MEG'ARA. (MEG-Ants, ante)was about 20 m. n.w. from Athens and built at the base -of two hills, Caria and Alcathous, each defended by a citadel. Two walls, built by the Athenians during their protectorate over Megara, between 461 and 445 B.C., ran down from the city to its harbor, Nisam. In the time of Pausanias, the Megarian capital had many temples and pub;ie buildings, of which only the most scanty ruins have been preserved. Accoiding to its local legends, the city was named for its founder, Megarus, Bceotian, son of Apollo. Its walls, which were razed by Minos, were said to have been rebuilt by Aleathous, the son of Pelops. Hyperion, son of Agamemnon, is repre sented as the last king, after whose death the government became republican. In his lorie times the city seems to have been under the power of the Athenians, from whom it was wrested by Dorians from the Peloponnesus. It was now colonized by Messenians .and Corinthians, and adopted Dorian institutions. At a time not definitely known it -ceased to be subject to Corinth, and as an independent state rose to 'a high degree of power. It sent out many colonies, of which the most famous were Byzantium, Chalce don, and the Sicilian Megara. It rivaled Athens as a naval power, and for a long time kept possession of Salamis, in spite of the continued efforts of the Atheniang to recapture it. The government had originally been in the hands of the Dorian landed aristocracy, from whom it was usurped about 620 B.C. by Theagenes, who led the popular faction, and established himself as absolute ruler of the state. Upon his expulsion, soon after, a
fierce contest took place between the democratic and aristocratic parties, of which Theog 'Ms, a bitter partisan of the latter, has given an account in his poems. After the Persian wars, Megara carried on hostilities with Corinth, against which site formed an alliance with Athens 461 B.C. But in 4,11 the Megarians repudiated the Athenian alliance, and put to death the Athenian garrison which had been stationed at Megara. In the seventh .year of the Peloponnesian war the democratic party in Megara„.fearing that the aristo -cratic faction would take advantage of the Lacediemonian alliance to re-establish an -oligarchy, resolved to surrender the city to the Athenians. An Athenian army captured Nistna, but the arrival of Brasidas with a force of, Lacethemonians prevemed the surren -der of Megara. From this time Megara is but little heard of in history-. A democratic form of government was re-established in 357; after the death of Alexander the great, the .city passed into the control of Demetrius Poliocertes and Ptolemy Soter successively. Demetrius, the son of Antigonus Gonabas, captured and nearly destroyed it. It was :afterwards partially rebuilt, and finally surrendered to the Romans under Metellus. Alone among the cities of Greece it was not restored by Hadrian; Alaric still further reduced it, and in 1687 the Venetians completely destroyed it.