Corcyra in the context of "Ardiaean Kingdom"

The Ardiaei were an Illyrian people who resided in the territory of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Croatia between the Adriatic coast on the south, Konjic on the north, along the Neretva river and its right bank on the west, and extending to Lake Shkodra to the southeast. From the 3rd century BC to 168 BC the capital cities of the Ardiaean State were Rhizon and Scodra.

The Ardiaean kingdom was transformed into a formidable power—both on land and sea—under the leadership of Agron of Illyria. During this time, Agron captured parts of Epirus, Corcyra, Epidamnos, and Pharos in succession, establishing garrisons there. The Ardiaean realm became one of Rome's major enemies, and the primary threat to it in the Adriatic Sea. A series of wars were fought between the Roman Republic and the Illyrian (Ardiaean-Labaeatan) kingdom in the 3rd–2nd centuries BC. Polybius (203 BC–120 BC) wrote that they were subdued by the Romans in 229 BC. The Epitome of Livy reports the Roman consul Fulvius Flaccus put down an uprising in 135 BC undertaken by Ardiaei and Pleraei in Roman Illyria.

Dyrrhachion (Latin: Dyrrhachium; Ancient Greek: Δυρράχιον), originally founded as Epidamnos (Ancient Greek: Ἐπίδαμνος, Albanian: Epidamn), was a prominent city on the Adriatic coast, located in the territory of the Illyrian Taulantii and corresponding to modern Durrës, Albania. Founded around 627 BC by settlers from Corinth and Corcyra (modern Corfu), the city developed into a major political, commercial, and military hub. While established as a Greek colony, Epidamnos stood within Taulantii territory and long remained entangled with Illyrian power, before becoming a key Roman and later Byzantine stronghold.

Agron (/ˈæɡrən, ˈæɡˌrɒn/; Ancient Greek: Ἄγρων) was an Illyrian king of the Ardiaean Kingdom in the 3rd century BC, ruling c. 250–231 BC. The son of Pleuratus II, Agron succeeded in reconquering southern Illyria, which had been under the control of Epirus since the time of Pyrrhus, and in extending Illyrian rule over many cities in the Adriatic region, including Corcyra, Epidamnos, and Pharos.

He is most famed for his decisive victory over the Aetolian League, a state in western Greece. Around 231 BC, Agron suddenly died after his triumph over the Aetolians. Pinnes, his son with his first wife Triteuta, officially succeeded his father as king in 231 BC, but the kingdom was ruled by Agron's second wife, Queen Teuta.

The naval Battle of Pylos took place in 425 BC during the Peloponnesian War at the peninsula of Pylos, on the present-day Bay of Navarino in Messenia, and was an Athenian victory over Sparta. An Athenian fleet had been driven ashore at Pylos by a storm, and, at the instigation of Demosthenes, the Athenian soldiers fortified the peninsula, and a small force was left there when the fleet departed again. The establishment of an Athenian garrison in Spartan territory frightened the Spartan leadership, and the Spartan army, which had been ravaging Attica under the command of Agis, ended their expedition (the expedition only lasted 15 days) and marched home, while the Spartan fleet at Corcyra sailed to Pylos.

Demosthenes had five triremes and their complements of soldiers as a garrison, and was reinforced by 40 hoplites from a Messenian ship that happened to stop at Pylos. In total, Demosthenes probably had about 600 men, only 90 of which were hoplites. He sent two of his triremes to intercept the Athenian fleet and inform Sophocles and Eurymedon of his danger. The Spartans, meanwhile, had 43 triremes and a large land army. Finding himself thus outnumbered, Demosthenes pulled his remaining three triremes up on land and armed their crews with whatever weapons were at hand. He placed the largest part of his force at the strongly fortified point facing the land. Demosthenes then hand-picked 60 hoplites and a few archers and brought them to the point where he anticipated the Spartans would launch their amphibious assault. Demosthenes expected that the Spartans would hit the south-west corner of the peninsula where the defensive wall was the weakest and the land was most suitable for a landing. The Spartans attacked where Demosthenes had expected, and the Athenians were faced with simultaneous assaults from land and sea. The Athenians held off the Spartans for a day and a half, however, causing the Spartans to cease their attempts to storm Pylos and instead settled in for a siege.

Agallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαλλίς; called Anagallis Ancient Greek: Ἀναγαλλίς by the Suda) of Corcyra was a female grammarian who wrote about Homer. She, or her father, was a student of Aristophanes of Byzantium.

According to Athenaeus, she argued that ball games were invented by Nausicaa. Two scholiasts on the Iliad quote an argument that the two cities that Homer describes on the Shield of Achilles represented Athens and Eleusis; one attributes this to "Agallias of Corcyra", the other to "Dalis of Corcyra". Some scholars believe that Agallias was Agallis' father; others that it is an error and Agallis was the source of this argument.