hisonaccia, but, in
general, lack of means of communication as well as of capital are a
barrier to commercial activity. In 1905 imports reached a value of
L113,000. The chief were tobacco furniture and wooden goods, wine,
cereals, coal, cheese and bran. Exports were valued at L336,000, and
included chestnut-extract, charcoal, timber, citrons and other fruits,
seeds, casks, skins, chestnuts and tanning bark.

Corsica is divided into five arrondissements (chief towns--Ajaccio,
Bastia, Calvi, Corte and Sartene), with 62 cantons and 364 communes. It
forms part of the _academie_ (educational circumscription) and
archiepiscopal province of Aix (Bouches-du-Rhone) and of the region of
the XV. army corps. The principal towns are Ajaccio, the capital and the
seat of the bishop of the island and of the prefect; Bastia, the seat of
the court of appeal and of the military commander; Calvi, Corte and
Bonifacio. Other places of interest are St Florent, near which stand the
ruins of the cathedral (12th century) of the vanished town of Nebbio;
Murato, which has a church (12th or 13th century) of Pisan architecture,
which is exemplified in other Corsican churches; and Cargese, where
there is a Greek colony, dating from the 17th century. Near Lucciana are
the ruins of a fine Romanesque church called La Canonica. Megalithic
monuments are numerous, chief among them being the dolmen of Fontanaccia
in the arrondissement of Sartene.

_History._--The earliest inhabitants of Corsica were probably Ligurian.
The Phocaeans of Ionia were the first civilized people to establish
settlements there. About 560 B.C. they landed in the island and founded
the town of Alalia. By the end of the 6th century, however, their power
had dwindled before that of the Etruscans, who were in their turn driven
out by the Carthaginians. The latter were followed by the Romans, who
gained a footing in the island at the time of the First Punic War, but
did not establish themselves there till the middle of the 2nd century
B.C. Both Marius and Sulla founded colonies--the one at Mariana (near
Lucciana) in 104, the second at Aleria in 88. In the early centuries of
the Christian era Corsica formed one of the senatorial provinces of the
Empire, but though it was in continuous commercial communication with
Italy, it was better known as a place of banishment for political
offenders. One of the most distinguished of those was the younger
Seneca, who spent in exile there the eight y