Megara

12/26/2017 Megara - Wikipedia
Coordinates: 38°00′N 23°20′E
Megara
Megara (/ˈmɛɡərə/;
Greek: Μέγαρα, Megara
Μέγαρα
pronounced [ˈmeɣara]) is a
historic town and a
municipality 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
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 Location within the region
exportation of wool and
other animal products
including livestock such as
horses. It possessed two
harbors, Pegae, to the west
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megara 1/7
on the Corinthian Gulf and

Nisaea, to the east on the
Saronic Gulf of the Aegean
Sea.
Contents
Early history Coordinates: 38°00′N 23°20′E
Geography Country Greece
Municipality Administrative Attica
Towns and villages region
Regional unit West Attica
Historical population
Notable people Government
• Mayor Grigorios Stamoulis
Facilities
See also
Area
• Municipality 330.1 km2
Notes
(127.5 sq mi)
External links • Municipal unit 322.2 km2
(124.4 sq mi)
Elevation 4 m (13 ft)
Early history Population (2011)[1]
According to Pausanias, • Municipality 36,924
the Megarians said that
• Municipality 110/km2 (290/sq mi)
density
their town owed its origin
• Municipal unit 28,591
to Car, the son of • Municipal unit 89/km2 (230/sq mi)
Phoroneus, who built the density
citadel called 'Caria' and Time zone EET (UTC+2)
the temples of Demeter • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
called Megara, from which
Postal code 191 00
the place derived its
Area code(s) 22960
name.[2]
Website www.megara.gr (htt
In historical times, Megara p://www.megara.gr)

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 Chalcedon in 685 BC, as
well as Byzantium (c. 667 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 7th/6th century BCE these two cities acted in concordance 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.[3]
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.[4] 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 –
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 – 404 BC), Megara was an ally of
Sparta. The Megarian decree is considered to be one of several contributing
"causes" of the Peloponnesian War.[5] 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.'"[6]
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.[7]
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):[8]
Megara
Nea Peramos
The municipality has an area of 330.11 km2, the municipal unit 322.21 km2.[9]
Towns and villages
Agia Triada Moni Agiou Ioannou
Aigeirouses Prodromou
Kineta Moni Panachrantou
Koumintri Pachi
Lakka Kalogirou Stikas
Moni Agiou Ierotheou 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
Orsippus (8th century BC), runner
Byzas (7th century BC), founder of Byzantium
Theognis (6th century BC), elegiac poet
Eupalinos (6th century BC), engineer who built the Tunnel of Eupalinos on
Samos
Theagenes (c. 600 BC), Tyrant of Megara
Euclid (c. 400 BC), founder of the Megarian school of philosophy
Stilpo (c. 325 BC), philosopher of the Megarian school
Teles (3rd century BC), cynic philosopher.
Facilities
Mediumwave transmitter with a 180 metres tall radio mast, broadcasting
on 666 kHz and 981 kHz
See also
List of settlements in Attica
Notes
1. "Απογραφή Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2011. ΜΟΝΙΜΟΣ Πληθυσμός" (htt
p://www.statistics.gr/documents/20181/1210503/resident_population_cens
us2011rev.xls) (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 (https://www.academia.edu/12530869)
4. Aristotle, Politics V 4,5
5. 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).
6. Jerome, To Ageruchia, Letter cxxiii.15 (http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF2-
06/letters/lette123.htm)
7. World Aero Data (http://www.worldaerodata.com/wad.cgi?id=GR33328)
8. Kallikratis law (http://www.kedke.gr/uploads2010/FEKB129211082010_kall
ikratis.pdf) Greece Ministry of Interior (in Greek)
9. "Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation)" (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20150921212047/http://dlib.statistics.gr/Book/G
RESYE_02_0101_00098%20.pdf) (PDF) (in Greek). National Statistical
Service of Greece. Archived from the original (http://dlib.statistics.gr/Book/
GRESYE_02_0101_00098%20.pdf) (PDF) on 2015-09-21.
External links
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Megara". Catholic Encyclopedia.

New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=Megara&oldid=815190556"
This page was last edited on 13 December 2017, at 09:02.
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12/26/2017 Megara - Wikipedia

Coordinates: 38°00′N 23°20′E

on the Corinthian Gulf and

In historical times, Megara p://www.megara.gr)

In the late 7th century BC Theagenes established himself as tyrant of Megara

Megara's defection from the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League

Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Megara". Catholic Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

This page was last edited on 13 December 2017, at 09:02.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;

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