Rome Destroys Corinth

In 146 BCE, a Roman army under the consul Lucius Mummius defeated the Achaean League and sacked the wealthy Greek city of Corinth. The destruction of Corinth, in the same year that Rome razed Carthage, marked the end of meaningful Greek independence and left Rome the dominant power across the Mediterranean. Greece was brought under direct Roman supervision, though the formal creation of a province there is a matter of some debate among historians.

Rome had been involved in Greek affairs for over half a century. After defeating Macedonia's king Philip V in 197 BCE, the Roman general Flamininus famously proclaimed the freedom of the Greek states. Rome presented itself as a protector, but its influence steadily grew. Following the Third Macedonian War, Macedonia's monarchy was abolished in 168 BCE, and in 148 BCE the country was made a Roman province. Roman officials also deported about a thousand prominent Achaeans to Italy, a move that bred lasting resentment.

The Achaean League, a federation of Greek cities in the Peloponnese, came into conflict with Sparta, one of its members that wished to leave. Rome's envoys sided with Sparta and signaled that the League might be broken up. Hardline leaders in the League rejected this and declared war, apparently misjudging Roman resolve, since Rome was then also occupied in Spain and North Africa. The Roman commander Metellus, coming from Macedonia, won early victories. Mummius then arrived and crushed the main Achaean force near the Isthmus of Corinth.

Corinth was then taken and plundered. Ancient writers report that its men were killed or the population enslaved, and that art treasures were shipped to Rome, though the exact scale of the violence is hard to verify. The city's walls were torn down and much of it was burned. Archaeology suggests Corinth was not wholly abandoned, but it lay in ruins and diminished for roughly a century.

The consequences were far-reaching. The Achaean League was dissolved, Greek cities were made to pay tribute or answer to the governor of Macedonia, and Rome tended to support oligarchic governments friendly to its interests. Julius Caesar refounded Corinth as a Roman colony in 44 BCE, and it later flourished again, becoming the city where the apostle Paul would preach. Meanwhile, Greek art, literature, and philosophy flowed into Rome, which in time absorbed Greek culture so thoroughly that the poet Horace later remarked that captive Greece had captured her rough conqueror.