Megara, a city of Achaia, formerly possessed such a multitude of objects
for a stranger to see, that Pausanias, in his description of Greece,
occupies no less than six chapters in the mere enumeration of them.
Megara was founded 1131 B.C. It is situate at an equal distance from
Athens and Corinth, and is built on two rocks. Its founder has been
variously stated. Some have insisted that it was called after Megareus,
the son of Apollo; some after Megarius, a Boeotian chief; and others
after Megara, a supposed wife of Hercules. However this may be, certain,
we believe, it is, that, under the reign of Codrus, the Peloponnesians
having declared war against the Athenians, and miscarried in their
enterprise, returned and took possession of Megara, which they peopled
with Corinthians. It was originally governed by twelve kings, but
afterwards became a republic. The ancient Megareans are said to have
excelled in nothing but naval affairs. They were reckoned the worst
people of Greece, and were generally detested as fraudulent and
perfidious[353]. Their military acts were few, and not brilliant. They
were bandied about by the Athenians and Corinthians, and had all the bad
qualities of insolent slaves, or servile and dependent friends. Such
having been the case, we are not surprised at what Tertullian says of
the Megareans; viz., that they ate as if they were to die the next day,
and built as if they were to live for ever. Megara, however, was not
without some redeeming qualities, for it had at one time a school for
philosophy, so highly distinguished, that Euclid was at the head of it.
Megara has been greatly distinguished from the circumstance of Phocion
having been buried in its territories. The enemies of Phocion, not
satisfied with the punishment they had caused him to suffer, and
believing some particulars were still wanting to complete their triumph,
obtained an order from the people, that his body should be carried out
of the dominions of Attica, and that none of the Athenians should
contribute the least quantity of wood to honour his funeral pile: these
last offices were therefore rendered to him in the territories of
_Megara_. A lady of the country, who accidentally assisted at his
funeral with her servants, caused a cenotaph, or vacant tomb, to be
erected to his memory on the same spot; and, collecting into her robe
the bones of that great man, which she had carefully gathered up, she
conveyed them into her house by night, and buried them under her hearth,
with these expressions: "Dear and sacred hearth, I here confide to thee,
and deposit in thy bosom, these precious remains of a worthy man.
Preserve them with fidelity, in order to restore them hereafter to the
monument of his ancestors, when the Athenians shall become wiser than
they are at present."
Megara still retains it name: it has been greatly infested by corsairs;
insomuch that in 1676, the inhabitants were accustomed, on seeing a boat
approaching in the daytime, or hearing their dogs bark by night,
immediately to secrete their effects and run away. The Vaiwode, who
lived in a forsaken tower, above the village, was once carried off.
Besides two citadels, Megara had several magnificent structures and
ornaments. One was an aqueduct, distinguished for its grandeur and
beauty; another for a statue of Diana, the protectress; and to these
were added statues of the twelve great gods, of so much excellence, that
they were ascribed to Praxiteles;--a group, consecrated to Jupiter
Olympius, in which was a statue of that deity, with its face of gold and
ivory, and the rest of the body of burnt earth. There were also a temple
of Bacchus, and another of Venus; a third of Ceres, a fourth of Apollo,
a fifth of Diana, and a sixth of Minerva; in which last was a statue of
the goddess, the body of which was gilt, and the face, feet, and hands
of ivory. There was, also, a chapel dedicated to the Night. Pausanias
speaks, also, of several tombs; especially those of Hyllus, Alcmenes,
Therea, and Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.
In Wheler's time, Megara was a collection of pitiful cottages, whose
walls were sometimes only the broken stones of her ruins, or clay dried
in the sun, covered only with faggots; and these again spread over with
earth above them*.
Chandler describes the site of Megara as covered with rubbish, amongst
which were standing some ruinous churches; some pieces of ancient wall,
on which a modern fortress has been erected. The village consisting of
low, mean cottages, pleasantly situated on the slope of an eminence,
indented in the middle. Nearly the whole site of the ancient city he
found green with corn, and marked by heaps of stones, and the rubbish of
buildings. A few inscriptions, too, were seen: one of which relates to
Herodes Atticus, signalising the gratitude of the Megareans, for his
benefactions and good will. There was another on a stone:--"_This, too,
is the work of the most magnificent Count Diogenes, the son of
Archelaus, who, regarding the Grecian cities as his own family, has
bestowed on that of the Megarensians 100 pieces of gold towards the
building of their towers; and also 150 more, with 2200 feet of marble,
toward re-edifying the bath; deeming nothing more honourable than to do
good to the Greeks, and to restore their cities._"
The person here signalised was one of the generals of the emperor
Anastasius, who employed him on a rebellion in Isauria, A.D. 494.
Wheler also gives an inscription in "honour of Callimachus, Scribe and
Gymnasiarch," and several others. Dr. Clarke also saw one, setting forth
that, "_under the care of Julius, the proconsul, and the prætorship of
Aiscron, this (monument or statue) is raised by the Adrianidæ to
Adrian_."
Several other inscriptions have been found; one in honour of the Empress
Sabina; and others in praise of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. There
is another, too, in honour of a person, who had been several times
conqueror in almost all the public games in Greece and Italy. There was,
also (formerly), another inscription, still more honourable. This was on
the tomb of a person named Choræbus, in which was related, in elegiac
verse, the history of his having devoted himself to death, in order to
free his native country (Thebes) from the evils of a pestilence[354].
The Earl of Sandwich mentions two statues of women, about eight feet
high, without heads; and having no attributes to show for what they were
designed.
Clarke says, that Ionic and Doric capitals, some of which are of
limestone, and others of marble, lie scattered among the ruins, and in
the courts of some of the houses. He procured, also, a few fragments of
terra-cotta, of a bright red hue, beautifully fluted.
Chandler speaks of the remains of a temple of Minerva, near a large
basin of water; on the sides of which are the remains of a bath,
remarkable for its size and ornaments, and for the number of its
columns.
The stone of Megara was of a kind unknown any where else in Hellas; very
white, and consisting entirely of cockle shells; which, not being hard,
may be reckoned among the causes of the destruction of Megara.
Another cause of destruction may be supposed to have originated in its
locality; it being the great road leading to and from the peninsula, as
well as its immediate situation between the two powerful enemies,--the
Athenians and Corinthians,--with whom the Megareans had frequent
contests concerning the boundaries of their respective territories. If
its situation, however, was the cause of its destruction, it was, also,
the one great cause of its consequence[355].
Megara is well known from the following anecdote. The city of _Megara_
being taken by Demetrius, the soldiers demanded leave to plunder the
inhabitants; but the Athenians interceded for them so effectually, that
the city was saved. Stilpon, a celebrated philosopher, lived in that
city, and was visited by Demetrius, who asked him if he had lost any
thing?--"Nothing at all," replied Stilpon, "for I carry all my effects
about me;" meaning by that expression, his justice, probity, temperance,
and wisdom; with the advantage of not ranking any thing in the class of
blessings that could be taken from him[356].