Description of Greece

​The Corinthian territory, being a part of Argia, has its name from Corinth. But that Corinth was a son of Zeus, I know of no one who has yet said in earnest, except the majority of the Corinthians. But Eumelus, the son of Amphilytus, of the so-called Bacchiadae, who is also said to have composed the epic verses, says in his Corinthian history—if indeed the history is by Eumelus—that Ephyra, a daughter of Oceanus, first dwelt in this land, and that later Marathon, the son of Epopeus, the son of Aloeus, the son of Helios, fleeing the lawlessness and insolence of his father, migrated to the coastal districts of Attica; and that when Epopeus died, he himself came to the Peloponnese, and having divided the rule among his children, returned again to Attica; and that from Sicyon the territory of Asopia, and from Corinth that of Ephyraea, were renamed.

​But of the ancient Corinthians, none still inhabit Corinth, but colonists sent out by the Romans. The cause of this was the league of the Achaeans; for the Corinthians, contributing to it as members, took part in the war against the Romans, which Critolaus, having been appointed general of the Achaeans, brought about by persuading both the Achaeans and most of those outside the Peloponnese to revolt. When the Romans won the war, they took away the arms of the other Greeks as well, and demolished the walls of all the cities that were fortified. And after Mummius, who then commanded the Roman army, had laid Corinth waste, they say that later Caesar rebuilt it, who first established the form of government now existing in Rome; and he also rebuilt Carthage during his own rule.

​And belonging to the Corinthian land is also the place called Cromyón, named after Cromus, the son of Poseidon. There they say Phaea was bred, and among the exploits ascribed to Theseus is the one concerning this sow. As you go further, there grew by the shore, at least down to my time, the pine-tree, and there was an altar of Melicertes. To this place they say the child was brought by a dolphin; and Sisyphus, happening upon him as he lay there, buried him on the Isthmus and established the Isthmian games in his honor.

​And at the beginning of the Isthmus is the place where the robber Sinis, taking hold of the pine-trees, used to drag them down; and whomever he overcame in fight, he would bind to them and let the trees spring upward; here each of the two pines would drag the bound man toward itself, and since the bond gave way in neither direction but was strained equally from both sides, the bound man was torn asunder. In this manner Sinis himself was destroyed by Theseus; for Theseus cleared of wrongdoers the road from Troezen to Athens, by slaying those whom I have previously enumerated, and also in sacred Epidaurus Periphetes, who was considered a son of Hephaestus and used a bronze club in his battles.