Megara

Megara (pronounced: /ˈmɛɡərə/; Greek: Μέγαρα, pronounced: /ˈmeɣara/) is an ancient city (pop. 23,032 in 2001) in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King Pandion II, of whom Nisos 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, Pegae, to the west on the Corinthian Gulf and Nisaea, to the east on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea.

Early history

In historical times, Megara was an early dependency of Corinth, in which capacity colonists from Megara founded Megara Hyblaea, a small polis north of Syracuse in Sicily. Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards founded (c. 667 BCE) Byzantium, as well as Chalcedon (685 BCE). Megara was known for its money in historical times.

In the late seventh century BCE Theagenes established himself as tyrant of Megara reportedly by slaughtering the cattle of the rich to win over the poor.^[1] During the second Persian invasion of Greece (480-479 BCE) Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such as Salamis and Plataea.

Megara's defection from the Spartan dominated Peloponnesian League (c.460 BCE) was one of the causes of the First Peloponnesian War. By the terms of the Thirty Years' Peace of 446-445 BCE Megara was returned to the Peloponnesian League.

In the Peloponnesian War (c. 431 BC-404 BCE), Megara was an ally of Sparta. The Megarian decree is considered to be one of several contributing "causes" of the Peloponnesian War.^[2] The Megarian decree was issued by Athens with the purpose of choking out the Megarian economy. The decree stated that Megarian merchants were not allowed in territory controlled by Athens.

The most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was Byzas, the legendary founder of Byzantium in the 7th century BCE. The 6th century BCE poet Theognis also came from Megara. In the early 4th century BC, Euclid of Megara founded the Megarian school of philosophy which flourished for about a century, and became famous for the use of logic and dialectic.

The Megarans were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples. 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.'"^[3]

Geography

A population of 28,195 live within the municipality. It is located 42 km (WNW) of Athens in the southwestern part of West Attica Prefecture, and is linked by a highway connecting the Peloponnese, Western Greece, and Athens. It is now linked by a high-speed rail line suburban railway. Megara lies in the Megaris plain. It has the largest land area of any municipality in the Attica region, and the largest population in West Attica. Agriculture used to dominate before housing began to expand in Megara in the 1960s and the 1970s.

3 km south of Megara is a small community called Pachi, which is famous for its fish tavernas and is visited by people from all over ancient Greece. Nea Peramos is the neighboring city to the east of Megara and Kakia Skala to the west of Megara. There is a military airport to the south. South of Megara is the Gulf of Megara. The largest other towns in the municipality are Kinéta (pop. 1,972), Spárta (712), Vlycháda (694), and Aigeiroúses (479). The municipality is unusual for one its geographical size, in that it has only one municipal district, the third-largest in Greece (after the Sílis district in Paranesti and the Mikró Déreio district in Orfeas) if Mount Athos is not counted. There are, however, 14 towns or villages in the municipality.

Municipality

The municipality Megara was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following two former municipalities, that became municipal units (constituent communities in brackets):^[4]

• Megara
• Nea Peramos

Towns and villages

• Lîchymaniõ

Historical population

Notable people

• Orsippus (8th century BCE), runner
• Byzas (7th century BCE), founder of Byzantium
• Theognis (6th century BC), elegiac poet
• Eupalinos (6th century BCE), engineer who built the Tunnel of Eupalinos on Samos
• Theagenes (c. 600 BCE), Tyrant of Megara
• Euclid (c. 400 BCE), founder of the Megarian school of philosophy
• Stilpo (c. 325 BCE), philosopher of the Megarian school
• Teles (3rd century BCE), cynic philosopher

Notes

References

• Legon, Ronald P. Megara: the political history of a Greek city-state to 336 B.C.. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981.
• Smith, Philip J. The archaeology and epigraphy of Hellenistic and Roman Megaris, Greece. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd, 2008.

External links

•  "Megara". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Megara. 

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Megara. The list of authors can be seen in the page history.