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Bronze Age relics have been found in various areas of Thrace including Çorlu and by 1000 BC the area was a Phrygian-Greek colony. The area was subsequently controlled by the Greeks, Persians, Romans and Byzantines.
During Roman and Byzantine times, the town was referred to as Tzouroulos, or Syrallo, and later became Tiroloi (Τυρολόη). The spelling Zorolus is used for the Latinised form of the name of the episcopal see identified with present-day Çorlu in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees. Some writers have identified the Roman town of Caenophrurium (the stronghold of the Caeni and the place where Emperor Aurelian was murdered in 275) with Çorlu, but this seems unlikely as the Antonine Itinerary lists Cenofrurium as two stages and 36 Roman miles (53 kilometre) closer to Byzantium than Tzirallum, and the Tabula Peutingeriana shows the locations separately. There were important Roman and Byzantine fortifications at Caenophrurium, which was a base for controlling large areas of Thrace.
Ottoman era onwards[edit]
Following a tumultuous early history, Çorlu was brought under Ottoman control by Sultan Murad I, who immediately ordered the destruction of the Roman walls as part of a policy of opening up the town under the Pax Ottomana. In the Ottoman period, the town remained an important staging post on the road from Constantinople to Greece.
The nearby village of Uğraşdere was the site of the battle in which Sultan Beyazid II defeated his son Selim I in August 1511; a year later Beyazid II was defeated by Selim, becoming the first Ottoman father to be overthrown by his son. Beyazid II died in Çorlu on his way to exile in Dimetoka. Coincidentally, Selim himself died in Çorlu nine years into his reign. Both father and son are buried in Istanbul.
In the late 18th century, when the Ottoman Empire began to decline in both military and economic power, the city found itself at the crossroads of numerous conflicts. Turkish refugees were settled in the city when the Ottomans lost control of Crimea to the Russians. The grandchildren of these refugees met the Russians themselves when Çorlu was briefly occupied by Russian troops during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. During the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Çorlu served as the command post for the Ottoman army, but was taken by Bulgarian troops in December 1912.; it was recaptured by Turkish forces during the Second Balkan War in July 1913. Çorlu was then occupied by Greek troops from 1920 to 1922 during the Turkish War of Independence, but was eventually ceded by Britain in accordance with the armistice of Mudanya. The Greeks of Çorlu (Tiroloi) then resettled in Ptolemaida after the population exchange.
The city became a part of the Republic of Turkey following its foundation in 1923. It continues to be an important garrison for the Turkish army as the home of the 189th Infantry Regiment. At the 2013 Turkish local government reorganisation part of the district of Çorlu was detached to form the new district Ergene.
