ortifications of the town, being so extensive as to
require a force of from 10,000 to 20,000 troops to man them, were in
great part thrown down by the English, and a simpler plan adopted,
limiting the defences to the island of Vido and the old citadel; these
are now dismantled.

_History._--According to the local tradition Corcyra was the Homeric
island of Scheria, and its earliest inhabitants the Phaeacians. At a
date no doubt previous to the foundation of Syracuse it was peopled by
settlers from Corinth, but it appears to have previously received a
stream of emigrants from Eretria. The splendid commercial position of
Corcyra on the highway between Greece and the West favoured its rapid
growth, and, influenced perhaps by the presence of non-Corinthian
settlers, its people, quite contrary to the usual practice of Corinthian
colonies, maintained an independent and even hostile attitude towards
the mother city. This opposition came to a head in the early part of the
7th century, when their fleets fought the first naval battle recorded in
Greek history (about 664 B.C.). These hostilities ended in the conquest
of Corcyra by the Corinthian tyrant Periander (c. 600), who induced his
new subjects to join in the colonization of Apollonia and Anactorium.
The island soon regained its independence and henceforth devoted itself
to a purely mercantile policy. During the Persian invasion of 480 it
manned the second largest Greek fleet (60 ships), but took no active
part in the war. In 435 it was again involved in a quarrel with Corinth
and sought assistance from Athens. This new alliance was one of the
chief immediate causes of the Peloponnesian War (q.v.), in which Corcyra
was of considerable use to the Athenians as a naval station, but did not
render much assistance with its fleet. The island was nearly lost to
Athens by two attempts of the oligarchic faction to effect a revolution;
on each occasion the popular party ultimately won the day and took a
most bloody revenge on its opponents (427 and 425). During the Sicilian
campaigns of Athens Corcyra served as a base for supplies; after a third
abortive rising of the oligarchs in 410 it practically withdrew from the
war. In 375 it again joined the Athenian alliance; two years later it
was besieged by a Lacedaemonian armament, but in spite of the
devastation of its flourishing countryside held out successfully until
relief was at hand. In the Hellenistic period Corcyra was exposed to