Editing Megara (section)

==History==
[[File:Megara4.jpg|thumb|View of the archaeological site]]
===Late Bronze===
====Mycenaean period====
In the Late Bronze Age, Megara features prominently as a small kingdom in the myths and legends of [[Homer]]. 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, [[Nisos|Nisus]] was a King of Megara and son of king [[Pandion II]] of Athens, and gave his name to the port Nisaea. Pandion II had married Pylia, daughter of King [[Pylas]] of Megara. Pylas was the son of Cteson, son of [[Lelex (king of Megara)|Lelex]]. Megara was the capital in [[Megaris]].
 
'''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.<ref>Field 1984:144. GAC 73</ref> A palace here would command the costal plain and valley towards the north-east.<ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5374/1/5374_2812-vol1.PDF |last=Loader |first=Nancy Claire |title=The definition of cyclopean: An investigation into the origins of the LH III fortifications on mainland Greece |publisher=Durham University |year=1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930170125/https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5374/1/5374_2812-vol1.PDF |archive-date=2017-09-30}}</ref>

===Iron Age===
According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], the Megarians said that their town owed its origin to [[Car (Greek mythology)|Car]], the son of [[Phoroneus]], who built the citadel called 'Caria' and the temples of [[Demeter]] called Megara, from which the place derived its name.<ref>Paus. i. 39. § 5, i. 40. § 6</ref>

In historical times, Megara was an early dependency of [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], in which capacity colonists from Megara founded [[Megara Hyblaea]], a small ''polis'' north of [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]] in Sicily. Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards founded [[Chalcedon]] in 685&nbsp;BC, as well as [[Byzantium]] (c. 667&nbsp;BC).

Megara is known to have early ties with [[Miletos]], which is located within the region of [[Caria]] 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.<ref name="Herda">Alexander Herda (2015), [https://www.academia.edu/12530869 Megara and Miletos: Colonising with Apollo. A Structural Comparison of Religious and Political Institutions in Two Archaic Greek Polis States]</ref>

Both cities acted under the leadership and sanction of an [[Apollo]] oracle. Megara cooperated with that of Delphi. Miletos had her own oracle of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in [[Didyma]]. Also, there are many parallels in the political organisation of both cities.<ref name="Herda"/>

In the late 7th century BC [[Theagenes of Megara|Theagenes]] established himself as tyrant of Megara by slaughtering the cattle of the rich to win over the poor.<ref>Aristotle, Politics V 4,5</ref> Arguably the most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was [[Byzas]], the legendary founder of [[Byzantium]] in the 7th century BC. The 6th century BC poet [[Theognis of Megara|Theognis]] also came from Megara.

====Second Persian Invasion====
During the second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479&nbsp;BC) Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such as [[Battle of Salamis|Salamis]] and [[Battle of Plataea|Plataea]].

====First Peloponnesian War====
Megara defected from the Spartan-dominated [[Peloponnesian League]] (c.&nbsp;460&nbsp;BC) to the Delian league due to border disputes with its neighbour Corinth; this defection was one of the causes of the [[First Peloponnesian War]] (460&nbsp;–&nbsp;c.&nbsp;445&nbsp;BC). By the terms of the [[Thirty Years' Peace]] of 446–445&nbsp;BC Megara was forced to return to the Peloponnesian League.

====Second Peloponnesian War====
In the (second) [[Peloponnesian War]] (c.&nbsp;431&nbsp;–&nbsp;404&nbsp;BC), Megara was an ally of [[Sparta]]. The [[Megarian decree]] is considered to be one of several contributing "causes" of the Peloponnesian War.<ref>[[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).</ref> 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 the ''[[Hiera Orgas]]'', a sacred precinct in the border region between the two states.

In the early 4th century BC, [[Euclid of Megara]] founded the [[Megarian school of philosophy]] which flourished for about a century, famous for the use of [[logic]] and [[dialectic]].

===Classical Age===
During the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, Megara sent a force of 400 [[peltast]]s (light infantrymen) to [[Battle of Thermopylae (279 BC)|Thermopylae]]. During the [[Chremonidean War]], in 266 BC, the Megarians were besieged by the Macedonian king [[Antigonus Gonatas]] and managed to defeat his elephants employing [[War pig|burning pigs]]. Despite this success, the Megarians had to submit to the Macedonians.

In 243&nbsp;BC, exhorted by [[Aratus of Sicyon]], Megara expelled its [[Macedon]]ian garrison and joined the [[Achaean League]], but when the Achaeans lost control of the Isthmus in 223&nbsp;BC the Megarians left them and joined the [[Boeotian League]]. Not more than thirty years later, however, the Megarians grew tired of the Boeotian decline and returned their allegiance to Achaea. The Achaean strategos [[Philopoemen]] 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 by [[Quintus 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".<ref>Plutarch, Brutus 8,4</ref>

[[File:Megara - Coronelli Vincenzo - 1687.jpg|thumb|Megara by [[Vincenzo Coronelli]], 1687]]
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.'"<ref>[[Jerome]], ''To Ageruchia'', [http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF2-06/letters/lette123.htm Letter cxxiii.15]</ref>

The Greeks used the proverb "worthy of the Megarians share" ({{langx|grc|Τῆς Μεγαρέων ἄξιοι μερίδος}}), meaning dishonorable/dishonored.<ref>[https://topostext.org/work/240#tau.537 Suda, § tau.537]</ref>