Corsia, a town of Bœotia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 24.
Corsīca, a mountainous island in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Italy. Its inhabitants were savage, and bore the character of robbers, liars, and atheists, according to Seneca, who was exiled among them. They lived to a great age, and fed on honey, which was produced in great abundance, though bitter in taste, from the number of yew trees and hemlock which grew there. Corsica was in the possession of the Carthaginians, and was conquered by the Romans, B.C. 231. The Greeks called it Cyrnos. In the age of Pliny it was considered as in a flourishing state, as it contained no less than 33 towns, a number far exceeding its present population.—Strabo.—Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 27.—Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 6; bk. 7, ch. 2.—Ovid, Amores, bk. 1, poem 12, li. 10.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 9, li. 30.
Corsote, a town of Armenia.
Corsūra, an island in the bay of Carthage.
Cortōna, an ancient town of Etruria, called Corytum by Virgil. It was at the north of the Thrasymene lake. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, chs. 20 & 26.—Livy, bk. 9, ch. 37; bk. 22, ch. 4.
Corvīnus, a name given to Marcus Valerius from a crow, which assisted him when he was fighting against a Gaul.——An orator. Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 36.——Messala, an eloquent orator, in the Augustan age, distinguished for integrity and patriotism, yet ridiculed for his frequent quotations of Greek in his orations. In his old age he became so forgetful as not even to remember his own name.——One of this family became so poor, that he was obliged, to maintain himself, to be a mercenary shepherd. Juvenal, satire 1, li. 108.
Tiberius Coruncānius, the first plebeian who was made high priest at Rome.——The family of the Coruncanii was famous for the number of great men which it supplied for the service and honour of the Roman republic. Cicero, On his House.
Corus, a river of Arabia, falling into the Red sea. Herodotus, bk. 3, ch. 9.
Corybantes, the priests of Cybele, called also Galli. In the celebration of their festivals, they beat their cymbals, and behaved as if delirious. They first inhabited on mount Ida, and from thence passed into Crete, and [♦]secretly brought up Jupiter. Some suppose that they received their name from Corybas son of Jasus and Cybele, who first introduced the rites of his mother into Phrygia. There was a festival at Cnossus in Crete called Corybantica, in commemoration of the Corybantes, who there educated Jupiter. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 37.—Diodorus, bk. 5.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 16.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 617; bk. 10, li. 250.
[♦] ‘secretely’ replaced with ‘secretly’