Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/17

HISTORY OF GREECE. PART II. CONTINUATION OF HISTORICAL GREECE CHAPTER IX. CORINTH, SIKYON, AND MEGARA. AGE OF THE GRECIAN DESPOTS. THE preceding volume brought down the history of Sparta to the period marked by the reign of Peisistratus at Athens ; at which time she had attained her maximum of territory, was con- fessedly the most powerful state in Greece, and enjoyed a pro- portionate degree of deference from the rest. I now proceed to touch upon the three Dorian cities on and near to the Isthmus, Corinth, Sikyon, and Megara, as they existed at this same period. Even amidst the scanty information which has reached us, we trace the marks of considerable maritime energy and commerce among the Corinthians, as far back as the eighth century B. c. The foundation of Korkyra and Syracuse, in the llth Olympiad, or 734 B. c. (of which I shall speak farther in connection with Grecian colonization generally), by expeditions from Corinth, affords a good proof that they knew how to turn to account the excellent situation which connected them with the sea on both Bides of Peloponnesus : and Thucydides, ' while he notices them is the chief liberators of the sea, in early times, from pirates, also 1 Thucyd. i, 13. TOL. 111. 1 loo-