Megara
Megara
Μέγαρα | |
---|---|
UTC+3 (EEST) | |
Postal code | 191 00 |
Area code(s) | 22960 |
Website | www.megara.gr |
Megara (
Early history
According to
In historical times, Megara was an early dependency of
Megara is known to have early ties with
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.[5]
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.[6] 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 defected from the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League (c. 460 BC) to the Delian league due to border disputes with its neighbour Corinth; this defection was 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 forced to return to the Peloponnesian League.
In the (second)
Arguably the most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was
During the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, Megara sent a force of 400
In 243 BC, exhorted by
According to Plutarch, Megarians tried to unleash lions against the besieging Roman troops guided by Quintus Fufius Calenus around 48 BC, but the animals "rushed among the unarmed citizens themselves and preyed upon them as they ran hither and thither, so that even to the enemy the sight was a pitiful one".[8]
The Megarians were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples.
The Greeks used the proverb "worthy of the Megarians share" (
Democracy in Megara
Megara seems to have experienced democracy on two occasions. The first was between 427 BC, when there was a democratic uprising, and 424 BC, when a narrow oligarchy was installed (Thuc. 3.68.3; 4.66-8, 73-4). The second was in the 370s BC, when we hear that the people of Megara expelled some anti-democratic conspirators (Diod. 15.40.4). By the 350s BC, though, Isocrates is referring to Megara in terms that suggests that it was an oligarchy again (Isoc. 8.117-19).
One of the first actions of the new oligarchy in 424 BC was to compel the people to vote openly, which suggests that the democracy had made use of the secret ballot. Megarian democracy also made use of ostracism. Other key institutions of the democracy included a popular Assembly and Council, and a board of five (or six) generals.[11]
According to Plutarch, Megara was also a democracy in the 6th century BC. The measures said to be implemented by the radical government included making interest-bearing loans illegal and forcing creditors to return the interest they had collected.[12] While some historians accept the existence of democracy in the archaic period, others consider the story to reflect the later anti-democratic political thought.[13]
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 Elefsina, 19 km east of Agioi Theodoroi, 34 km west of Athens and 37 km east of Corinth.
Transport
Road
The Motorway 8 connects Megara with Athens and Corinth.
Rail
The Megara railway station is served by Proastiakos suburban trains to Athens and Kiato.
Air
There is a small military airfield south of the town,
Municipality
The municipality of Megara was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of two former municipalities, Megara and Nea Peramos, which became municipal units.[15] In 2017 Kineta became a separate community within the municipal unit of Megara.[16]
The municipality has an area of 330.11 km2, the municipal unit 322.21 km2.[17]
Districts and suburbs
- Agia Triada
- Aigeirouses
- Kineta
- Koumintri
- Lakka Kalogirou
- Moni Agiou Ierotheou
- Moni Agiou Ioannou Prodromou
- Moni Panachrantou
- Pachi
- Stikas
- Vlychada
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 |
2021 | - | 30,773 | 38,033 |
Sports
- Vyzas F.C., football team
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[18]
- Megarian school of philosophy[19]
- philosopher of the Megarian school[20]
- Giorgos Papagiannis, Professional basketball player, playing for Fenerbahçe S.K. (basketball) in the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi
Facilities
- Medium-wave transmitter with a 180-metre-tall radio mast, broadcasting on 666 kHz and 981 kHz
See also
Notes
- ^ "Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2021, Μόνιμος Πληθυσμός κατά οικισμό" [Results of the 2021 Population - Housing Census, Permanent population by settlement] (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 29 March 2024.
- ^ "Mythology - Ancient History". Municipality of Salamina. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
- ^ "Ancient Salamis". Athens Attica. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
- ^ Paus. i. 39. § 5, i. 40. § 6
- ^ a b Alexander Herda (2015), Megara and Miletos: Colonising with Apollo. A Structural Comparison of Religious and Political Institutions in Two Archaic Greek Polis States
- ^ Aristotle, Politics V 4,5
- ^ 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).
- ^ Plutarch, Brutus 8,4
- ^ Jerome, To Ageruchia, Letter cxxiii.15
- ^ Suda, § tau.537
- ^ E. Robinson, Democracy Beyond Athens, Cambridge 2011, 46-47.
- ISBN 9781612191294.
- S2CID 146491518.
- ^ World Aero Data[usurped]
- ^ "ΦΕΚ A 87/2010, Kallikratis reform law text" (in Greek). Government Gazette.
- ^ "ΦΕΚ 9Α - 2017, Αναγνώριση του αυτοτελούς οικισμού «Κινέτα» Δήμου Μεγαρέων ως Τοπικής Κοινότητας" (PDF) (in Greek). Government Gazette.
- ISSN 1106-5761. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
- S2CID 162187770.
- S2CID 123498195. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
- ^ Platts, John (1825). A Universal Biography: 1st series. From the creation to the birth of Christ. Sherwood, Jones, and Company. p. 479.
- ISBN 9781442246393.
External links
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 76.