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MEGARA YVLEA (Ancient city) SICILY
Megara sometimes called, for distinction's sake, Megara Hyblaea (ta
Megara: Eth. Megareus or Megareus Hublaios, Megarensis), a city of Sicily, situated
on the E. coast of the island, between Syracuse and Catana, in the deep bay formed
by the Xiphonian promontory. It was unquestionably a Greek colony, deriving its
origin from the Megara in Greece Proper; and the circumstances attending its foundation
are related in detail by Thucydides. He tells us that a colony from Megara, under
the command of a leader named Lamis, arrived in Sicily about the time that Leontini
was founded by the Chalcidic colonists, and settled themselves first near the
mouth of the river Pantagias, at a place called Trotilus. From thence they removed
to Leontini itself, where they dwelt for a time together with the Chalcidians;
but were soon afterwards expelled by them, and next established themselves on
the promontory or peninsula of Thapsus, near Syracuse. Hence they again removed
after the death of Lamis, and, at the suggestion of Hyblon, a Sicilian chief of
the surrounding country, finally settled at a place afterwards called the Hyblaean
Megara. (Thuc. vi. 4.) Scymnus Chius follows a different tradition, as he describes
the establishment of the Chalcidians at Naxos and that of the Megarians at Hybla
as contemporary, and both preceding the foundation of Syracuse, B.C. 734. Strabo
also adopts the same view of the subject, as he represents Megara as founded about
the same time with Naxos (B.C. 735), and before Syracuse. (Scymn. Ch. 271-276;
Strab. vi. p. 269.) It is impossible to reconcile the two accounts, but that of
Thucydides is probably the most trustworthy. According to this the foundation
of Megara may probably be placed about 726 B.C. Of its earlier history we have
scarcely any information, but it would appear to have attained to a flourishing
condition, as 100 years after its foundation it sent out, in its turn, a colony
to the other end of Sicily, where it founded the city of Selinus, which was destined
to rise to far greater power than its parent city. (Thuc. vi. 4; Scymn. Ch. 291;
Strab. vi. p. 272.)
Nothing more is known of Megara till the period of its destruction
by Gelon of Syracuse, who, after a long siege, made himself master of the city
by a capitulation; but, notwithstanding this, caused the bulk of the inhabitants
to be sold into slavery, while he established the more wealthy and noble citizens
at Syracuse. (Herod. vii. 156; Thuc. vi. 4.) Among the persons thus removed was
the celebrated comic poet Epicharmus, who had received his education at Megara,
though not a native of that city. (Suid. s. v. Epicharmos; Diog. Laert. viii.
3.) According to Thucydides, this event took place 245 years after the foundation
of Megara, and may therefore be placed about 481 B. C. It is certain that Megara
never recovered its power and independence. Thucydides distinctly alludes to it
as not existing in his time as a city, but repeatedly mentions the locality, on
the sea-coast, which was at that time occupied by the Syracusans, but which the
Athenian general Lamachus proposed to make the head-quarters of their fleet. (Thuc.
vi. 49, 96.) From this time we meet with repeated mention of a place named Megara
or Megaris (Scyl. p. 4. § 6), which it seems impossible to separate from Hybla,
and it is probable that the two were, in fact, identical. The site of this later
Megara or Hybla may be fixed, with little doubt, at the mouth of the river Alabus
(Cantaro); but there seems much reason to suppose that the ancient city, the original
Greek colony, was situated almost close to the remarkable promontory now occupied
by the city of Agosta or Augusta.1 It is difficult to believe that this position,
the port of which is at least equal to that of Syracuse, while the peninsula itself
has the same advantages as that of Ortygia, should have been wholly neglected
in ancient times; and such a station would have admirably served the purposes
for which Lamachus urged upon his brother generals the occupation of the vacant
site of Megara. (Thuc. vi. 49.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Minor (he mikra), afterwards called Megara.
A town in Sicily on the east coast north of Syracuse, founded by Dorians from Megara in Greece, B.C. 728, on the site of a small town, Hybla, and hence called Megara Hyblaea, and its inhabitants Megarenses Hyblaei. From the time of Gelon it belonged to Syracuse.
Total results on 21/5/2001: 18 for Megara Hyblaea, 3 for Hyblaean Megara.
A city on the E coast of Sicily, 20 km N of Syracuse. It was founded
by the Megarians ca. 750 B.C. to judge from recent discoveries. Literary tradition
dates it to 728 (Thuc. 6.4). A century later it was the metropolis of Selinuntia
(Thuc. ibid.). It was destroyed in 483 B.C. by Gelon (Herod. 7.156). With the
exception of a fortification built by the Syracusans at the time of the Athenian
expedition (Thuc. 6.49 and 94), the site remained unoccupied until the foundation
of a new colony under Timoleon ca. 340 B.C. This new city was in turn destroyed
by the Romans during the second Punic war ca. 313 B.C. (Livy 24.35). A rural settlement,
founded among the ruins, existed until the 6th c. A.D. when the site was abandoned.
The first systematic explorations began at the end of the 19th c.,
in a necropolis. At the beginning of this century part of the wall and the remains
of a large sanctuary were uncovered. (The latter is now again buried.)
The superposition of three settlements (greatest height preserved
under the ground 2.5 m) makes the interpretation of the remains difficult. The
aerial photographs show the topography clearly: two plateaus standing above the
sea and separated by a depression. There is no acropolis or natural defense. The
area excavated is confined to a part of the N plateau. The archaic wall constructed
at the end of the 6th c. encompasses both plateaus, but the fortification erected
around 215 B.C., prior to the Roman attack, defended only the E portion of the
N plateau. The last settlement did not extend much beyond the area of this Hellenistic
fortification.
Although the most ancient necropoleis are not known, three great necropoleis
of the 6th and 7th c. in the N, W, and S have been explored. From the N necropolis
comes the great kourotrophe (second quarter of the 6th c.) and from the necropolis
to the S comes the mid 6th c. kouros, both of which are today in the museum at
Syracuse. The necropoleis from the Hellenistic town are more dispersed and more
fragmentary.
From a historical point of view, the three phases of settlement are
not of equal importance. For the last period (after 214 B.C.) may be noted some
houses (numerous remains of agricultural activity). The main buildings of the
preceding period (340-214 B.C.) are situated next to the agora. On its N side
are the foundations of a great portico from the time of Timoleon (second half
of the 4th c. B.C.) with the remains of a Doric temple in antis behind it. Elements
of Ionic decoration were added to this Doric temple, which was probably dedicated
to Aphrodite. To the S of the agora is a bath house from the end of the 3d c.
B.C., with a round room, installations for water heating, and mosaics. To the
SE are the remains of a small, square, 3d c. sanctuary with small basins for votive
purposes. The most impressive structure from this period remains the powerful
fortifications erected in haste to ward off the Roman menace and containing many
blocks taken from buildings of the archaic period. Noteworthy are the rectangular
towers and the gates, particularly the great gate on the S side with its tenaille.
The most important phase of habitation is the archaic period, as is
indicated by the size of the agora (80 x 60 m), more than twice that of the Hellenistic
agora. This agora and the buildings surrounding it date from the second half of
the 7th c. It is enclosed on three sides and bordered on the fourth by a great
street running N-S. The principal buildings, none of which is preserved above
the level of the foundations, include: on the N side, a stoa (42 x 5.8 m) with
an opening (three columns) in the back wall allowing the passage of a N-S street
towards the agora; on the E, the remains of another, very fragmentary stoa; to
the S, two temples, one (2.5 x 7.5 m) in antis with an axial colonnade, the other
(16 x 6.5 m) very ruined. All these buildings date from the second half of the
7th c. The fourth side of the agora consisted of an ensemble of structures on
the far side of the street which bordered it. There were numerous remodelings
here throughout the archaic period. A "heroon" from the second half
of the 7th c. (13 x 9.8 m) is composed of two cellae opening on the agora, with
basins for offerings, and a frontal stylobate with cupulae for libations. Farther
S, the prytaneum (14 x 11 m) dates from the end of the 6th c. It consists of three
rooms and a big courtyard, and was built on the site of an older building.
This agora is the hinge, so to speak, between two residential districts
of regular but differing orientation. There are precise characteristics common
to the whole of the archaic city: streets 3 m wide running parallel and equidistant
from one another at 25 m, with the insulae which they create divided along their
length by median walls. In addition, two nonparallel streets 5 m wide across the
site from E to W. There is also a single N-S street of the same width. The entire
plan (agora, streets, and dwellings) dates from the second half of the 7th c.
It is the oldest example we yet know of ancient Greek town planning. It should
be noted that neither of those two districts is orthogonal and their differing
orientation creates another element of irregularity.
The museum contains, in addition to its presentation of the plan of
the archaic city, the most important fragments of 6th c. architecture: an altar
balustrade of eolic style with large volutes (first half of the 6th c.), a fragment
of carved pediment (first half of the 6th c.), a metope with a carving of a two-horse
chariot (around 520), and marble architectural fragments of purely Ionic style
(last quarter of the 6th c.). This 6th c. presence of Ionic in Dorian colonies
(cf. the Ionic temple of Syracuse) is one of the most important discoveries of
recent years. Another new element provided by the recent excavations is the presence
at Megara of splendid polychrome ceramics whose production flourished above all
in the first half of the 6th c. The finest examples of this Megarian ceramic are
displayed at the museum at Syracuse.
Another room in the museum at Megara is given over to a reconstruction
of the upper part of the facade of a 4th c. temple situated to the N of the agora.
G. Vallet, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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