Megara

For other uses, see Megara (disambiguation).
Megara
Μέγαρα
Megara

Coordinates: 38°00′N 23°20′E / 38.000°N 23.333°E / 38.000; 23.333Coordinates: 38°00′N 23°20′E / 38.000°N 23.333°E / 38.000; 23.333
Country Greece
Administrative region Attica
Regional unit West Attica
Government
 • Mayor Grigorios Stamoulis
Area
 • Municipality 330.3 km2 (127.5 sq mi)
 • Municipal unit 322.2 km2 (124.4 sq mi)
Elevation 4 m (13 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
 • Municipality 36,924
 • Municipality density 110/km2 (290/sq mi)
 • Municipal unit 28,591
 • Municipal unit density 89/km2 (230/sq mi)
Community
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code 191 00
Area code(s) 22960
Website www.megara.gr

Megara (/ˈmɛɡərə/; Greek: Μέγαρα, pronounced [ˈmeɣara]) is a historic town and a municipality (pop. 36,924 in 2011) in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King Pandion II, of whom Nisos was the ruler of Megara. Megara was also a trade port, its people using their ships and wealth as a way to gain leverage on armies of neighboring poleis. Megara specialized in the exportation of wool and other animal products including livestock such as horses. It possessed two harbors, Pegae, to the west on the Corinthian Gulf and Nisaea, to the east on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea.

Early history

According to Pausanias, the Megarians said that their town owed its origin to Car, the son of Phoroneus, who built the citadel called 'Caria' and the temples of Demeter called Megara, from which the place derived its name.[2]

In historical times, Megara was an early dependency of Corinth, in which capacity colonists from Megara founded Megara Hyblaea, a small polis north of Syracuse in Sicily. Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards founded (c. 667 BC) Byzantium, as well as Chalcedon (685 BC).

Megara is known to have early ties with Miletos, in the region of Caria in Asia Minor. According to some scholars, they had built up a “colonisation alliance”. In the seventh/sixth century BCE these two cities acted in accordance with each other.[3]

Both cities acted under the leadership and sanction of an Apollo oracle. Megara cooperated with that of Delphi. Miletos had her own oracle of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in Didyma. Also, there are many parallels in the political organisation of both cities.[4]

In the late 7th century BC Theagenes established himself as tyrant of Megara by slaughtering the cattle of the rich to win over the poor.[5] During the second Persian invasion of Greece (480-479 BC) Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such as Salamis and Plataea.

Megara's defection from the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League (c. 460 BC) became one of the causes of the First Peloponnesian War (460 BC - c. 445 BC). By the terms of the Thirty Years' Peace of 446-445 BC Megara was returned to the Peloponnesian League.

In the (second) Peloponnesian War (c. 431 BC-404 BC), Megara was an ally of Sparta. The Megarian decree is considered to be one of several contributing "causes" of the Peloponnesian War.[6] Athens issued the Megarian decree with the aim of choking out the Megarian economy. The decree banned Megarian merchants from territory controlled by Athens. The Athenians claimed that they were responding to the Megarians' desecration of the Hiera Orgas, a sacred precinct in the border region between the two states.

Arguably the most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was Byzas, the legendary founder of Byzantium in the 7th century BC. The 6th-century BC poet Theognis also came from Megara. In the early 4th century BC, Euclid of Megara founded the Megarian school of philosophy which flourished for about a century, and which became famous for the use of logic and dialectic.

In 243 BC Megara expelled its Macedonian garrison and joined the Achaean League, but in 223 BC the Megarians left the Achaeans and joined the Boeotian League.

The Megarians were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples. Saint Jerome reports "There is a common saying about the Megarians […:] 'They build as if they are to live forever; they live as if they are to die tomorrow.'"[7]

Geography

Megara is located in the westernmost part of Attica, near the Megara Gulf, a bay of the Saronic Gulf. The coastal plain around Megara is referred to as Megaris, which is also the name of the ancient city state centered on Megara. Megara is 8 km west of Nea Peramos, 18 km west of Eleusis, 19 km east of Agioi Theodoroi, 34 km west of Athens and 37 km east of Corinth. The Motorway 8 connects it with Athens and Corinth. The Megara railway station is served by Proastiakos suburban trains to Athens and Kiato. There is a small military airfield south of the town, ICAO code LGMG.[8]

The main town Megara had 23,456 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The largest other settlements in the municipal unit are Vlychada (pop. 1,462), Kineta (1,446), Pachi (542) and Lakka Kalogirou (517).

Municipality

The municipality Megara was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 2 former municipalities, that became municipal units (constituent communities in brackets):[9]

Towns and villages

  • Agia Triada
  • Aigeirouses
  • Kineta
  • Koumintri
  • Lakka Kalogirou
  • Megara
  • Moni Agiou Ierotheou
  • Moni Agiou Ioannou Prodromou
  • Moni Panachrantou
  • Pachi
  • Sparta
  • Stikas
  • Vlychada

Historical population

Year Town Municipal unit Municipality
1971 17,584 - -
1981 20,814 21,245 -
1991 20,403 25,061 -
2001 23,032 28,195 -
2011 23,456 28,591 36,924

Notable people

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Απογραφή Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2011. ΜΟΝΙΜΟΣ Πληθυσμός" (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority.
  2. ↑ Paus. i. 39. § 5, i. 40. § 6
  3. ↑ Alexander Herda (2015), Megara and Miletos: Colonising with Apollo. A Structural Comparison of Religious and Political Institutions in Two Archaic Greek Polis States
  4. ↑ Alexander Herda (2015), Megara and Miletos: Colonising with Apollo. A Structural Comparison of Religious and Political Institutions in Two Archaic Greek Polis States
  5. ↑ Aristotle, Politics V 4,5
  6. ↑ Sarah B. Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts, Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
  7. ↑ Jerome, To Ageruchia, Letter cxxiii.15
  8. ↑ World Aero Data
  9. ↑ Kallikratis law Greece Ministry of Interior (Greek)

External links

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