Diolkos
In addition, the overland passage of the Isthmus, a neck of land 6.4 km (4.0 mi) wide at its narrowest, offered a much shorter route to Athens for ships sailing to and from the Ionian coast of Greece.
[8] Excavated letters and associated pottery found at the site indicate a construction date at the end of the 7th or beginning of the 6th century BC, that is around the time when Periander was tyrant of Corinth.
Greek historians note several occasions from the 5th to the 1st century BC when warships were hauled and pulled across the Isthmus in order to speed up naval campaigning.
[18] After his victory at Actium in 31 BC, Octavian advanced as fast as possible against Marc Antony by ordering part of his 260 Liburnians to be carried over the Isthmus.
[19] In 868 AD, the Byzantine admiral Niketas Oryphas had his whole fleet of one hundred dromons dragged across the Isthmus in a quickly executed operation,[20] but this took place most likely on a different route.
[22] Coinciding with the rise of monumental architecture in Greece, the construction of the Diolkos may have initially served particularly for transporting heavy goods like marble, monoliths and timber to points west and east.
[23] It is not known what tolls Corinth extracted from the Diolkos on its territory, but the fact that the trackway was used and maintained long after its construction indicates that it remained for merchant ships an attractive alternative to the trip around Cape Malea for much of antiquity.
[41] Assuming less load and rolling friction, Raepsaet, in contrast, calculates a maximum pulling force of 27 kN, which would have needed a slightly smaller towing crew.
While there is agreement that the grooves in the eastern part were cut deliberately into the stone slabs to guide cart wheels,[44] those in the western section are interpreted by some authors as a result of wear or do not appear at all.
[32] Generally, varying forms of the grooves can also be explained by the long period of operation of the Diolkos, during which modifications and repairs must have significantly changed the appearance of the trackway.
[48] In 1913, James George Frazer reported in his commentary on Pausanias on traces of an ancient trackway across the Isthmus,[49] while parts of the western quay were discovered by Harold North Fowler in 1932.
[27] Even though Verdelis' excavation reports continue to provide the basis for modern interpretations, his premature death prevented full publication, leaving many open questions concerning the exact nature of the structure.
[52][53] Today, erosion caused by ship movements on the nearby Canal has left considerable portions of the Diolkos in a poor state, particularly at its excavated western end.
The following ancient writers mention the transfer of ships across the Isthmus (in chronological order):[56] Apart from the Diolkos at Corinth, there is scant literary evidence for two more ship trackways by that name in antiquity, both in Roman Egypt: The physician Oribasius[57] (c. 320–400 AD) records two passages from his 1st century AD colleague Xenocrates, in which the latter casually refers to a diolkos close to the harbor of Alexandria which may have been located at the southern tip of the island of Pharos.
[58] Another diolkos is mentioned by Ptolemy (90–168 AD) in his book on geography (IV, 5, 10) as connecting a false mouth of a partly silted up Nile branch with the Mediterranean Sea.
