Corinth

      After leaving Athens our next stop on the trip was Corinth, a polis (otherwise known as a city-state) that rivaled both Sparta and Athens in its heyday. Corinth is a polis of myth, Sisyphus (the man sentenced to push a boulder up a hill for all eternity and the origin of the phrase a Sisyphean task), Bellerophon (the rider of Pegasus), and Medea and Jason (of the Argonauts) are all said to have dwelled in Corinth at some point. In history Corinth has played an important role as well, when the Corinthian colony Corcyra tried to rebel against Corinth with Athenian help Corinth sought Spartan assistance to quell the rebellion which would eventually grow into the Peloponnesian War. Corinth was also the leader of the Achaian league which tried to fight off the Roman invasion of Greece although Corinth was eventually sacked by Lucius Mummius in 146 BCE. The treasures the general brought back would kickstart Roman fascination with Greek architecture and nearly a century later in 44 BCE Julius Caesar would rebuild Corinth as a Roman colony. St. Paul's travels brought him to Corinth where he stayed for a year eventually being tried for illegal teachings although nothing ever came of it.