City · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Corinth

Medieval Corinth stands on the site of the ancient city, below the mountain citadel of Acrocorinth, not at the modern town on the gulf.

It has two harbours, Lechaion on the Gulf of Corinth and Kenchreai on the Saronic Gulf, and controls the Isthmus road between central Greece and the Peloponnese. It makes silk, and the Normans sacked it in 1147 together with Thebes. Benjamin of Tudela counted about 300 Jews here. Venetian merchants have traded toll-free at Corinth since the chrysobull of 1082.

Who holds it

Name
The emperor's officers (not pinned); the metropolitan of Corinth (not named) and the archontes
Title
Imperial town and seat of a horion under the praetor
Confidence
medium

Lord in 1200

Imperial, under the praetor and the officers of the horion of Corinth (not pinned). Leo Sgouros does not yet hold it: he takes Acrocorinth about 1201-1202. The metropolitan of Corinth (not named here) is a great figure in the town.

How things stand that morning

Imperial; quiet.

Charter

No town charter known.

Council

The archontes; no formal council known.

Communities

Greeks; about 300 Jews (Benjamin of Tudela, about 1165); Venetian merchants.

Militia

Not recorded.

Walls and castle

Acrocorinth, the strongest citadel of the Peloponnese, with springs inside; the lower town below.

Trade and crafts

Silk; transit trade across the Isthmus between its two harbours; oil, wine and currants of the Corinthia (currants not pinned for 1200).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. about 1201-1202 (later)Leo Sgouros seizes Acrocorinth and later has the metropolitan of Corinth blinded and thrown from the citadel.Depends on: The Thessalian revolt cutting off the south. Stopped by: A firm imperial garrison.

Places of note

  • Acrocorinth: Mountain citadel
  • Kenchreai, the Saronic harbour: Eastern port of Corinth

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Benjamin, Miller and the Venetian privileges; officers not named.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
  • History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
  • The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
  • The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
  • History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
  • The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.

Sources and studies

  1. Benjamin of Tudela, Itinerary (journey about 1165-1173), trans. M. N. Adler (1907), Project Gutenberg text
  2. W. Miller, The Latins in the Levant (1908), ch. 1 'Greece at the time of the Frankish conquest' (archive.org full text; old but uses Michael Choniates's letters)
  3. Acrocorinth (Wikipedia)
  4. Leo Sgouros (Wikipedia, citing Brand 1968, Magdalino, Fine, Kazhdan's ODB)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.