1 Corinthians SeriesThe Melting Pot Introduction:  They thought that their armies would be strong enough because they had spend years preparing. The situation had been obvious too them. War was coming. They thought they could whether the storm, survive where others had failed. This city would be different. They would reclaim there lost freedom. They would rule themselves once again.They couldn’t have been more wrong. Around 150BC the city of Corinth rebelled against the Roman empire. They were sick of living under the rule of others. They wanted the right to rule themselves. So they declared war on Sparta, one of Romes allies. Well the Corinthians thought they could handle Rome, they were sadly mistaken. In 146BC  general Lucius Mummius (Moo-me-oozes) attacked the City of Corinth. Legions of Roman Centurions broke the city. Yet this was no simple capture. They didn’t want to retake Corinth, they wanted to make an example of it. So Lucius assaulted the city, captured it’s people, sold them into slavery, took anything he could find of value and burned the rest to the ground. The city was completely annihilated. In 76 BC The Roman Emperor Cicsero (Key-ka-row) visited the ruins, this is what he said, “the sudden sight of the ruins of Corinth had more effect on me than the actual inhabitants”. To see an entire city wiped away. In 44 BC, a hundred years after Corinth’s destruction, the new Emperor, Julius Cesear (U-lee-use Ki-Zar) decides to recreate the city. Raise it from the ash.This week we are going to do something a little different. We aren’t going to be looking at a Scripture. We aren’t going to dive too deep into theology. Instead we are going to look at the background of 1 Corinthians. My hope is that you’ll see how similar Corinth is to our own Country and perhaps our town. Section 1: The New BloodSo Julius Cesear, the new Roman Emperor decides to recreate the city of Corinth. This Old Greek city that tried and failed to rebel against the Empire. This seems like a strange decision, why rebuild a city that you purposefully burned to the ground. The location of Corinth had an extremely strategic value. It was a prize too great to pass up. Corinth is located by a narrow isthmus, the smallest part of Greece it separates two seas by only a space of six kilometers. Since the beginning of the empire, Emperors had dreamed of carving out a canal near Corinth. If you look at the history books you’ll see that emperors never stopped talking about this canal.  This would allow ships to travel unimpeded. While this canal was never finished during the Roman Empire they did manage to create a diolkos, a land canal. Ships were beached on one side and dragged by slaves the six kilometres to the other side. Well it wasn’t as effective as a water canal it did save weeks worth of travel and gave not only an economic advantage but also military one to whoever was in control. It allowed quick and safe travel from Italy into the Mediterranean sea. Cesear desperately wanted that advantage back because he was planning a war. He was attacking the Parthian Empire, which is modern day Iran. The canal of Corinth would make his campaign easier so rebuilding the city was a logical step. It would be called Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis (‘colony of Corinth in honour of Julius)So Cesear orders the city rebuilt. He fills it we veteran soldiers, skilled laberors and free Roman Citizens. All was ready for the war to come. But then, on the Ides of march in 44BC Julius Cesear is assassinated, murdered by the senate of Roman. The war is cancelled. History is a little fuzzy at this point. but this is my best guess.  since those loyal to Cesear had already been sent to Corinth, the senate just decided to leave them there. turn the war city into an economic city. It’s two birds with one stone. They keep those who are loyal to the dead emperor far away and get a new centre of commerce. So more people come to the c