Corseae

[2] It appears from Pliny the Elder that this town was distinct from Corseia, also in the western part of Boeotia, and that it was distinguished from the other by the name of Thebae Corsicae,[3] that is the Corseae near or belonging to Thebes.

As to toponymy, it has been suggested that Demosthenes referred to Corseia (Κορσεία) in his speech On the False Embassy, a town located in the northwest of the region, bordering on Ozolian Locris;[4][5] but in spite of the fact that the Athenian orator mentions Orchomenus, Coroneia and Tilphossaeum bordering on Κορσεία, the citations of Harpocration,[6] the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax,[2] and Stephanus of Byzantium,[1] have led the modern historiographers to seriously consider its location in southern Boeotia, hypothesized further by an inscription of Delphi containing a list of theorodokoi of Corseia from c. 230-210 BCE.

[7][8] Consequently, P. Roesch and other historians argue that the strategy of the Phocians to dominate the Boeotian coast through the fortification or occupation of cities during the Third Sacred War - a campaign reported by Diodorus Siculus[9] and by Demosthenes[4] - would not make sense to involve Corseia, a northern town far from the sea, since it did not meet the geographical and historical conditions referred to in the mentioned texts.

[11] They argue that the craggy territory of Corseae made access difficult from neighboring towns and from Phocis, and they infer from passages of Xenophon,[12] Pausanias,[13] and Diodorus Siculus,[14] that if in 371 BCE, the Spartan King Cleombrotus I was forced to return to Sparta from Phocis, marching through southern Boeotia, instead of crossing through Coroneia, it was because the Phocians controlled that city that dominated the central Boeotian route;[15] so they did not need to own corsairs, because from Corseia they not only enjoyed an extraordinary place to monitor the Locrian coast, but also because from there they could prevent a joint Locrian-Boeotian expedition against Orchomenus.

The demonym Corsieus (κορσιεύς) is recorded in a treaty signed with its neighbor Thisbae at the beginning of the 2nd century BCE[19] and in an internal decree of proxenia.