Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/328

 312 MEGAEA. tical foi-m of government was estiblished. (Paus. i. 43. § 3.) Into the value of those traditions it would be useless to inquire. It may, however, be refrarded as certain, that Megara and its territory were in early times regarded as part of Attica ; and hence Strabo accounts for the omission of their names in the Iliad, because they were comprehended along with the Athenians under the general name of lonians. (Strab. ix. p. 392.) The most certain event in the history of Megara is its conquest by the Dorians. This event is" connected in tradition with the ex- ])edition of the Peloponnesians against Athens. The Dorian invaders were defeated by the voluntary sacrifice of Codrus ; but Megaris was notwithstanding permanently conquered, and a Corintliian and Mes- senian colony founded at Megara. The pillar at the isthmus of Corinth, which had hitherto marked the boundaries of Ionia and Peloponnesus, was now re- moved ; and IMegara was henceforth a Dorian state, and its territory included in Peloponnesus. (Strab. ix. p. 393; Scymn, Ch. 502.) Megara, however, continued for s'ome time to be subject to Corinth, and it was not without frequent struggles and wars that it at length established its independence. (For authorities, see Mliller, Dorians, i. 5. § 10.) Mesara appears not to have become the ruling city in the district till it was independent of Corinth, since in earlier times it had been only one of the five hamlets (fccS^ai). into which the country was divided, namely, the Heraeans, Piraeans, Jlegarians, Cynosurians and Tripodiscaeans. (Plut. Quaest. Graec. c. 17, p. 387.) After Megara had become an independent city, its prosperity rapidly increased, and in the seventh century before the Christian era it was one of the most flourishing commercial cities of Greece. For this it was chiefly indebted to its admirable situa- tion, which gave its inhabitants great facilities for the pi'osecution of commerce both by land and sea. All the roads from Northern Greece to Peloponnesus passed through their country, while their shores being washed by the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs, enabled them to trade both with the West and East. Megara founded some of the earlier Grecian colonies, both in Sicily and Thrace. In b. c. 728 it established Megara Hyblaea in Sicily, in 712 Astacus in Bithynia, in 675 Cyzicus in the Pro- pontis, in the following year Chalcedon at the mouth of the Bosporus, and in 657 Byzantium opposite Chalcedon. About this time, or rather later, Comedy is said to have been invented by the Megarians. According to the common account, Susarion, a native of Tripodiscus in Megaris, intro- duced comedy into Attica. (^Dict. of Biogr. art. SusAuioN.) But, with the increase of wealth, the lower orders attempted to obtain a share in the government, which had hitherto been exclusively in the hands of the Dorian conquerors ; and Theagenes, the father-in-law of Cylon, became tyrant or despot of Megara, by attacking the rich landed proprietors and advocating the claims of the poor. (Aristot. Rhet. i. 2, rolit. v. 4.) He embellished the city by the construction of a beautiful aqueduct, which con- tinued to exist down to the time of Pausanias (i. 40. § 1). Theagenes ruled about b. c. 630— COO; but he was subsequently driven from power, and Megara was for some tim.e torn asunder by •struggles between the aristocracy and democracy. The elegiac poet Theognis, wjio belonged to the aristocracy, deplores the sufferings of his parly, and MEGARA. complains that the poor no longer paid the interest of their debts, and that they plundered the houses of the rich and even the temples. About the same time the Megarians were engaged in frequent contests with their neighbours in Attica. The chief struggle between them was for the island of Salamis, which was at length gained by the Athenians in consequence of the well-known stra- tagem of Solon. (Paus. i. 40. § 5; Strab. ix. p. 394.) The Megarians took their share in the Per- sian wars. They fought with 20 ships at the battles of Artemisium and Salamis. (Herod, viii. 1, 45.) They repulsed a body of Persians whom JIardonius sent to ravage their territory (Paus. i. 40. § 2), and finally 3000 of their troops fought at the battle of Plataea. (Herod, ix. 28.) After the Persian War the Megarians were in- volved in hostilities with the Corinthians respecting the boundaries of their territories. This led the Megarians to desert the Peloponnesian alliance, and unite themselves with the Athenians, «. c 455. In order to secure their communication with Megara, the Athenians built two Long Walls connecting the city with Nisaea; and they garrisoned at the same time the town of Pegae, on the Corinthian gulf. (Time. i. 103.) But ten years afterwards the Me- garians revolted from Athens, and having obtained the assistance of some Peloponnesian troops, they slew the Athenian garrison, with the exception of those who escaped into Nisaea. They continued to hold Nisaea and Pegae, but they also surrendered these towns in the thirty years' truce made in the same year (445) with Sparta and her allies. (Thuc. i. 114, 115.) The Athenians thus lost all autho- rity over Megaris; but they were so exasperated with the Megarians, that they passed a decree excluding them from their markets and ports. This decree pressed very hard upon the Jlegarians, whose unproductive soil was not sufficient to support the population, and who obtained most of their supplies from Attica : it was one of the reasons urged by the Peloponnesians for declaring wai' against Athens. (Thuc. i. 67, 139; Aristoph. Acharn. 533.) In the Peloponnesian War the Megarians suffered greatly. In the first year of the war the Athenians invaded Megaris with a very large force, and laid waste the whole territory up to the city walls. At the same time the Athenian fleet blockaded the harbour of Nisaea, so that Megara was in the situa- tion of a besieged city cut off from all its supplies. This invasion was repeated by the Athenians once in every year, and sometimes even twice ; and the sufferings which the people then endured were remembered by them many centuries afterwards, and were assigned to Pausanias as the reason wliy one of their works of art had not been finished. (Thuc. ii. 31 ; Plut. Per. 30; Paus. i. 40. § 4.) In the fifth year of the Peloponnesian War(B. c. 427), the Athe- nians under Nicias took possession of the island of Mi- noa, which lay in front of Nisaea, and left a garrison there, by which means the port of Nisaea was still more effectively blockaded. (Thuc.iii. 51.) Of the po- sition of this island, and of the causeway connecting it with the mainland, we shall speak presently. In the eighth year of the Peloponnesian War (b.c. 424), the democratical party in Megara fearing the return of the aristocratical exiles, who were at Pegae, en- tered into negotiations with the Athenians to sur- render their city to them. The Athenians still held Minoa; and the Long Walls and Nisaea were occu- pied l>y an Athenian garrison. The Athenians