Editing Megara (section)

===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]].