ugh it only resisted Caesar's attack for a week (49 B.C.).
Whether the Via Valeria ran as far as Corfinium before the time of
Claudius is uncertain: he, however, certainly extended it to the
Adriatic, and at the same time constructed a cross road, the Via Claudia
Nova, which diverged from the Via Claudia Valeria at a point 6 m.
farther north, and led past Peltuinum and Aveia to Foruli on the Via
Salaria. Another road ran S.S.E. past Sulmo to Aesernia. It was thus an
important road centre, and must have been, in the imperial period, a
town of some size, as may be gathered from the inscriptions that have
been discovered there, and from the extent rather than the importance of
the buildings visible on the site (among them may be noted the remains
of two aqueducts), which has, however, never been systematically
excavated. Short accounts of discoveries will be found in _Notizie degli
Scavi_, _passim_, and a museum, consisting chiefly of the contents of
tombs, has been formed at Pentima. In one corner of a large enclosed
space (possibly a _palaestra_) was constructed the church of S. Pelino.
The present building dates from the 13th century, though its origin may
be traced to the end of the 5th when it was the cathedral of the see of
Valva, which appears to have been the name of Corfinium at the close of
the Roman period. (T. AS.)

CORFU (anc. and mod. Gr. [Greek: Kerkyra] or [Greek: Korkyra], Lat.
_Corcyra_), an island of Greece, in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of
Albania or Epirus, from which it is separated by a strait varying in
breadth from less than 2 to about 15 m. The name Corfu is an Italian
corruption of the Byzantine [Greek: Korypho], which is derived from the
Greek [Greek: Koryphai] (crests). In shape it is not unlike the sickle
(_drepan[=e]_), to which it was compared by the ancients,--the hollow
side, with the town and harbour of Corfu in the centre, being turned
towards the Albanian coast. Its extreme length is about 40 m. and its
greatest breadth about 20. The area is estimated at 227 sq. m., and the
population in 1907 was 99,571, of whom 28,254 were in the town and
suburbs of Corfu. Two high and well-defined ranges divide the island
into three districts, of which the northern is mountainous, the central
undulating and the southern low-lying. The most important of the two
ranges is that of San Salvador, probably the ancient Istone, which
stretches east and west from Cape St Angelo to Cape St Stefano,