Thucydides gives a frightful account of a sedition which occurred in this city and island during the Peloponnesian war: some were condemned to die under judicial sentences; some slew one another in the temples; some hung themselves upon the trees within its verge; some perished through private enmity; some for the sums they had lent, by the hands of the borrowers. Every kind of death was exhibited. Every dreadful act, usual in a sedition, and more than usual, was then perpetrated. For fathers slew their children; some were dragged from altars; and some were butchered at them; and a number died of starvation in one of the temples. Corcyra, when in the possession of the Romans, became a valuable station for their ships of war, in their hostilities against the cities of Asia. Septimius Severus and his family appear to have been great benefactors to it; for, about 150 years ago, there was found a number of medals, not only of Septimius, but of his wife Julia Domna; Caracalla, his eldest son, and his wife Plankilla; also of Geta, his youngest son. Two hundred years ago, Corfu consisted of nothing but one old castle and a village. It is now a considerable town. It stands projecting on a rock into the sea; and, from the fortifications guarding it, is a place of strength. The fortresses are completely mined below; and the roads to the gates of some of them are narrow and precipitous. By an accidental explosion of a powder-mill, one of the fortresses, in the early part of the last century, 2000 people were killed and wounded; and by a singular catastrophe, in 1789, 600 individuals lost their lives; ten galleys and several boats were sunk in the harbour; and many houses in the town greatly damaged. Wheler visited the ruins of Paloeopoli, the ancient metropolis of the island. "It stood," says he, "on a promontory to the south of the present city, separated from it by a little bay, of about a mile or two over. The abundance of ruins and fortifications, which are to be seen there, do sufficiently prove it to have been so." Abundance of foundations, he goes on to observe, have been dug up there; and of arches and pillars, many of which have been employed to build the foundations of the present city. There are also the remains of an old place of worship; the architecture of which is sustained by Corinthian columns of white marble, with an inscription, showing that it was built by the Emperor Jovian, after he was converted to the Christian faith and had destroyed the heathen temples. "_I Jovian, having received the faith, established the kingdom of my power; and having destroyed the heathen temples and altars, have built to thee, O thou blessed and most high King, a holy temple, the gift of an unworthy hand._"