Corinth was one of the most important cities of the Roman empire was situated by a narrow isthmus joining northern and southern Greece and had access to the sea through two ports. It was a centre of trade the whole of the Mediterranean Sea. In 146 B.C. the ancient Greek which had been there for centuries was burned to the ground by Romans in their wars of conquest. In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar establish Roman colony for ex-soldiers of the Roman army and had the rebuilt. From that time it had grown rapidly in size and importance.

In the time of Paul there were at least half a million people living Corinth and about two-thirds of them were slaves. As the city was capital of the Roman province of Achaia which included most of Greece, there was a strong Roman influence there. The system of government and law and the administrators were Roman, the official language was Latin, and Roman temples had been built there. Paul's Roman citizenship would have been respected in Corinth, and we know from Acts 18 that he stayed there for at least one and a half years.

A strong Greek tradition continued through the many Greeks who lived in the city, Greek remained the common language of the population, and the great temple of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, with its one thousand religious prostitutes, was famous. A tremendous number of slaves of many races had been brought to Corinth to work. Other people had been attracted to Corinth by its commercial prospects-Jews, Phoenicians, Syrians-and they had brought their religions with them. Sailors and traders of all nationalities moved in and out of Corinth. The population was very cosmopolitan.

In the life of the city there was luxury and extravagance amongst the rich but poverty and squalor amongst the poor and many of the slaves. Prostitution and every kind of sexual vice flourished, drunkenness was so common that it was hardly noticed, and there was a high crime rate. It is not an exaggeration to describe the city as a hot-bed of vice, despite its commercial prosperity. Religion in many forms was a dominating factor in the life of the city.

There was the kind of religion which is associated, in the Old Testament, with fertility cults and described as 'Baal' worship. Elements of the cult of the Phoenician goddess of fertility Astarte, had been taken into the worship of Aphrodite, and sexual intercourse with religious prostitutes was a marked feature of this. The Egyptian goddess Isis, was also known to be worshipped. There were also 'mystery' cults of Eastern origin, attracting initiates by their secrecy and promise of strange secret wisdom and power. In the midst of all kinds of religious manifestations, ranging from sacrifice offered to the family of the Roman emperor in the Roman temples, to religious prostitution and the secret rites of the 'mystery' sects, the Greek philosophers still argued about the meaning of life and death, and the Jewish community built its synagogue and held to its belief in the one God who had given his people the Law by which to live. Corinth was a very confusing place in which to live!

Aphrodite Isis Astarte

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