The island of Corfu was inhabited in the Palaeolithic Era. At that period Corfu was a continuation of the mountain range of Pindos, was joined to the mainland of Greece and constituted a headland of Epirus. The human presence is also ascertained on the island at the Neolithic Period and the Bronze Age.

The great importance of the geographical position of Corfu, on the sea route to the shores of the Adriatic and Italy, caused, according to Diodorus Siculus, Strabo and Plutarch, the interest of the Eretrians (people from the island of Euboea) around 750 BC.

The Euboean city-state was overthrown in 734 BC by a group of Corinthians under the leadership of Chersicrates, of the aristocratic family of Bacchiadae, descendants of Hercules. The island was named Corkyra and the doric writing prevailed.

The new Corinthian colony, that was named Chersoupolis, was founded to the south of the present city, on the peninsula we know today as Palaeopolis. The new inhabitants brought from the metropolis their customs, worship and way of government. The favourable conditions for the autonomous development of the colony were obvious from the beginning and very soon Corfu was promoted to a big commercial and naval power of the Ancient Greek world. The city acquired powerful war-fleet and a colony of her own: Epidamnus on the coast of Illyria (current Durrazzo), successfully confronting Corinth in the trade, a fact that soon led the two cities to conflict.

Thucydides mentions that the oldest sea battle known to have been taken place between the Greeks occurred in 664 BC, between Corinth and Corfu, in which Corfu triumphed.

During this period, by the influence of Corinthian artists, great works of art were made, like the lioness on the cenotaph of Menecrates at Garitsa, the doric temple at Kardaki, and the temples of Hera and Artemis with the famous pediment of Gorgon. The pediment is exhibited in the archaeological museum of the city and is the oldest stone pediment that has been found until today.

The Gorgon pediment in the Archaeological Museum of Corfu.

After the death of the tyrant of Corinth Periandros (585 BC), Corcyra recovered its independence from the metropolis Corinth and gradually reached the acme of its prosperity. Already a naval power offered 60 triremes for the war against the Persians. Around this time circulated its first coins.

The alliance with Athens and the entanglement of Corfu in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), which bursts out on the occasion of the voluntary adhesion of the colony of Epidamnus to the Corinthian camp and the consequential civil war between the aristocrats and the democrats (backed by Corinth and Athens respectively), had, as a result, the gradual weakening of the island, its entanglement in serious war conflicts and the final collapse and decline.

Corfuin 229 BC, after several raids and suzerainties, was forced to ask the protection of the Romans and finally yielded to them, in order to protect itself from the Illyric pirates. Under the Roman sovereignty remained for the next five centuries (337 AD).

The Romans used the island as naval base for their expeditions in mainland Greece and the East. Nevertheless, in 31 BC, on the eve of the naval battle in Actium, Agrippa, an ally of Octavian, destroyed the city, to punish the Corcyreans for having sided with Mark Antony. A long period of decline began.

Later the Roman Emperors granted a number of privileges to Corcyra in acknowledgement of the assistance that the city offered to the roman fleet. The city maintained a relative autonomy with her own laws and currency. During this period many notable Romans bought land-properties and built luxurious villas in various parts of the island. Amongst the Romans that visited Corcyra was the notorious rhetor (speaker) and politician Cicero, the Emperors Vespasian, Antoninus Pius, Septimius Severus, and Nero, who, as tradition has it, sang before the altar of Zeus Cassius in Cassiope, (a city of great acme during this period).

The Romans attended to the water supply of the ancient city transporting water with vaulted aquaduct from the area of Katakalou. The most important event of this period is the Christianization of Corfu by two disciples of St. Paul, Jason and Sosipater, which occurred in the first half of the 1st century AD. Corcyra was one of the first Greek cities to convert to Christianity. One of the first martyrs on the island was the daughter of the Roman vice-consul, the young Kerkyra, later sanctified by the Christian Church. In the next two centuries Christianity prevailed on the island and the Church of Corcyra, already in acme, participated with her bishop, Apollodorus, in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea of Bethany in 325 AD.