Megara (city of the Megareis Hyblaioi)
Megara (city of the Megareis Hyblaioi), also known as Megara Hyblaea, was an ancient city located on the eastern coast of Sicily, approximately fourteen miles north of Syracuse. Founded by settlers from Megara in Corinth around 728 BC, although some evidence suggests a potential earlier settlement around 750 BC, Megara Hyblaea was established after a series of unsuccessful colonization attempts in nearby areas. The city was strategically positioned beside the river Cantera, on a low plateau that had been a Neolithic village, and named in honor of the Sicel king Hyblon.
Despite its fertile landscape and well-supplied water sources, Megara Hyblaea faced significant challenges from the neighboring city-state of Syracuse, which eventually destroyed it in 483 BC. Following periods of decline and partial restoration, including a revival under Timoleon around 340 BC, the city prospered until it was devastated again during the Second Punic War in 214 BC. Excavations reveal that early Megara Hyblaea featured organized urban planning with rectangular stone houses, an agora, and substantial public buildings. The site also includes impressive cemeteries with monumental tombs, reflecting the city's historical significance and architectural development throughout its existence.
Megara (city of the Megareis Hyblaioi)
The city of the Megareis Hyblaioi (the form Megara Hyblaea is modern), was situated on the east coast of Sicily, fourteen miles north of Syracuse
The founders came from Megara on the Isthmus of Corinth; the traditional date of their settlement, 728, has been queried owing to the discovery of earlier pottery, which has suggested a possible dating to c 750 instead. The immigrants had successively attempted to settle at Trotilum (above La Bruca bay), Leontini (Carlentini near Lentini, from which the Chalcidians expelled them) and Thapsus (off the Gulf of Augusta) before settling at their final location a few miles further to the north. This was the site of a former Neolithic village on a low plateau beside the river Cantera, given them by the native (Sicel) monarch Hyblon, whose name they perpetuated in that of their own new city. Although defenceless, the place was well-watered; it occupied a small coastal plain, and short beaches, behind a promontory, provided an anchorage.
Megara Hyblaea colonized Selinus (Selinunte) c 651 or c 628. But although possessing its own local pottery industry—which produced wares of fine quality—and able, as finds show, to import wine and oil, it was dominated by the proximity of Syracuse, whose ruler Gelon destroyed the town in 483. During the Peloponnesian War the Syracusans fortified the ruins (at that time unoccupied) against the Athenian expedition. Restored by Timoleon—the Corinthian leader of Syracuse—c 340 Megara Hyblaea prospered and issued coinage. In the Second Punic War, however, it suffered extensive destruction at the hands of Marcus Claudius Marcellus (214). Only a few scattered houses and farms were in time built over the site, but new fortifications were constructed during the campaigns of Octavian (the future Augustus) against Sextus Pompeius, son of Pompey the Great (c 37/6).
Excavations have shown that the original settlement covered a relatively large zone, though not all the houses were built close together. They were rectangular, single-roomed stone structures, and some of them possessed storage pits for grain. These first buildings—which go back to the late eighth century—were constructed, for the most part, according to a regular plan, which represents one of our earliest known examples of Greek town planning. Shortly before 600, they were augmented by a trapezoidal agora, and flanked by a portico and several shrines. Beside the agora are the foundations of another large portico dating from the epoch of Timoleon, a Doric temple (probably dedicated to Aphrodite) and a bathing establishment of the later third century BC; although the Hellenistic city was smaller than its predecessors. The various cemeteries of Megara Hyblaea include a series of imposing monumental tombs beside the main road to Syracuse. Powerful fortifications were created in haste against the Roman menace. Local finds include a surprising quantity of sculpture.