Megara (in ancient Greek tà Megara) is a Greek city in Attica, capital of Megaride. Located at the eastern end of the Isthmus of Corinth, midway between Corinth and Athens, it was originally known as Nisea (Νίσαια / Nísaia), after the legendary eponymous king Nisos.
History
According to tradition, the city is populated by the Dorians after they were driven from Athens by the sacrifice of King Codros. Land crossing point between central Greece and the Peloponnese, the city quickly acquired importance. Its two ports, one on the Saronic Gulf and the other on the Corinthian Gulf, make it a major commercial center.
Between 730 and 550 BC. J.-C., it knows a considerable colonial activity:it founds Astacos, Chalcédoine and Byzantium on the Bosphorus; Heraclea from Pontus in Bithynia; Selinunte and Megara Hyblaea in Sicily. Around 600 BC. J.-C., it falls under the domination of the tyrant Théagène; the tyranny was followed by political struggles, the echo of which may be found in the poems of Théognis. It loses its territories to the west to Corinth, and Salamis to Athens (570 BC).
Shortly before 500 BC. AD, she joined the Peloponnesian League and took an active part in the Persian Wars. At the end of these wars, the Megarians, caught up in border disputes with Corinth, left their Peloponnesian allies and placed themselves under the protection of Athens (460 BC). occupation occupying the port of the Gulf of Corinth. The other is connected to Megara by the Long Walls, erected in 459 BC.
After the defeat of the Athenians, beaten by the Boeotians at Coronea in 447 BC. BC, the Megarians revolt and massacre the garrison. In response, the Athenians issue a decree excluding them from all ports and anchorages of the Athenian Empire; this “megarian decree” is one of the causes of the Peloponnesian War. Megara suffered greatly from this war but was not taken by Athens, thanks to the rapid arrival of the Spartan general Brasidas with relief troops (423 BC). This then imposes an oligarchic regime.
In the 4th century BC. BC, Megara remains outside war operations, although it allies with Athens against Philip II of Macedonia. The city was taken and plundered in 307 BC. J-C. by Demetrios Poliorcetes and, despite remaining free thanks to the prayers of the Athenians to Demetrios, Megara never completely recovered from this disaster.
In 251 BC. J.-C., it adheres to the Achaean League, on the instigation of Aratos. When Cleomenes III of Sparta took Corinth in 223 BC. AD, Megara finds herself cut off from her allies. With the consent of Aratos, she then joined the Boeotian Confederation. During the Demetric War, it fell under Macedonian domination. When Demetrius II died in 229 BC. AD, Megara joined the Achaean League again. The reversal of Aratus in 224 BC. AD pushes them to return to Thebes, within the Macedonian alliance. Finally, in 192 BC. AD, Megara finds the Achaeans. Furious, the Boetians besiege Megara; the Achaean troops led by Philopoemen, however, forced them to abandon the field. Finally, in 146 BC. J.-C., during the Achaean war, Megara is taken by the Roman general Metellus.
Megara is the homeland of the poet Theognis and the philosophers Euclid and Stilpon. She is also a former bishopric.
Jerome de Stridon reports in one of his letters the following proverb about the Megarians:“They build as if they were to live forever, and they live as if they were to die the next day. »