in Ancient Geography, a noble city, and the capital of the territory of Megaris, which for many years carried on war with the Corinthians and Athenians. It had for some time a school of philosophers, called the Megarici, successors of Euclid the Socratic, a native of Megara. Their dialect was the Doric; changed from the Attic, which it formerly had been, because of Peloponnesian colonists who settled there.

Megara was situated at a distance from the sea, about midway between Athens and Corinth. Its port was called Nisaea, from Nisus son of Pandon the second, who obtained Megaris for his portion, when the kingdom of Athens was divided into four lots by his father. He founded the town, which was eighteen stadia or two miles and a quarter from the city, but united with it, as the Piraeus with Athens, by long walls. It had a temple of Ceres. "The roof (says Pausanias) may be supposed to have fallen through age." The site (as Dr Chandler informs us*) is now covered with rubbish, among which are standing some ruinous churches. The place has been named from them Dode Ecclesiis, "The Twelve Churches;" but the number is reduced to seven. The acropolis or citadel, called also Nisaea, was on a rock by the sea side. Some pieces of the wall remain, and a modern fortress has been erected on it, and also on a lesser rock near it.

The village Megara (continues the doctor) consists of low mean cottages pleasantly situated on the slope of a brow or eminence indented in the middle. On each side of this vale was an acropolis or citadel; one named Caria; the other from Alcathous, the builder of the wall. They related, that he was assisted by Apollo, who laid his harp aside on a stone, which, as Pausanias testifies, if struck with a pebble returned a musical sound. An angle of the wall of one citadel is seen by a windmill. The masonry is of the species called Incertum. In 1676 the city wall was not entirely demolished, but comprehended the two summits, on which are some churches, with a portion of the plain toward the south. The whole site, except the hills, was now green with corn, and marked by many heaps of stones, the collected rubbish of buildings. A few inscriptions are found, with pedestals fixed in the walls and inverted; and also some maimed or mutilated Megara, mutilated statues. One of the former relates to Atticus Herodes, and is on a pedestal which supported a statue erected to him when consul, A.D. 143, by the council and people of Megara, in return for his benefactions and good will toward the city. In the plain behind the summits, on one of which was a temple of Minerva, is a large basin of water, with scattered fragments of marble, the remains of a bath or of a fountain, which is recorded as in the city, and remarkable for its size and ornaments, and for the number of its columns. The spring was named from the local nymphs called Sithnides.

The stone of Megara was of a kind not discovered anywhere else in Hellas; very white, uncommonly soft, and consisting entirely of cockle shells. This was chiefly used; and, not being durable, may be reckoned among the causes of the desolation at Megara, which is so complete, that one searches in vain for vestiges of the many public edifices, temples, and sepulchres, which once adorned the city.

Megara was engaged in various wars with Athens and Corinth, and experienced many vicissitudes of fortune. It was the only one of the Greek cities which did not flourish under their common benefactor Hadrian; and the reason assigned is, that the avenging anger of the gods pursued the people for their impiety in killing Anthemoeritus, a herald, who had been sent to them in the time of Pericles. The Athenian generals were sworn on his account to invade them twice a-year. Hadrian and Atticus were followed by another friend, whose memory is preserved by an inscription on a stone lying near a church in the village:—

"This too is the work of the most magnificent count Diogenes son of Archelaus, who regarding the Grecian cities as his own family, has bestowed on that of the Megarensians one hundred pieces of gold towards the building of their towers, and also one hundred and fifty more, with two thousand two hundred feet of marble toward re-edifying the bath; deeming nothing more honourable than to do good to the Greeks, and to restore their cities." This person is not quite unnoticed in history. He was one of the generals employed by the emperor Anastasius on a rebellion in Isauria. He surprised the capital Claudiopolis, and sustained a siege with great bravery, A.D. 494.

Megara retains its original name. It has been much infested by corsairs; and in 1676 the inhabitants were accustomed, on seeing a boat approach in the daytime or hearing their dogs bark at night, immediately to secrete their effects and run away. The vairvode or Turkish governor, who resided in a forsaken tower above the village, was once carried off. It is no wonder, therefore, that Nisea has been long abandoned. The place was burned by the Venetians in 1687.

Ancient Geography, formerly called Hybla, a town towards the east coast of Sicily; extinct in Strabo's time, though the name Hybla remained on account of the excellence of its honey. It was a colony of Megareans from Greece. Risus Megaricus denotes a horse laugh.