Editing Megara (section)

===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>