Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/329

 JIEGAEA. irere admitted within the Long Walls by their friends in Megara, and after a siege of two days they took Nisaea.* Megara was saved by Brasidas, who ad- vanced to the relief of the city with a large Pelo- ponnesian force, and, after offering battle to the Athenians, which they declined, was admitted within the city. The aristocratical exiles were now recalled, and a strict and exclusive oligarcliy esta- blished, which lasted for some time. (Thnc. iv. 66 — 74.) A few months afterwards the Megarians captured the Long Walls from the Athenians and levelled them to the ground; but the Athenians still continued to hold Nisaea and Minoa. (Thuc. iv. 109.) In the truce concluded between the Athenians and Peloponnesians in the following y^ar, it was settled that the line of demarcation between the Athenians in Nisaea and Minoa, on one side, and the Megarians and their allies in Blegara, on the other, should be the road leading from the gate of Nisaea near the monument of Nisus to the Posei- donium or temple of Poseidon, and from the latter in a straight line to the causeway leading to Minoa. (Thuc. iv. 117.) From this time Megara is seldom mentioned in Grecian history. Its prosperous condition at a later period is extolled by Isocrates, who says that it pos- sessed the largest houses of any city in Greece, and that it remained at peace, though placed between the Peloponnesians, Thebans, and Athenians. (Isocr. de Pac. p. 183, ed. Steph.) Megara surrendered to Philip after the battle of Ch^ieroneia. (Aelian, V. H. vi. I.) After the death of Alexander it was for some time in the power of Cassander; but his garrison was expelled by Demetrius Poliorcetes. who proclaimed the freedom of the city r..c. .307. (Diod. sx. 46; Plut. Dernetr. 9.) Subsequently it again passed into the hands of the Macedonian kings, but it was united by Aratus to the Achaean League. (Polyb. ii. 43.) In the war between the Achaean League and the Romans, Megara surrendered to Metellus without a contest. (Paus. vii. 15. § 11.) It is mentioned by Sulpicius, in his well-known letter to Cicero {ad Fum. iv. 5), fes one of the ruined cities of Greece. It still existed in the time of Strabo (ix. p. 393), and it was subsequently made a Eoman colony. (Plin. iv. 7. s. 11.) Pausanias relates that it was the only city of Greece which Hadrian refused to assist, on account of the murder by its inhabitants of Anthemocritus, the Athenian herald (Paus. i. 36. § 3); but we learn from in- scriptions that a new tribe at Megara was called Adrianis, in honour of the emperor, and that Sabina, the emperor's wife, was worshipped here under the title of i-ea 6,7}ixi]Tt}p (Bdckh, Iiiscr. vol. i. p. 566); and even Pausanias himself describes a temple of Apollo of wliite marble, built by Hadrian (i. 42. § 5). It continued to coin money under the Anto- rines and subsequent emperors; and it appears in the Tabula Peuting. as a considerable place. In tiie fifth centuiy its fortifications were repaired by Diogenes, an officer of the emperor Anastasius (Chandler, Inscr. Ant. 130); but from this time it appears to have rapidly sunk, and was frequently ])lundered by the pirates of the Mediterranean. Megara was celebrated on account of its philo- sophical school, which was founded there bv En- JIEGATTA. 313 Megara i) Hvcc iroKis, in contradistinction to the port-town. Tliis expression cannot refer to the acropolis of Megara, as some critics interpret it. cleides, a disciple of Socrates, and which distinguished itself chiefly by the cultivation of dialectics. The philosophers of this school were called the Megarici (oj Me-yapiKoi, Strab. ix. 393). It was also le^s creditably distinguished for its courtezans, who were called Megarian Sphinxes. (MeyapiKal ^(t>i'yyes Suid. s. V. ; comp. Plant. Pers. i. 3. 57.) The Megarians were addicted to the jJeasures of the table. (Tertull. Apoloff. 39.) They had a bad character throughout Greece, and were regarded as fraudulent, perfdious, and ignorant ; but they may have owed much of this bad character to the representations of their enemies, the Athenian.^. (Aelian, V. H. xii. 56; Schol. ad Aristoj^h. Pac. 248 ; Suid. s. v. M^yapewv a|iOj /xepiSos, i. e. con- temptible people.) Of the Megarian games and festivals we have three kinds mentioned; the Dio- clean, celebrated in honour of the hero Diodes (Schol. ad Theocr. xii. 28 ; Schol. ad Piwl. 01. xiii. 155; Schol. ad Ai'istoph. Acharn. 774), the Alcathoan, celebrated in honour of Alcathous, .nnd the Smaller Pythian, in honour of the Pythian Apollo, whose worship was very ancient in Megara. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. i. 3; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. V. 84, 01. xiii. 155; Krause, Die Pythien, Ntmeen und Isthmien, p. 66.) Dion Chrysostom (Orat. vi.) says that Megara is one day's journey from Athens, and Proc<)])ius (Bell. Vand. i. 1) makes it 210 stadia. According to modern travellers the journey takes 8 hours. (Dodwell, Classical Tour, vol. ii. p. 177.) III. Topography of the City and its Port- TOWN. Pausanias has given a particular description of the public buildings of Megara (Paus. i. 40, seq.). He begins his account with the aqueduct of Thea- genes, which was supphed with water from the fountain of the nymphs called Sithnides. The aqueduct was remarkable for its magnitude and numerous columns. Near it was an ancient temple, containing a statue of Artemis Soteira, statues of the twelve gods said to be by Praxiteles, and imapes of the Roman emperors. Beyond, in tiie Olympieiuin, or inclosure of Zeus Olympius, was a magnificent temple, containing a statue of the god, which was never finished, owing to the distress occasioned by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War. From thence Pausanias ascended to the citadel, named Caria, passing by a temple of Dionysus Nyctelius, a sanctuary of Aphrodite Apostrophia, an oracle of Night, and a roofless temple of Zeus Cronius. Here, also, was the Jlegarum, or temple of Demeter, said to have been founded by Car during his reign. Below the northern side of the Acropolis Caria was the tomb of Alcmena near the Olympieium. Hence Pausanias was conducted by his Jlegarian guide to a place called Rhus ('PoDy; comp. Plut. Thes. 27), because the waters from the neighbouring mountains were collected here, until they were turned off by Theagenes, who erected on the spot an altar to Achelous. It was probably this water which supplied the fountain of the Sitlmides. Near this place was the monument of Ilyllas; and not far from the latter were temples of Isis, Apollo Agraeus, and Artemis Agrotcra, which was said to have been dedicated by Alcathous after he had slain the Cithaeronian lion. Below these were the heroum of I'andion, and the monuments of Hip- polyte, qufcn of the Amazons, and Tereus, who married Procne.
 * On this occasion Thucydides (iv. 66) calls