attack from several sides; after a vain siege by Cassander it was
occupied in turn by Agathocles and Pyrrhus. It subsequently fell into
the hands of Illyrian corsairs, until in 229 it was delivered by the
Romans, who retained it as a naval station and gave it the rank of a
free state. In 31 B.C. it served Octavian (Augustus) as a base against
Antony.

Eclipsed by the foundation of Nicopolis, Corcyra for a long time passed
out of notice. With the rise of the Norman kingdom in Sicily and the
Italian naval powers, it again became a frequent object of attack. In
1081-1085 it was held by Robert Guiscard, in 1147-1154 by Roger II. of
Sicily. During the break-up of the Later Roman Empire it was occupied by
Genoese privateers (1197-1207) who in turn were expelled by the
Venetians. In 1214-1259 it passed to the Greek despots of Epirus, and in
1267 became a possession of the Neapolitan house of Anjou. Under the
latter's weak rule the island suffered considerably from the inroads of
various adventurers; hence in 1386 it placed itself under the protection
of Venice, which in 1401 acquired formal sovereignty over it. Corcyra
remained in Venetian hands till 1797, though several times assailed by
Turkish armaments and subjected to two notable sieges in 1536 and
1716-1718, in which the great natural strength of the city again
asserted itself. The Venetian feudal families pursued a mild but
somewhat enervating policy towards the natives, who began to merge their
nationality in that of the Latins and adopted for the island the new
name of Corfu. The Corfiotes were encouraged to enrich themselves by the
cultivation of the olive, but were debarred from entering into
commercial competition with Venice. The island served as a refuge for
Greek scholars, and in 1732 became the home of the first academy of
modern Greece, but no serious impulse to Greek thought came from this
quarter.

By the treaty of Campo Formio Corfu was ceded to the French, who
occupied it for two years, until they were expelled by a Russo-Turkish
armament (1799). For a short time it became the capital of a
self-governing federation of the Hephtanesos ("Seven Islands"); in 1807
its faction-ridden government was again replaced by a French
administration, and in 1809 it was vainly besieged by a British fleet.
When, by the treaty of Paris of November 5, 1815, the Ionian Islands
were placed under the protectorate of Great Britain, Corfu became the
seat of the British high com