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MEGARA , an See also: ancient See also: Greek See also: town on the road from See also: Attica to See also: Corinth
.
The country which belonged to the city was called Meyaptr or MeyapuKo; it occupied the broader See also: part of the See also: isthmus between Attica, See also: Boeotia, Corinth, and the two gulfs, and its whole See also: area is estimated by See also: Clinton at 143 sq. m
.
The range of See also: Mount Geraneia extends across the country from See also: east to west, forming a barrier between See also: continental See also: Greece and the See also: Peloponnesus
.
The shortest road across this range passes along the eastern See also: side of the mountains, and the most difficult part is the celebrated Scironian rocks, the mythic home of the robber Sciron
.
The only plain in the rugged little country was the See also: White Plain, in which was situated the only important town, Megara
.
The
See also: modern town of Megara is situated on two low hills which formed part of the ancient site; it is the chief town of the eparchy of Megaris; pop. about 6400
.
It contains few remains of antiquity, except of the aqueduct and See also: basin, said to have been made by the architect See also: Eupalinus for the See also: tyrant Theagenes
.
(E
.
GR.)
From the somewhat conflicting evidence of See also: mythology it may be gathered that in prehistoric days Megara had maritime intercourse with the See also: southern See also: Aegean
.
The early inhabitants, whose See also: race is unknown, were extirpated or absorbed in the Dorian See also: migration, for in historic times the city had a homogeneous Dorian population
.
Favoured by its proximity to two See also: great waterways and by its two ports, Nisaea on the Saronic and Pegae on the Corinthian Gulf, Megara took a prominent part in the commercial expansion of Greece from the 8th century onwards, and for two See also: hundred years enjoyed prosperity out of proportion to the slight resources of its narrow territory
.
Its See also: trade was mainly directed towards See also: Sicily, where Megarian colonies were established at See also: Hybla (Megara Hyblaea) and See also: Selinus, and towards the Black See also: Sea, in which region the Megarians were probably
As we have seen, it was mentioned in 1726 by Valentyn, and a See also: young example. was in 183o described and figured by Quoy and Gaimard (Voy. de l'Asirolabe : Oiseaux, p
.
239, pl . 25) as the Megapodius rubripes of Temminck, a wholly different See also: bird.pioneers of Greek commerce
.
In the Sea of Marmora they had to face the competition of the Samians, with whom they waged a war concerning the town of Perinthus, and of See also: Miletus; but on the Bosporus they established themselves by means of settlements at See also: Chalcedon and, above all, See also: Byzantium (founded, according to tradition, 675 and 658 respectively)
.
In the Black Sea they exploited the shores of See also: Pontus and See also: Scythia, whose products they exchanged for textiles spun from the wool of their own country
.
Their chief colonies in this sea were Astacus and See also: Heraclea in See also: Bithynia, and another Heraclea in the See also: Crimea
.
In the later 7th century this current of trade dwindled in face of the great commercial and colonizing activity of Miletus; it probably received further injury through the subsequent interference of Athens on the Hellespont
.
Simultaneously Megarian commerce in Sicily began to be supplanted by Corinth and Corcyra
.
Megara's economic development entailed a change in the distribution of See also: wealth, and consequently of See also: political power, which is commented upon in the elegies of Theognis (q.v.)
.
The See also: original See also: land-holding aristocracy, which had probably initiated and for a See also: time monopolized commerce, was partly supplanted by prosperous upstarts, and with the general increase of prosperity began to lose its hold upon the community of artisans
.
In the ensuing party struggles the city passed under a tyrant, Theagenes (about 64o), whose See also: rule was too brief to produce great changes
.
The power of the nobles would seem to have been more effectively broken in a war with Athens, in which Megara ultimately lost the See also: island of See also: Salamis (about 570, see See also: SOLON), for shortly afterwards the constitution was changed to a democracy, and eventually was fixed as an oligarchy of a moderate type
.
During the Persian See also: wars the See also: state, which had recently joined the Peloponnesian See also: League, could still muster 3000 hoplites
.
But the subsequent expansion of Athens ruined the commerce of Megara, and the town itself was threatened with absorption by some powerful neighbour . In 459 an attack by Corinth, which had always coveted Megara's territory, induced theSee also: people to summon the aid of the Athenians, who secured Megara in See also: battle' and by the construction of long walls between the capital and its See also: port Nisaea
.
In 445 a revulsion of feeling led the Megarians to See also: massacre their Athenian garrison
.
The Athenians retaliated by placing an embargo upon Megarian trade throughout their See also: empire (432), and in the Peloponnesian War, which the Megarians had consequently striven to hasten on, reduced their neighbours to misery by blockade and devastations, In 424 they nearly captured Megara; in collusion with a democratic party within the town, and succeeded in securing Nisaea, which they held till 410
.
In the 4th century Megara re-covered some measure of prosperity, but played an insignificant part in politics, its only notable move being the participation in the final conflict against See also: Philip II. of Macedon (338)
.
During the Macedonian supremacy the town passed in turn from Cassander and
See also: Demetrius Poliorcetes to Antigonus Gonatas, and finally was incorporated in the Achaean League
.
Megara suffered severely during the See also: Civil War of 48 B.C., but seems at some later See also: period to have received new settlers
.
It maintained itself as a place of some See also: size in subsequent centuries, but was depopulated by the Venetians in A.D
.
1500
.
The inhabitants of the modern See also: village are mostly of Albanian origin
.
In literature Megara figures as the reputed home of the comedian See also: Susarion, and in the 4th century gave its name to a school of philosophy founded by See also: Euclid
.
See See also: Strabo ix
.
391—395; Theognis; See also: Thucydides i -iv
.
; Aristophanes, Acharnians, 729—835; F
.
Cauer, Parteien and Politiker in Megara and Athen (See also: Stuttgart, 1890), pp
.
1-44; B
.
V
.
See also: Head, Historia numorum (See also: Oxford, 1887), pp
.
329-330; R
.
Delbruck and K
.
G: Vollmoller, Das Brunnenhaus See also: des Theagenes," in Mitteil. d. deutsch
.
Inst
.
Athen
.
See also: XXV
.
(1900) . (M . O . B . |
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