Mégare (in Greek old τὰ Μέγαρα / tà Mégara ) is a Greek Cité of the Attique, capital of Mégaride. Located at the end is Isthme of Corinth, halfway between Corinthe and Athens, it is known at the origin under the name of Nisée ( Νίσαια / Nísaia ), according to the legendary king éponyme Nisos.

History

According to the tradition, the city is populated by Doriens after those were isolated of Athens by the sacrifice of the king Codros. Not terrestrial passage between central Greece and the Peloponnese, the city acquires importance quickly. Its two ports, one on the Gulf Saronique and the other on the Gulf of Corinth, make a shopping mall of first importance of it.

Between 730 and 550 av. J. - C., it knows a colonial activity considerable: it bases Astacos, Chalcédoine and Byzance on the the Bosphorus; Héraclée of the Bridge in Bithynie; Sélinonte and Megara Hyblaea in Sicily. Towards 600 av. J. - C., it fall under the domination from the tyrant Théagène; the tyranny was followed political struggles whose echo is perhaps in the poems of Théognis. It loses its territories in the west with the profit of Corinthe, and Salamine with the profit of Athens (570 av. J. - C.).

Little before 500 av. J. - C., it joined in the Ligue of the Peloponnese and takes an active share with the medic Guerres. At the end of these wars, Mégariens, taken in frontier litigations with Corinth, leave their allies péloponnésiens and place under the protection of Athens (460 av. J. - C.. This one then sends troops of occupation which occupy the port of the gulf of Corinth. The other is connected to Mégare by the Long Walls, bricked up in 459 av. J. - C.

After the defeat of the Athenians, beaten by the Philistines with Coronée in 447 av. J. - C., Mégariens revolt and massacre the garrison. In answer, the Athenians promulgate a decree excluding them from all the ports and dampings of the Athenian empire; this “decree mégarien” is one of the causes of the Peloponnesian War. Mégare suffers much from this war but is not taken by Athens, thanks to the fast arrival of the general Spartan Brasidas with troops of help (423 av. J. - C.). This one imposes a oligarchical mode then.

At the fourth century BC, Mégare remains apart from the operations of war, although it is combined in Athens against Philippe II of Macedonia. The city is taken and plundered in 307 av. J-C. by Démétrios Poliorcète and, although it remains free thanks to the prayers of the Athenians at Démétrios, Mégare is never concerned completely this disaster.

In 251 av. J. - C., it adheres to the Achaean Ligue, on the instigation of Aratos. When Cléomène III of Sparte takes Corinthe, in 223 av. J. - C., Mégare is cut its allies. With the assent of Aratos, it joined then the Confédération béotienne. At the time of the démétriaque war, it falls under domination Macedonian. With died of Démétrius II, in 229 av. J. - C., Mégare joined the Achaean League again. The reversal of Aratos in 224 av. J. - C. the growth to return towards Thèbes, within alliance Macedonian. Lastly, in 192 av. J. - C., Mégare finds the Achaens. Furious, Boétiens besiege Mégare; the Achaean troops carried out by Philopoemen however force them to give up the ground. Lastly, in 146 av. J. - C., during the war of Achaïe, Mégare is taken by the Roman general Metellus.

Mégare is the fatherland of the Théognis poet and the philosophers Euclide and Stilpon. It is also old évêché.

Jerome de Stridon brings back in one of its letters the proverb following on Mégariens: “They build as if they were to live eternally, and they live as if they were to die the following day. ”