History of ancient city Corcyra

Corcyra is a Greek Island in the Ionian Sea close to the west shore of Epirus province. It is now called Corfu; was first peopled by a colony for Colchis, 1349 BC and afterward by a colony from Corinth.

Corinth people with their chef Chersicrates, came to settle there, on being vanished for their native city 703 years before the Christian Era. Homer call them Phaeacians

Corcyra is said to have been first known by the name of Drepane, perhaps from its resemblance in shape to a scythe.

To this name succeeded that Scheria, always used by Homer and by which it was known in his time.

From the Odyssey, it was written that the island inhabited by Phaeacians, a people who, even at that early period, has acquired considerable skill in nautical affairs, and possessed extensive commercial relations, since they traded with the Phoenicians and also with Euboea and other countries.

Corcyra was established by Corinthians. It was one of the earliest Greek colonies, founded in 734 BC by settlers from Corinth.

Corcyra rapidly rose to be one of the first maritime powers in Greece. Corcyra’s naval station was one of the first to be constructed in the Mediterranean at the end of the archaic period and the beginning of the fifth century BC, in order to house a spectacular navy of c. 200 triremes.

Corcyra enjoyed local trade with the Illyrians, who supplied silver ore, timber, slaves, tin and wildflowers.
Unlike most Greek colonies, Corcyra rebelled violently against its mother city. Later the Corinthians compensated for a Corcyrean rebellion by creating new northwestern colonies, including Ambracia, Apollonia and Leucas (630-600 BC).

The city was occupied variously by Macedonians, Syracusans, Epirotes and Illyrians before passing to the empire of Rome in 229 BC, and serve many years as a Roman naval base.
History of ancient city Corcyra