At these words all the spectators were filled with excessive joy. They gazed upon and questioned one another with astonishment, and could not believe either eyes or ears; so like a dream was what they saw and heard. But being at last assured of their happiness, they abandoned themselves again to the highest transports of joy, and broke out into such loud acclamations, that the sea resounded them to a distance; and some ravens, which happened to fly that instant over the assembly, fell down into the stadium; so true it is, that of all the blessings of this life, none are so dear as that of liberty! Corinth, nevertheless, remained after this in a ruined and desolate state many years. At length, Cæsar, after he had subdued Africa, and while his fleet lay at anchor at Utica, gave order for rebuilding Carthage; and soon after his return to Italy, he likewise caused Corinth to be rebuilt. Strabo and Plutarch agree in ascribing the rebuilding of Carthage and Corinth to Julius Cæsar; and Plutarch remarks this singular circumstance with regard to these cities, viz.--that as they were taken and destroyed in the same year, they were rebuilt and repeopled at the same time. Under the eastern emperors, Corinth was the see of an archbishop, subject to the patriarch of Constantinople. Roger, king of Naples, obtained possession of it under the empire of Emanuel. It had, afterwards, its own sovereign, who ceded it to the Venetians; from whom it was taken by Mahomet II., A.D. 1458. The Venetians retook it in 1687, and held it till the year 1715, when they lost it to the Turks, in whose possession it remained till, a few years since, Greece was erected into an independent state. The grand army of the Turks[202] (in 1715) under the prime vizier, to open themselves a way into the heart of the Morea, attacked Corinth, upon which they made several attacks. The garrison being weakened, and the governor, seeing it was impossible to hold out against a force so superior to their own, beat a parley; but while they were treating about the articles, one of the magazines in the Turkish camp, wherein they had 600 barrels of powder, blew up by accident, whereby between 600 and 700 men were killed; which so enraged the infidels, that they would not grant any capitulation, but stormed the place with so much fury that they took it, and put most of the garrison, with the governor, Signior Minotti, to the sword. The rest they made prisoners of war. This subject formed the foundation of Lord Byron's poem of the Siege of Corinth. The natural consequences of an extensive commerce were wealth and luxury. Fostered in this manner, the city rose in magnificence and grandeur; and the elegant and magnificent temples, palaces, theatres, and other buildings, adorned with statues, columns, capitals, and bases, not only rendered it the pride of its inhabitants and the admiration of strangers, but gave rise to that order of architecture which still bears its name.