the Parthenon's pediment statuary, so they are likely inspired by the Acropolis statues if
not actually copies of them. However, while the bodies are inspired by classical figures, the
heads seem to have been inspired by Hellenistic statuary; the presence of Tyche, popular in
the Hellenistic period, among the gods suggests a Hellenistic influence. It is presumed that
several of the pieces come from Temple E's eastern pediment; from the resemblance of some
pieces to figures on the Parthenon, such as a left leg that is near-identical to the leg of the
Parthenon's Apollo, it has been tentatively suggested that the east pediment depicted an
Assembly of the Gods.
Before the Roman presence in Corinth, this area seems to have been largely unused; several
well shafts have been found, some of which contain pieces of pottery dating from the
seventh or sixth century BCE. Temple E is the second Roman temple on the site, the first
being tentatively dated to 41 CE, in the reign of Claudius. This first temple was built on a
slightly larger podium than Temple E, and was made from poros stone patched up with

2 Having a row of pillars on all sides.

stucco. Very few traces of the early temple survive; no fragments of columns or capitals are
left to us, but there are pieces of Ionic architrave left. Because of the scant remains, even the
ground plan of the first temple is unknown, and archaeologists are uncertain whether it was
built in Ionic or Corinthian style, or even whether it was finished before it was destroyed.
Following a particularly destructive earthquake in the year 77, a second temple was built as
part of greater efforts to rebuild Corinth. It is likely the result of a monumental programme
sponsored by Vespasian or one of his immediate successors, although no firm date can be
given; all we can say for certain is that it post-dates Domitian, as his coins are only found in
the first temple's remains. Markings on the inner face of the marble walls indicate that the
second temple was destroyed by fire, and the numismatic and pottery finds in the temple
precinct point quite unequivocally to the reign of Constantius II, between 337 and 361 CE;
no coins post-dating this emperor are found on the site. As Constantius II was a zealous
persecutor of pre-Christian religion, it is likely that Temple E was destroyed as part of his
anti-polytheist policies. Certainly it was destroyed somewhat earlier than the sack of Corinth
by the Goths in 395, which is when a great many of the other monumental buildings of
Corinth were destroyed. For a while, its ruins were used as a threshing floor in the Byzantine
period, which further damaged the podium, and parts of the rubble appear to have been used
to make a defensive wall, which was torn down in modern times to get at the temple. Parts
of Temple E have been found in the forum below, implying that the temple was reused to
build other structures in the Byzantine period.

Up on the same platform as Temple E is [MUSEUM], which contains many finds from
Corinth in the Roman period. Among the Roman remains are three statues, depicting
Octavian Augustus and his grandsons, Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar. There is also a
display of Asklepieion offerings; terracotta models of various body parts. The idea was that
sick or injured visitors looking for a cure from the god would dedicate to him a copy of the
afflicted body part. Legs, arms, breasts, and genitals can all be found on display.
Temple C is a tetrastyle-prostyle temple inside a peribolos
Unknown to which deity the temple was dedicated
We also find here the Temple of Apollo, which Jonathan has talked about in depth and which
was one of the few structures not destroyed by Mommius during his sack of the city. Left
largely intact, the temple was renovated in Roman times, possibly to house yet another
shrine to the Imperial Cult.
The smaller north agora was built north of the Temple of Apollo; it's a quadrilateral court not
dissimilar to the Roman Agora in Athens. It was built around a central courtyard paved with
thin marble slabs, and decorated along the peristyle above the stylobate with many varieties
of mosaic, usually featuring simple geometrical patterns in red, white, and blue tesserae,
some featuring bands or key patterns, others more complex circular arrangments. The
peristyle is fronted by columns in the Doric order. The shops are all built into the walls, and
have a fairly uniform construction; each one measures about 3 metres wide and 4.4 long,
with a simple arch-shaped door frame. They have floors of diamond-shaped tiles, built over
an original floor of flat pebbles and small stones set in cement. In the southwest corner,
there used to be a stairway going up to the second floor shops
Around the corner, along what my books refer to as Theatre Street, the Roman odeion and
theatre are still being excavated. As these monuments have not been fully excavated, we
unfortunately can't go and see them, but to close off my presentation, I'll briefly describe
their history and general form in the Roman period. The Odeion was a wholly Roman
development, cut from the bedrock of the hill in the 1 st century CE. Directly south of the
theatre, the original odeion consisted of a three-storey skene, a semicircular orchestra, and
an auditorium that housed a maximum of 3,000 people. Herodes Atticus, a wealthy sponsor
of many monuments around Corinth, commissioned a peristyle court north of the skene in
the second century. In the third century, the skene was destroyed by fire, and the building

was repurposed as an arena for gladiatorial combat and wild beast hunts, before being
abandoned in the fourth century. The Theatre, unlike the Odeion, was originally a Greek
site, partially destroyed during Mommius' sack of Corinth in 146 BCE. Rebuilt around the
same time as the odeion was being constructed, the Roman theatre was enlarged from the
original model, featuring a newly-built proscenium with a colonnade. Sometime during the
first century, the skene was heightened, acquiring three large niches with a row of columns
in front, and a peristyle court was built behind the skene, similarly to the odeion. The skene
was further enhanced in the second century with the additions of sculptural decoration
consisting of relief metopes depicting mythological scenes, such as the Labours of Herakles,
an Amazonomachy, and the Gigantomachy. In the third century, the theatre was turned into
an arena, and the orchestra was modified to make it a suitable venue for mock sea battles.