NISAEA, the port of Megara, was older than the city, and is connected in the traditions of the poets with Nisus and his daughter Scylla or Ciris; and when the poets in this fable mention Megara, it must be regarded as mere prolepsis. The Megarians were a maritime people, but not of great importance; they had a small fleet at Nisaea, which was rather more than a mile from the city, and was connected with it by two long walls (σκέλη); the city itself was situated on a hill. The long walls were built by the Athenians after the Persian wars, when they were masters of Megaris. _Pagae_ or _Pegae_ was another town of Megaris on the Corinthian Gulf, and contained a ship-wharf; it likewise had some ships, and was strongly fortified. The history of Megaris is not uninteresting; it is, in fact, that of all the Greek peoples. In the earliest times it was governed by an aristocracy, or rather oligarchy; then the demos rose, and the old inhabitants, oppressed by the conquerors, were led by a man of the highest rank, who set himself up as tyrant. This man was Theagenes. The period of the overthrow of the aristocracy in all the states of Greece and the rising of tyrants falls between Olymp. 30 and 70, a period which may be likened to the 15th century in the middle ages. These τυραννίδες were of a very different character from those of later times; they always belonged to the first families, and were mere usurpations, without the odiousness which generally attaches to the name. Their rule accordingly was by no means hated, as it is when the tyrannis is the result of general anarchy, or of the degeneracy of liberty. The ancient tyrannides arose from a natural want, and from the consciousness that the state could no longer be governed in the way in which it had been done before; they were not cruel, because the sovereignty was not claimed by more than one, so that there was no cause for making him bloodthirsty. If we bear in mind this ancient meaning of the name, we cannot view the tyrannis in an odious light. The tyrannis of later times is very different, for it no longer helps to develop, but rules with cruelty over a mass which cannot control itself. The later these tyrants are the worse they are; and the worst of all are those after the time of Alexander, such as Aristodemus of Elis, Agathocles and Apollonius of Cassandrea. After the fall of Theagenes, the democracy ceased, and Megara, notwithstanding its Doric character, was governed by an oligarchy, just as Corinth after the fall of the Cypselids. During the Persian wars it was a flourishing state, but afterwards it became involved in disputes with its powerful neighbours, the Athenians; and by all kinds of insults offered to them, it drew upon itself their anger; this was senseless, as it always is when the weaker provokes the stronger. The Spartans undertook the Peloponnesian war ostensibly to protect the Megarians, but Megara fared ill in that war.