Megara (/ˈmɛɡərə/;Greek:Μέγαρα,pronounced[ˈmeɣaɾa]) is a historic town and a municipality inWest Attica,Greece. It lies in the northern section of theIsthmus of Corinth opposite the island ofSalamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken byAthens.[3][4] Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of KingPandion II, of whomNisos was the ruler of Megara. Megara was also a trade port, its people using their ships and wealth as a way to gain leverage on armies of neighboring poleis. Megara specialized in the exportation of wool and other animal products including livestock such as horses. It possessed two harbors,Pagae to the west on theCorinthian Gulf, andNisaea to the east on theSaronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea.
In the Late Bronze, Megara features prominently as a small kingdom in the myths and legends ofHomer. Megara emerged between two fortified ports, Nisaea on the Saronic Gulf and Pagae on the Gulf of Corinth, on two acropolises Karia and Alkathos. However, Megara at this point remains more mythical until it started expanding in Iron II.
In Greek mythology,Nisus was a King of Megara and son of kingPandion II of Athens, and gave his name to the port Nisaea. Pandion II had married Pylia, daughter of KingPylas of Megara. Pylas was the son of Cteson, son ofLelex. Megara was the capital inMegaris.
Archaeology. Megara is considered a Mycenaean fortified site. Myths suggests the seat of a petty king with a megaron. However, modern buildings obscure the remains and only some ruins have been found. Isolated blocks of Cyclopean walls were first found on the upper part of the hill by Fimmen and later by Field.[5] A palace here would command the costal plain and valley towards the north-east.[6]
According toPausanias, the Megarians said that their town owed its origin toCar, the son ofPhoroneus, who built the citadel called 'Caria' and the temples ofDemeter called Megara, from which the place derived its name.[7]
In historical times, Megara was an early dependency ofCorinth, in which capacity colonists from Megara foundedMegara Hyblaea, a smallpolis north ofSyracuse in Sicily. Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards foundedChalcedon in 685 BC, as well asByzantium (c. 667 BC).
Megara is known to have early ties withMiletos, which is located within the region ofCaria in Asia Minor. According to some scholars, they had built up a "colonisation alliance". In the 7th/6th century BCE these two cities acted in concordance with each other.[8]
Both cities acted under the leadership and sanction of anApollo oracle. Megara cooperated with that of Delphi. Miletos had her own oracle of Apollo Didymeus Milesios inDidyma. Also, there are many parallels in the political organisation of both cities.[8]
In the late 7th century BCTheagenes established himself as tyrant of Megara by slaughtering the cattle of the rich to win over the poor.[9] Arguably the most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity wasByzas, the legendary founder ofByzantium in the 7th century BC. The 6th century BC poetTheognis also came from Megara.
During the second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such asSalamis andPlataea.
Megara defected from the Spartan-dominatedPeloponnesian League (c. 460 BC) to the Delian league due to border disputes with its neighbour Corinth; this defection was one of the causes of theFirst Peloponnesian War (460 – c. 445 BC). By the terms of theThirty Years' Peace of 446–445 BC Megara was forced to return to the Peloponnesian League.
In the (second)Peloponnesian War (c. 431 – 404 BC), Megara was an ally ofSparta. TheMegarian decree is considered to be one of several contributing "causes" of the Peloponnesian War.[10] Athens issued the Megarian decree, which banned Megarian merchants from territory controlled by Athens; its aim was to constrict the Megarian economy. The Athenians claimed that they were responding to the Megarians' desecration of theHiera Orgas, a sacred precinct in the border region between the two states.
During the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, Megara sent a force of 400peltasts (light infantrymen) toThermopylae. During theChremonidean War, in 266 BC, the Megarians were besieged by the Macedonian kingAntigonus Gonatas and managed to defeat his elephants employingburning pigs. Despite this success, the Megarians had to submit to the Macedonians.
In 243 BC, exhorted byAratus of Sicyon, Megara expelled itsMacedonian garrison and joined theAchaean League, but when the Achaeans lost control of the Isthmus in 223 BC the Megarians left them and joined theBoeotian League. Not more than thirty years later, however, the Megarians grew tired of the Boeotian decline and returned their allegiance to Achaea. The Achaean strategosPhilopoemen fought off the Boeotian intervention force and secured Megara's return, either in 203 or in 193 BC.
According to Plutarch, Megarians tried to unleash lions against the besieging Roman troops guided byQuintus Fufius Calenus around 48 BC, but the animals "rushed among the unarmed citizens themselves and preyed upon them as they ran hither and thither, so that even to the enemy the sight was a pitiful one".[11]
The Megarians were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples.Saint Jerome reports "There is a common saying about the Megarians [...:] 'They build as if they are to live forever; they live as if they are to die tomorrow.'"[12]
The Greeks used the proverb "worthy of the Megarians share" (Ancient Greek:Τῆς Μεγαρέων ἄξιοι μερίδος), meaning dishonorable/dishonored.[13]
TheNike of Megara, large statue of the goddessNike found at Megara in 1820.
Megara seems to have experienced democracy on two occasions. The first was between 427 BC, when there was a democratic uprising, and 424 BC, when a narrow oligarchy was installed (Thuc. 3.68.3; 4.66-8, 73–4). The second was in the 370s BC, when we hear that the people of Megara expelled some anti-democratic conspirators (Diod. 15.40.4). By the 350s BC, though,Isocrates is referring to Megara in terms that suggests that it was an oligarchy again (Isoc. 8.117-19).
One of the first actions of the new oligarchy in 424 BC was to compel the people to vote openly, which suggests that the democracy had made use of thesecret ballot. Megarian democracy also made use ofostracism. Other key institutions of the democracy included a popular Assembly and Council, and a board of five (or six) generals.[14]
According toPlutarch, Megara was also a democracy in the 6th century BC. The measures said to be implemented by the radical government included making interest-bearing loans illegal and forcing creditors toreturn the interest they had collected.[15] While some historians accept the existence of democracy in the archaic period, others consider the story to reflect the later anti-democratic political thought.[16]
Megara is located in the westernmost part ofAttica, near theMegara Gulf, a bay of theSaronic Gulf. The coastal plain around Megara is referred to asMegaris, which is also the name of the ancient city state centered on Megara. Megara is 8 km west ofNea Peramos, 18 km west ofElefsina, 19 km east ofAgioi Theodoroi, 34 km west ofAthens and 37 km east ofCorinth.
The municipality of Megara was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of two former municipalities, Megara andNea Peramos, which became municipal units.[18] In 2017Kineta became a separate community within the municipal unit of Megara.[19]
The municipality has an area of 330.11 km2, the municipal unit 322.21 km2.[20]
^Sarah B. Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts,Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
^Graeber, David (2012).Debt. The First 5,000 Years. Melville House. pp. 191, 427.ISBN9781612191294.
^Forsdyke, Sara (2005). "Revelry and riot in Archaic Megara: democratic disorder or ritual reversal?".The Journal of Hellenic Studies.125: 73.doi:10.1017/S0075426900007114.S2CID146491518.
