View source for Megara Hyblaea

{{Short description|City of ancient Sicily and Italian archaeological site}}
{{For|other ancient cities named "Hybla" in Sicily|Hybla (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox ancient site
  |name = Megara Hyblaea
  |native_name = τὰ Μέγαρα {{in lang|grc}}
  |alternate_name = 
  |image = Megara Hyblaea 001.jpg
  |alt = 
  |caption = Mosaics on the floor of a house near the western gate of Megara Hyblaea.
  |map_type = Italy
  |map_alt = Megara Hyblaea is located on the eastern coast of Sicily, Italy
  |coordinates = {{coord|37|12|14.04|N|15|10|54.84|E|display=inline,title}}
  |location = [[Augusta, Sicily]], [[Italy]]
  |region = [[Sicily]]
  |type = Settlement
  |part_of = 
  |length = 
  |width = 
  |area = 
  |height = 
  |builder = Greek settlers from [[Megara]]
  |material = 
  |built = 8th century BC
  |abandoned = Approximately 483&nbsp;BC
  |epochs = [[Archaic Greece|Archaic Greek]]
  |cultures = [[Greeks|Greek]]
  |dependency_of = 
  |occupants = 
  |event = 
  |excavations = 1891
  |archaeologists = 
  |condition = Ruined
  |ownership = Public
  |management = Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali ed Ambientali di Siracusa
  |public_access = Yes
  |website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
  |notes = 
}}

'''Megara Hyblaea''' ({{langx|grc|Μέγαρα Ὑβλαία}}) – perhaps identical with [[Hybla Major]] – is an [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] colony of [[Magna Graecia]] in [[Sicily]], situated near [[Augusta, Sicily|Augusta]] on the east coast, {{convert|20|km|mi}} north-northwest of [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]], [[Italy]], on the deep bay formed by the Xiphonian promontory.<ref>See {{Barrington|47}}</ref>  There were at least three (and possibly as many as five) cities<ref>The circumstance that there were so many towns called Hybla in Sicily probably arose from the fact mentioned by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], that there was a local divinity of the name. (Paus. v. 23. § 6.)</ref> named "Hybla" in ancient accounts of Sicily which are often confounded with each other, and among which it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish.<ref>For example, [[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]], Britain's foremost classicist of the 19th century, begins to describe [[Hybla Major]] with an admixture of locational and historic information from both [[Hybla Gereatis]] and Megara Hyblaea. Caution should therefore be used when assuming reference to "Hybla" in an ancient source refers to this city.</ref>

== History ==
It was unquestionably a [[Greek colony]], deriving its origin from the [[Megara]] in [[Ancient Greece|Greece]]; 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]] ({{langx|grc|Λάμις}}), arrived in Sicily about the time that [[Leontini]] was founded by the [[Chalcis|Chalcidic]] colonists, and settled themselves first near the mouth of the river Pantagias, at a place called Trotilon ([[Latin]]: Trotilus, modern [[Brucoli]]). From there 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 [[Thapsos]] (Latin: Thapsus, modern Magnisi), near Syracuse. They again relocated 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|Scymnus Chius]] follows a different tradition, as he describes the establishment of the Chalcidians at [[Naxos (Sicily)|Naxos]] and that of the Megarians at Hybla as contemporary, and both preceding the foundation of Syracuse, 734&nbsp;BC. [[Strabo]] also adopts the same view, representing Megara as founded about the same time with Naxos (735&nbsp;BC), and before Syracuse. (Scymn. Ch. 271-76; Strab. vi. p.&nbsp;269.) It is impossible to reconcile the two accounts, but that of Thucydides is probably the most trustworthy. Thus the foundation of Megara may be placed about 726&nbsp;BC. Professor Miller, in her reinvestigation of ancient source materials has determined that they point to various dates of foundation from 758&nbsp;BC (per the ''[[Chronicon (Eusebius)|Chronikon]]'' of [[Eusebius]]) to 728&nbsp;BC (from her reconstructions of dates from Thucydides).<ref>M. Miller, ''The Sicilian Colony Dates'' (1970) {{ISBN|0-87395-049-6}}, pp. 18–20, 276–78</ref> Of its earlier history we have scarcely any information, but it would appear to have attained a flourishing condition, as 100&nbsp;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.&nbsp;272.)

Nothing more is known of Megara till the period of its destruction by [[Gelon of Syracuse]], about 483&nbsp;BC, 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. ([[Suda]], under {{lang|grc|Ἐπίχαρμος}}; [[Diogenes Laërtius]] viii. 3.) According to Thucydides, this event took place 245&nbsp;years after the foundation of Megara, and may therefore be placed about 483&nbsp;BC. 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 [[ancient Athens|Athenian]] general [[Lamachus]], during the [[Sicilian Expedition|expedition against Syracuse]] (415–413&nbsp;BC), proposed to make the headquarters of their fleet; his advice was not taken, and the next spring the Syracusans fortified it. (Thuc. vi. 49, 96.)

From this time we meet with repeated mention of a place named Megara or Megaris ([[Scylax|Scyl.]] p.&nbsp;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 (modern [[Cantera river|Cantera]]); but there seems much reason to suppose that the ancient city, the original Greek colony, was situated close to the remarkable promontory now occupied by the city of [[Augusta, Sicily|Augusta]].<ref>The modern city of this name dates only from the thirteenth century, being founded in 1229 by the emperor [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] from whom it derives its name.</ref> 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.).

==Archaeology==
[[File:Pile capital from Megara Hyblea Die Baukunst Der Griechen fig 310.jpg|thumb|[[Pilaster]] [[capital (architecture)|capital]] from Megara Hyblaea with [[palmette]]s between [[volute]]s. 5th century BCE.]]
Excavations carried on in 1891 led to the discovery of the northern portion of the western town wall, which in one section served at the same time as an embankment against floods—it was apparently more conspicuous in the time of [[Philipp Cluver]], (''Sicilia antiqua'', Leiden, 1619) p.&nbsp;133—of an extensive [[necropolis]], about 1500 tombs of which have been explored, and of a deposit of [[Votive offering|votive]] objects from a temple. The harbour lay to the north of the town.

In the mid-seventh century, the city was organised according to a regularised plan. An agora emerged with stoas on its north and eastern sides. This is one of the earliest known agoras.<ref>Martin, R. 1974, 'Architecture of Crete, Greece, and the Greek World', in P. Luigi Nervi (ed.), Ancient Architecture: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, Greece, Harry N. Abrams, Inc, New York, p. 336.</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Megara Hyblaea|volume=18|pages=76–77}}
*{{SmithDGRG}}

{{Magna Graecia}}
{{Archaeological sites in Sicily}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient cities in Sicily]]
<!--[[Category:Ancient Greece]]    already an indirect member 
via Category:Dorian colonies in Magna Graecia-->
[[Category:Megarian colonies]]
[[Category:Dorian colonies in Magna Graecia]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Sicily]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Italy]]
[[Category:Former populated places in Italy]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in the Province of Syracuse]]
[[Category:Greek city-states]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 8th century BC]]
[[Category:Augusta, Sicily]]