Megara (Greek: Μέγαρα): city in Central Greece, between the Corinthian Isthmus and Attica.
Megara, Funerary relief of an athlete
Megara is situated on the strip of land between the Corinthian Gulf and the Saronic Gulf, connecting the Peloponnese in the south to Boeotia in the north and Attica in the northeast. The road along the Saronic Gulf was called Skiron's Road, after a mythological robber who had lived here. Megara had two ports: Pegae in the west and Niseaea in the east.
Skiron's Road
480: Fights in the Persian War; the city is looted by the army of the Persian king Xerxes; the Road of Skiron was one of the Greek lines of defense
Belongs to the Peloponnesian League; feels threatened by Corinth; joins the Delian League; First Peloponnesian War (460-445); returns to Peloponnesian League
431: Outbreak of the Archidamian War (431-421); Megara is the northernmost base of the Spartan alliance, used to invade Attica and Boeotia
In 427, the Athenian commander Nicias pillages the coast of Megara, where he occupies a small island called Minoa, which controled the entrance of Pegae, Megara's eastern port. As a consequence, the democracts gained influence on Megara's government.
In 424 the Athenian commanders Demosthenes and Hippocrates try to capture Megara. The surprise attack is foiled when the soldiers of the Spartan commander Brasidas arrives on the scene and restores the oligarchic governement. Still, Megara loses Pegae, which was returned after the Peace of Nicias (421). The city never recovered.
Megara, Figurine of two hoplites
Megara, Kouros
Megara, Statue of a Roman emperor (Trajan or Hadrian)
Megara, Statue of Dionysus
After the Decelean War (413-404), the city's fate is not very clear, although it must have been in the Peloponnesian League.
For a while, Megara is democratic, but it becomes oligarchic again.
Member of the "common peace" in the Corinthian League (338); Alexander the Great
Portrait of a man
Greece becomes increasingly part of the Maecedonian backyard
279: Galatian attack; Megaran soldiers help to defend Thermopylae.
Chremonidian War: Sparta and Athens try to get rid of the Macedonians, supported by many Greek states; however, the Macedonians subdue the Greek cities again; Megara received a garrison
243: Megara expels the Macedonian garrison and joins the Achaean League
239-229 Demetrian War
223: Setbacks for the Achaeans, who lose Corinth; Megara joins the Boeotian League
193: Megara returns to the Achaean League; Philopoemen defeats the Boeotians
146: Occupied by the Roman commander Metellus
During the Roman Civil Wars, captured by the army of Caesar
Quiet provincial town
Christian presence since the fourth century CE
In 409, the Christian author Jerome remembered a proverb that the people of Megara constructed monuments as if they would live forever, but lived as if they were to die next day.note[Jerome, Letter 123.15 (to Ageruchia).]
