The Diolkos of Corinth

David K. Pettegrew
American Journal of Archaeology
Vol. 115, No. 4 (October 2011), pp. 549-574
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
DOI: 10.3764/aja.115.4.0549
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3764/aja.115.4.0549
Page Count: 26

Since the mid 19th century, the paved portage road known as the diolkos has been central to interpreting the
historical fortune of the city of Corinth and the commercial facility of its isthmus. In this article, I reevaluate
the view that the diolkos made the isthmus a commercial thoroughfare by reconsidering the archaeological,
logistical, and textual evidence for the road and overland portaging. Each form of evidence problematizes the
notion of voluminous transshipment and suggests the road did not facilitate trade as a constant flow of ships
and cargoes across the isthmus. The diolkos was not principally a commercial thoroughfare for transporting
the goods of other states but facilitated the communication, transport, travel, and strategic ends of Corinth
and her allies. The commercial properties of the Isthmus of Corinth subsist in its emporion for exchange, not
in a road used for transshipment.

The diolkos as Strabo saw it from

Acrocorinth.