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146 BCEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Rome Destroys Corinth and Absorbs Greece

A Roman general levels one of Greece's richest cities to make an example of the whole Achaean League

On the timeline · around 146 BCE · Roman and Byzantine GreeceAncient GreeceRoman and Byzantine GreeceRome Destroys Corinth and Absorbs Greece300 BCE200 BCE100 BCE1 CE100 CE200 CE300 CE400 CE

Quick facts

Roman commander
Lucius Mummius
Year
146 BCE
City destroyed
Corinth
Refounded as Roman province capital
27 BCE (Achaea)

What happened

In 146 BCE the Achaean League, the last significant confederation of independent Greek city-states, went to open war with Rome. The Roman consul Lucius Mummius crushed the Achaean army and advanced on Corinth, one of the wealthiest cities in Greece. Roman troops stormed the city, killed its defenders, enslaved the surviving population, and leveled the settlement, an act the Roman Senate intended as a warning against further resistance to Roman power. The Achaean League was dissolved, and within decades Corinth's territory and the rest of Greece were folded into Roman administration; Corinth itself was refounded as a Roman colony and became capital of the province of Achaea in 27 BCE.

Why it matters

The sack of Corinth ended nearly a thousand years of Greek political independence in one campaign season and opened two thousand years during which Greece's fate was decided somewhere else, first Rome, then Constantinople, then Istanbul. Greek culture did not disappear under Roman rule; the Romans admired and imported it wholesale, but the city-states that had run their own affairs since the Archaic period never regained self-government under Rome.

How we know

The destruction of Corinth and the end of the Achaean League are recorded in surviving Roman and Greek historical accounts of the period and confirmed archaeologically at the Corinth excavation site, which shows a clear destruction layer followed by a gap before Roman refounding in 27 BCE.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Greece26 events · A classical civilization that spent most of its history as someone else's province, then had to build a nation-state twice, once in 1830 and again in 1974View all →
Rome Destroys Corinth and Absorbs Greece · History of Greece · SourcedStory