After these things,.... The Arabic version renders it, "after these words, or discourses"; after the apostle's disputation with the philosophers, and his sermon in the Areopagus, the effects of which are before related:Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; the metropolis of Achaia, or Peloponnesus.
The city was formerly called Ephyra, from Ephyra , the daughter of Oceanus, and had its name of Corinth from Corinthus, the son of Maratho, who repaired it when destroyed; or, as others say, from Corinthus the son of Pelops, others of Orestes, and others of Jupiter: though more probably it was so called from the multitudes of whores in this place, as if it waskorai enya, "corai entha, here are girls, or whores"; for in the temple of Venus there were no less than a thousand whores provided, to be prostituted to all comers thither; See Gill on "2Co 12:21".
It was situated between two great seas, the Aegean and Ionean; hence Horace calls it Bimaris: it had a very strong tower, built on a high mount, called Acrocorinthus, from whence these two seas might be seen, and where was the fountain Pirene, sacred to the Muses: the city was about sixty furlongs, or seven miles and a half, from the shore : it was a city that abounded in riches and luxury.
Florus calls it the head of Achaia, and the glory of Greece; and Cicero , the light of all Greece: it was in time so much enlarged, and became so famous, that it was little inferior to Rome itself, on which account it grew proud and haughty; and using the Roman ambassadors with some degree of insolence, who were sent into Greece, on some certain occasion, first Metellus, and then Mummius, were sent against it, which latter took it, and burnt it; and the city then abounding with images and statues of gold, silver, and brass, were melted down together in the fire, and made what was afterwards called the Corinthian brass, which became so famous, and is often spoken of in history : but Julius Caesar, moved with the commodious situation of the place, rebuilt it , and it became a colony of the Romans, as Pliny and Mela both call it: and so it was at this time when the apostle was there.
After this it came into the hands of the Venetians, from whom it was taken by Mahomet, the second son of Amurath, in the year 1458 ; but is now again in the hands of the Venetians; and that and the country about it are called the Morea.
And as the Gospel was to be preached to the worst of sinners, among whom God's chosen ones lay, the apostle was directed to come hither; and it appears by the sequel, that God had much people here, even more than at Athens, among the wise and learned.
Vellei Patercull Hist. Rom. l. 1. Pausanias, Corinthiaca, sive l. 2. p. 85. Carmin. l. 1. Ode 7. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 4. c. 4. Hist. Rom. l. 2. c. 16. Pro Lege Manilia Orat. 13. p. 636. Florus, ib. Pausauias, Corinthiaca, sive l.
2. p. 85, 89. Nat. Hist. l. 4. c. 4. De Situ Orbis, l. 2. c. 10. Petav. Rationar. Temp. par. 1. p.