The history of Corsica in ancient times was characterised by contests for control of the island among various foreign powers. The successors of the Neolithic cultures of the island were able to maintain their distinctive traditions even into Roman times, despite the successive interventions of Etruscans, Carthaginians or Phoenicians, and Greeks. A long period of Roman rule was followed by renewed conflict for control of the island by the Vandals, Byzantines and Saracens.
Geography and etymology In Roman times the sea surrounding Corsica on the north and west was called the Mare Ligusticum, that to the east was the Mare Tyrrhenum and the strait separating the island from Sardinia to the south was the Fretum Gallicum. The location of the island between the Italian mainland to the east, the Gallic mainland to the north, and Sardinia to the south, made Corsica an important strategic point for control of the western Mediterranean Sea. Additionally, the island was a significant hub of Mediterranean trade. Corsica was described by TheophrastusHistoria plantarum 5.8 as thickly wooded and mountainous. Only the flat, coastal area was suitable for agriculture - especially the space around Aleria on the east coast - the island mainly produced timber and raw materials like copper, iron ore, silver, lead, pitch, wax, and honey. Excepting these products, the island was considered pretty poor, the climate was unhealthy and malarial, especially in summer, and generally rough and uncomfortable.Bechert: Die Provinzen des römischen Reiches, pp. 61f.
The island was known in Ancient Greek as Kyrnos (Κύρνος) and in Latin as Cyrnus or Corsica. Kyrnos may be derived from a local, Corsican toponym. Scholarship is divided on an origin from a pre-Roman Corsican language word, kors-, meaning 'treetop' according to Eustathius, or rather *krs- (head). The Romans would have added the suffix -ica to this term, while the Greeks added -nos. Another possibility is that the name derives from the Phoenician term Korsai, meaning 'wooded'.Gerhard Radke, "Corsica," Der Kleine Pauly, Vol. 1 (1964), col. 1324.
Early settlement
Settlement of Corsica is attested as far back as the 8th millennium BC. The original inhabitants of Corsica were hunter-gatherers from :Liguria, who walked to the island over a land bridge created by the modern islands of Elba and Capraia. Around 6000 BC, they were replaced by the Neolithic Cardium pottery culture. As a result of the Würm glaciation the sea level was about 100 metres lower and the island extended closer to the mainland. Until around 5000 BC, it was connected to Sardinia. In the south of the island, a multiphase megalith culture (Filitosa) developed around 3000 BC. Contacts with Sardinia, Etruria, and Liguria are archaeologically attested in the Neolithic period. Terrina, near Aleria is the key site for the Chalcolithic in Corsica. At this time (around 1600 BC), the Torrean civilization developed on the island, leaving behind numerous dolmens, menhirs, and statue menhirs. As in the inner Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and Malta, the megalith culture continued to dominate the island at this time, even as the rest of Europe was already leaving the stone age.Richard Pittioni, Propyläen Weltgeschichte, Vol. 1, p. 275. In the Bronze Age, fixed settlements appear on Corsica, as well as round stone towers, known as torri. The main cultural contacts were with Sardinia and the Italian mainland. Despite these contacts, the development of the island in the Iron Age did not lead to urbanisation. The first settlements developed on the island only in the 9th century BC (Capula, Cuccuruzzu, Modria, and Araguina-Sennola at Bonifacio).
According to Diodorus, the inhabitants of island mostly lived as pastoralists. The interior of the island was able to maintain its independence more or less until Roman times.Kulturgeschichte der Antike. Vol. 2: Rom, Berlin 1982.
Greeks, Etruscans and Carthaginians (565-260 BC) Large-scale urbanisation began only with the settlement of Carthaginians around 565 BC. Herodotus lists the Corsicans among the soldiers of the Carthaginians.Histories 7.165. Around 545 BC, Greeks from PhocaeaThey were also attributed with the foundation of Massillia, Emporion, Nikaia, Athenopolis and Antipolis. founded a city called Alalia (modern Aleria), having fled there following the siege of their home city by the Persians under Harpagus. Even before this, Greeks had probably settled on the island in trading communities, perhaps even colonies, which the Etruscans did not appreciate, so near to their own territories. The Phocaeans were not just traders, but pirates; they disrupted the trade and degraded the economic power of the Etruscans and Carthaginians in southern Gaul, Sardinia and Etruria as a result of their raids, going so far as to attack the Italian mainland. As a result, both of the major powers in the western Mediterranean, the Carthaginians, and the Etruscans under the leadership of Caere, saw the Phocaeans as a threat to their hegemony and went to war against them. In 530 BC, the Phoenicians led their allies in a rapid attack.See Der Neue Pauly. – in earlier literature, it is always described as a battle between Greeks and Carthaginians/Etruscans. 540 BC (Wolfgang Schuller, Griechische Geschichte, p. 14) and 535 BC (Propyläen Weltgeschichte. Vol. 3, S. 678.) are both given as the year of the battle. Different accounts are given of the outcome of battle. Jochen Bleicken (Propyläen Weltgeschichte. vol. 4, p. 45.) speaks of a devastating victory of a Carthaginian-Etruscan coalition, but others report that the Greeks barely scraped a victory but their city was so badly damaged that they had to abandon it (Hermann Bengtson, Römische Geschichte. München 1973, p. 17.). Alfred Heuss (Propyläen Weltgeschichte. Vol 3, p. 201) speaks of 'an unclear result.' Their victory in the Battle of Alalia meant that the Greeks had to abandon their city and re-settle in the Campanian city of Elea, founded around 540 BC. Sardinia was incorporated firmly into the Carthaginian sphere and Corsica went to the Etruscans. The Greek colonisation of the western Mediterranean ground to a complete halt with the defeat. Diodorus states that the native inhabitants of Corsica had to give the Etruscans tribute of pitch, wax, and honey.Diodoros 5.13.4 & 11.88.5.
At the beginning of the 6th century BC, Alalia had become an Etruscan settlement. Velthus Spurinna probably sent a military expedition there under the leadership of the Tarquinians. At the beginning of the 4th century, it was attacked by Greeks for the last time, commanded by the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse.Alfred Heuss, Propyläen Weltgeschichte. Vol. 3, p. 387. For a short time, troops were stationed at the southern end of the island, possibly at Porto Vecchio.Bengtson: Römische Geschichte, p. 39.
The Romans were also interested in Corsica even at this early stage. A first attempt to found a Roman colony on the island in 425 BC was a failure.Theophrastus: Historia Plantarum. 5.8.2 and an inscription of a 'Claudius' (Klautie) on an Attic kylix of around 425 BC found in a grave at Casabiada. In 296 BC, the island was used by the Romans as a place of exile for Galerius Torquatus.Theophilos I. FGrH.
Roman Republic (259 - 27 BC)
The Roman conquest of Corsica began in 259 BC, when Lucius Cornelius Scipio captured Aleria (Greek 'Alalia') and several Corsican tribes, in the course of the First Punic War. The Roman invasion of the island marked the expansion of the war beyond Sicily to the entire western Mediterranean. In the subsequent peace treaty in 241 BC between the Romans and the defeated Carthaginians, there was no indication that Corsica or Sardinia would pass into the Roman sphere of influence. But, since the Carthaginians were occupied with the Mercenary War, they had no ability to defend them, even when the unrest spread to the nominally Carthaginian island of Sardinia. In the end, the Romans retained both islands. It is not entirely clear whether this control began in 241 BC, but it is certain that the consul for 238/7, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, expanded their dominion over both Corsica and Sardinia, at least in theory.
Both islands were treated as a single military region and were administered by a military government. A rebellion in 231 BC was defeated by Gaius Papirius Maso, for which he received the first triumph in monte Albano.Valerius Maximus 3.6.5 – since the Senate refused him his triumph, he celebrated one more or less independently on Mons Albanus. In 227 BC, the two islands became the province of Sardinia et Corsica. Control of the two islands functioned as a kind of buffer zone, protecting the Italian mainland from attacks from the west. Sardinia et Corsica was one of the first two provinces, along with Sicilia, to be founded by the Romans, signifying the final stage in Rome's transformation from a city state to a territorial empire. Unlike with their acquisitions in Italy, the Romans did not bring Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily into their alliance system. Instead, they established a governor, with civil and military responsibilities and the rank of praetor. For the management of the two new provinces, two new praetorships were created, which had not existed previously and the system for the expansion of the empire was established. Originally, this was a military administration for when there was conflict on the island only, but the administration simultaneously gained control of civil government as well and became a permanent fixture. The administration of the province was based in the Sardinian city of Cagliari and the first governor was Marcus Valerius Laevinus. The establishment of the province was contrary to the wishes of the local inhabitants, who had maintained their independence up to this time from both Greeks and Carthaginians.Bechert: Die Provinzen des römischen Reiches, p. 61. In the following decades, there were multiple rebellions and the conquest of the interior of the island claimed much Roman time and energy. The first colonia, Colonia Mariana, was founded by Gaius Marius around 104 BC and further coloniae followed in the course of the 1st century BC. Marius founded his colonia in the northeast of the island, in the land of the Vanacini tribe. Between December 82 and 1 January 80 BC, Sulla also settled colonists on the island, at Aleria, which he named Colonia Veneria Alaria.
During the Civil War, the island initially belonged to the sphere of Pompey, but was subsequently taken by Julius Caesar. Between 40 and 38 BC, Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey, and his legate Menas occupied the island and terrorised Sardinia, Sicily and even the Italian mainland with a great pirate fleet. Along with the three Triumvirs, Sextus Pompey was one of the four most significant contenders in the warfare after Julius Caesar's death. His fleet largely consisted of thousands of slaves and he also held many strongholds on Corsica. With it, he seriously threatened the Roman grain supply, such that Octavian had to make peace with Sextus Pompey since it was not possible to beat him at the time. In the Pact of Misenum (39 BC), Sextus Pompey was assigned the three islands and Achaia, in return for ending the blockade of the mainland and remaining neutral in the conflict between Octavian and Marc Antony. But Octavian was not satisfied with the area assigned to him and initiated a betrayal which insured that Corsica and Sardinia came into his hands. The conflict erupted anew in 38 BC and Pompey again blockaded the Italian mainland, leading to famine. Later in the same year, Octavian gathered a fleet so powerful that he was able to defeat Sextus Pompey and became ruler of the area again. Corsica remained a private possession of Octavian until the reorganisation of the provinces in 27 BC.