runs from Bastia to Ajaccio with branches to Calvi and Ghisonaccia,
but, in general, lack of means of communication as well
as of capital are a barrier to commercial activity. In 1905
imports reached a value of £113,000. The chief were tobacco
furniture and wooden goods, wine, cereals, coal, cheese and bran.
Exports were valued at £336,000, and included chestnut-extract,
charcoal, timber, citrons and other fruits, seeds, casks, skins,
chestnuts and tanning bark.
Corsica is divided into five arrondissements (chief towns—Ajaccio, Bastia, Calvi, Corte and Sartène), with 62 cantons and 364 communes. It forms part of the académie (educational circumscription) and archiepiscopal province of Aix (Bouches-du-Rhône) and of the region of the XV. army corps. The principal towns are Ajaccio, the capital and the seat of the bishop of the island and of the prefect; Bastia, the seat of the court of appeal and of the military commander; Calvi, Corte and Bonifacio. Other places of interest are St Florent, near which stand the ruins of the cathedral (12th century) of the vanished town of Nebbio; Murato, which has a church (12th or 13th century) of Pisan architecture, which is exemplified in other Corsican churches; and Cargese, where there is a Greek colony, dating from the 17th century. Near Lucciana are the ruins of a fine Romanesque church called La Canonica. Megalithic monuments are numerous, chief among them being the dolmen of Fontanaccia in the arrondissement of Sartène.
History.—The earliest inhabitants of Corsica were probably Ligurian. The Phocaeans of Ionia were the first civilized people to establish settlements there. About 560 B.C. they landed in the island and founded the town of Alalia. By the end of the 6th century, however, their power had dwindled before that of the Etruscans, who were in their turn driven out by the Carthaginians. The latter were followed by the Romans, who gained a footing in the island at the time of the First Punic War, but did not establish themselves there till the middle of the 2nd century B.C. Both Marius and Sulla founded colonies—the one at Mariana (near Lucciana) in 104, the second at Aleria in 88. In the early centuries of the Christian era Corsica formed one of the senatorial provinces of the Empire, but though it was in continuous commercial communication with Italy, it was better known as a place of banishment for political offenders. One of the most distinguished of those was the younger Seneca, who spent in exile there the eight years ending A.D. 49.
During the break-up of the Roman empire in the West the possession of Corsica was for a while disputed between the Vandals and the Gothic allies of the Roman emperors, until in 469 Genseric finally made himself master of the island. For 65 years the Vandals maintained their domination, the Corsican forests supplying the wood for the fleets with which they terrorized the Mediterranean. After the destruction of the Vandal power in Africa by Belisarius, his lieutenant Cyril conquered Corsica (534) which now, under the exarchate of Africa, became part of the East Roman empire. The succeeding period was one of great misery. Goths and Lombards in turn ravaged the island, which in spite of the prayers of Pope Gregory the Great the exarch of Africa did nothing to defend; the rule of the Byzantines was effective only in grinding excessive taxes out of the wretched population; and, to crown all, in 713 the Mussulmans from the northern coast of Africa made their first descent upon the island. Corsica remained nominally attached to the East Roman empire until Charlemagne, having overthrown the Lombard power in Italy (774), proceeded to the conquest of the island, which now passed into the hands of the Franks. In 806, however, occurred the first of a series of Moorish incursions from Spain. Several times defeated by the emperor’s lieutenants, the Moors continually returned, and in 810 gained temporary possession of the island. They were crushed and exterminated by an expedition under the emperor’s son Charles, but none the less returned again and again. In 828 the defence of Corsica was entrusted to Boniface II., count of the Tuscan march, who conducted a successful expedition against the African Mussulmans, and returning to Corsica built a fortress in the south of the island which formed the nucleus of the town (Bonifacio) that bears his name. Boniface’s war against the Saracens was continued by his son Adalbert, after he had been restored to his father’s dignities in 846; but, in spite of all efforts, the Mussulmans seem to have remained in possession of part of the island until about 930. Corsica, of which Berengar II., king of Italy, had made himself master, became in 962, after his dethronement by Otto the Great, a place of refuge for his son Adalbert, who succeeded in holding the island and in passing it on to his son, another Adalbert. This latter was, however, defeated by the forces of Otto II., and Corsica was once more attached to the marquisate of Tuscany, of which Adalbert was allowed to hold part of the island in fee.
The period of feudal anarchy now began, a general mellay of petty lords each eager to expand his domain. The counts of Cinarca, especially, said to be descended from Adalbert, aimed at establishing their supremacy over The Terra di Comune.the whole island. To counteract this and similar ambitions, in the 11th century, a sort of national diet was held, and Sambucuccio, lord of Alando, put himself at the head of a movement which resulted in confining the feudal lords to less than half of the island to the south, and in establishing in the rest, henceforth known as the Terra di Comune, a sort of republic composed of autonomous parishes. This system, which survived till the Revolution, is thus described by Jacobi (tom. i. p. 137), “Each parish or commune nominated a certain number of councillors who, under the name of ‘fathers of the commune,’ were charged with the administration of justice under the direction of a podestà, who was as it were their president. The podestas of each of the states or enfranchised districts chose a member of the supreme council charged with the making of laws and regulations for the Terra di Comune. This council or magistracy was called the Twelve, from the number of districts taking a share in its nomination. Finally, in each district the fathers of the commune elected a magistrate who, under the name of caporale, was entrusted with the defence of the interests of the poor and weak, with seeing that justice was done to them, and that they were not made the victims of the powerful and rich.”
Meanwhile the south remained under the sway of the counts of Cinarca, while in the north feudal barons maintained their independence in the promontory of Cape Corso. Internal feuds continued; William, marquis of Massa, of Papal sovereigntythe family known later as the Malaspina, was called in by the communes (1020), drove out the count of Cinarca, reduced the barons to order, and in harmony with the communes established a dominion which he was able to hand on to his son. Towards the end of the 11th century, however, the popes laid claim to the island in virtue of the donation of Charlemagne, though the Frankish conqueror had promised at most the reversion of the lands of the Church. The Corsican clergy supported the claim, and in 1077 the Corsicans declared themselves subjects of the Holy See in the presence of the apostolic legate Landolfo, bishop of Pisa. Pope Gregory VII. thereupon invested the bishop and his successors with the island, an investiture confirmed by Urban II. in 1190 and extended into a concession of the full sovereignty. The Pisans now took solemn possession of the island and their “grand judges” (judices) took the place of Rule of Pisa.the papal legates. Corsica, valued by the Pisans as by the Vandals as an inexhaustible storehouse of materials for their fleet, flourished exceedingly under the enlightened rule of the great commercial republic. Causes of dissension remained, however, abundant. The Corsican bishops repented their subjection to the Pisan archbishop; the Genoese intrigued at Rome to obtain a reversal of the papal gift to the rivals with whom they were disputing the supremacy of the seas. Successive popes followed conflicting policies in this respect; until in 1138 Innocent II., by way of compromise, divided the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the island between the archbishops of Pisa and Genoa. This gave the Genoese great influence in Corsica, and the contest between the Pisans and Genoese began to distract the island. It was not, however, till 1195 that the Genoese, by capturing Bonifacio—a nest of pirates preying on the
