592 M E G A R A. 
CHAP, elevated above the usual level of such campaign 
A. 
' * territories. From a view of this important field, 
it must be evident that the town of Megara owed 
^s celebrity more to its fertile domain, than to 
its position with respect to the sea ; yet it is 
natural to suppose that the inhabitants of this 
country were fishermen and pirates, before they 
turned their attention towards the produce of 
the soil. Plutarch believed, that the fabled con- 
test between Neptune and Minerva, for Attica, 
was an allusion to the efforts made by the 
antient kings of the country, to withdraw their 
subjects from a sea-faring life, towards agricul- 
tural employments '. Be this as it may : when 
both were united, and the convenience of a 
maritime situation was superadded to the advan- 
tages of inland wealth, it might be expected 
that Megara was able to make so distinguished a 
figure as she formerly did, in the common cause. 
At the battle of Salamis she furnished twenty 
ships for the defence of Greece; and at Plattea 
numbered her three hundred warriors in the 
army of Pausanias. The city existed above 
eleven centuries before the Christian aera ; and, 
in the days of its splendour, it boasted its 
(1) Vid. Pint (trek, in Thes. p 87- 1.23. 
