Megarian decree

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The Megarian Decree was a set of economic sanctions levied upon Megara circa 433 BC by the Athenian Empire shortly before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The ostensible reason for the Decree was the Magarians' supposed trespass on land sacred to Demeter. The decree banned Megarians from harbours and marketplaces throughout the Athenian Empire, strangling the Megarian economy. The ban strained the fragile peace between Athens and Sparta, which was allied with Megara.

The extent to which the decree precipitated the Peloponnesian war is highly debatable. Our primary source for the war, Thucydides, puts very little emphasis upon the decree in his analysis of the cause of the war. According to Thucydides the true cause of the war was Sparta's fear of Athens' growing empire. The decree is not even described as one of the major grounds of complaint (which include the conflicts of Potidaea and Corcyra).

The main evidence we have for the significance of the decree is Aristophanes, an ancient playwright and satirist of the time. His play The Acharnians (II.530-7) mentions how the decree was written ‘…like drinking songs’ and left the Megarians ‘slowly starving’. Another play of his, Peace (play), also mentions how war was being brewed in Megara by the god of war. Aristophanes clearly believes that the Megarian decree was a significant factor in the cause of the war. What reference we do have to the decree in Thucydides also seems to suggest its importance, the Spartans claim in 1.139.1 that war could have been avoided had the decree been repealed.

The reason Thucydides dwelt so little upon the Megarian decree could simply indicate his lack of economic understanding (in that the concept of ‘economy’ did not exist in the old world). It seems more likely that the decree was not as significant as Aristophanes indicates. De Ste. Croix argues that a trade sanction would not significantly affect Megara as the decree applied only to Megarian citizens when it is likely that the majority of trade in all cities was completed by ‘Metics’ (foreigners or outsiders). Probably the most significant argument is that regardless of whether the decree did damage Megara it is unlikely that it was this occurrence that spurred Sparta to initiate war. We know from the Spartan debate during the revolt in Samos that the Spartans were willing to go to war already, much earlier than the Megarian decree, and the exploits of Corinth in Corcyra show that the Peloponnesian forces were hostile and war hungry.

The growing power and corruption of Athens, in part caused by the Delian League's main beneficiary (mostly Athens itself) among other factors, would have caused Sparta and her allies to began not only resenting her, but fearing her as well. The Magarian Decree basically puts economic sanctions that hurt not only Megara, but her allies as well that would have stood to benefit from trading with her. This was more likely seen by Sparta and allies as yet another move by Athens to weaken her rivals and extend her dominance, influence and power. Megara was also in a strategic spot close to Athens that provided Sparta with many conveniences in terms of either providing, or capable of providing, a military outpost close to Athens, as well as for economic advancement through trade. The fact that Aristophanes describes the decree in his play "The Acharnians" as leaving the Megarians "slowly starving" is significant, even if it was in comedy. This is because a decree like the Megarian Decree would have damaged its economy, consequently leaving the Megarians "slowly starving," while also hampering economic possibilities of its allies. It is more likely that the Megarian Decree was the breaking point that led the Spartans to conduct a war in the struggle for its sovereignty and/or power.