Megāra

(æ, and plural, orum), a city of Achaia, the capital of a country called Megaris , founded about 1131 B.C. It is situate nearly at an equal distance from Corinth and Athens, on the Sinus Saronic us. It was built upon two rocks, and is still in being, and preserves its ancient name. It was called after Megareus the son of Neptune, who was buried there, or from Megareus, a son of Apollo. It was originally governed by 12 kings, but became afterwards a republic, and fell into the hands of the A then i ans, from whom it was rescued by the Heraclidæ. At the battle of Salamis the people of Megara furnished 20 ships for the defence of Greece, and at Platæa they had 300 men in the army of Pausanias. There was here a sect of philosophers called the Megaric , who held the world to be eternal. Cicero , Academic a , bk. 4 , ch. 42 ; On Oratory , bk. 3 , ch. 17 ; Letters to Atticus , bk. 1, ltr. 8 .— Pausanias , bk. 1 , ch. 39 .— Strabo , bk. 6 .— Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 3 .――A town of Sicily, founded by a colony from Megara in Attica, about 728 years before the christian era. It was destroyed by Gelon king of Syracuse; and before the arrival of the Megarean colony it was called Hybla . Strabo , ♦ bk. 6 , . — Virgil , Æneid , bk. 3 , li. 689 . ♦ ‘26’ replaced with ‘6’