This monograph emerged from a thesis directed in collaboration by faculty at the universities of Neuchâtel and Maine (France). It is shaped by the insight that homeland Megara (Nisaean Megara) shared with its colonies cultural features and political structures. Hence it is divided into the large geographical blocks of the Megarian realm: the archaic history of Isthmian Megara; the foundation and early history of Megara Hyblaea and Selinous in Sicily; Megarian colonies in the Propontis and Black Sea; and Megarian political institutions. R. decided not to discuss most religious institutions (especially calendars and cult epiklêses), an excusable choice on grounds of space and avoiding elongation of the project. Yet this did exclude a well-documented social sphere with cross-cultural ramifications that could indicate the scope of the processes of institutional duplication, adoptions from the colonial ambience and adaptation to local conditions, all central to the enterprise.
R. is to be commended for systematically reviewing his scholarly predecessors, like K. Hanell and R. Legon. The bibliography is exhaustive, though naturally comprising works of direct relevance and general tenor rather than eclectic scholarship amassed over time. R.’s historical judgement is generally sound but, perhaps unsurprisingly for so far-ranging a study, inclining towards conservativism.
Part 1 deals with Isthmian Megara, initially covering topics such as synoecism; its five subdivisions (merê); Strabo's notice (9.1.10 C394) that the Megarians produced Iliadic verses presenting Ajax as a Megarian war-leader; early relations with its stronger and usually hostile neighbour Corinth; and the relationship of Megarian colonisation to synoecism. On the five merê, whose interpretation appears here and later in the discussion of political institutions, R.’s treatment has little patience for the idea that, regardless of their possible origin in kômai, their later history was shaped by various displacements of population. An overview of conflicts with Athens follows, where discussion of the evidence from myth and ritual is notably good, and which culminates with an assessment of the struggle over Salamis (modernising economic analysis being sensibly rebuffed). Next comes the calamitous sixth-century stasis, in which R. surprisingly considers the palintokia ‘payback of interest’, known from Plutarch's Greek Questions, to be more moderate than Solon's seisakhtheia. Here also R.’s conservative sensibility may thwart analysis because it is hard to read Theognis as reflecting Megarian politics except by interposing a significant authorial distance created by genre and generalisation of audience reception. This section closes with an examination of the aetiology of colonisation, canvassing factors such as resource deficiency, military defeat, political rebalancing after factionalism and commerce. Here and elsewhere, I would have preferred more consideration of the possibility that Megarian colonisation was in part influenced externally, first by the Euboeans and Corinthians and then by Miletus. Throughout R. perforce explores the Megarika (Megarian historiography), Aristotle's lost Constitution, especially as reflected in Plutarch's Greek Questions, and the Theognidea.
The second part treats Megara's colonies, split in subsections concerning Sicily, the Propontis and the Black Sea. Important initial points assert the heterogeneous demography of these establishments and the large impact of local adaptations. The treatment of the Sicilian colonies (Megara Hyblaea and Selinous, shared with Sicilian Megara) is greatly advantaged by intensive exploration by Italian and French archaeologists, which R. has consulted and reports exhaustively. The foundation of Sicilian Megara is explored through Thucydides, Ephorus, Strabo, [Scymnus] and Polyaenus. Supplementing these texts, archaeological data indicate collaboration by native Sicels with the colonists. A short, rather less probative, discussion examines rationales for settlement; here let me reiterate the hypothesis that the foundation of Sicilian Megara is to be connected with the emergence of an autonomous Isthmian Megara. R.’s treatment of Megara Hyblaea ends by considering its early urban structure. The investigation of Selinous follows a similar arrangement. Inquiry into its foundation involves fixing a chronology, and then shifts to Selinountine relations with the natives and westward outreach. Exploration of the reasons for its founding rightly stresses its role as a node in routes of long-distance direct commerce. Epigraphical evidence, usually rare in the Megarian west (as elsewhere in Sicily), assists R.’s understanding of the rapport between the Selinountines and the homeland Megarians, and the urban development of Selinous is also briefly considered.
The second chapter of the second part covers the Megarian emplacements in the Propontis, where exposition must change in order to reflect altered evidentiary support, affected by uneven excavation and, in the case of Byzantium, massive settlement overlay. Chronology requires that poorly evidenced Astacus be treated first. Here side issues dominate the account, such as the hypothesis of a Megarian network of colonies and evidence for recolonisations on the site and in its vicinity. Chalcedon is better attested, but offers interpretative challenges, including chronology, and its description as ‘established by the blind’ for its being preferred to the site of Byzantium. R. explains how favourable sailing conditions northward and security factors may have promoted the earlier placement for Chalcedon. The evidentiary dossier on Selymbria is even thinner. Byzantium is better documented, although later sources on foundation create complexity (e.g. on the founding hestiai). Considerable effort is applied to sift through participation by (initially) Milesians, Boeotians, Corinthians, Argives and (subsequently) Chalcedonian epoikoi, Spartans and Athenians. Involvement by the Thracians is finally considered.
Attention now shifts to Megarian establishments in the Black Sea, starting from Heraclea Pontica. Here testimonia indicate a Boeotian role in settlement – both Tanagra and Thebes are noted – which R. judges historical. Discussed here are the native agrarian dependents of the Heracleiots, the Mariandynoi, who are relatively well known and have drawn interest from scholars of ancient servitude. Mesambria is next: its chronology must be reconstructed, with colonists from Byzantium and Chalcedon. There is some indication of the settlement as a refuge, successively reinforced. Again the role of the Thracians at Mesambria needs deciphering.
The final section deals with political institutions arguably shared by Nisaean Megara and its colonies. R. first treats the traditional three Dorian tribes directly attested for homeland Megara and traceable through the tripartite organisation of other offices. Byzantium, Chalcedon and Mesambria provide their indirect traces, while somewhat stronger evidence exists for Heraclea. The next level of organisation comprises the hekatostyes (notional ‘hundreds’ for R.; initially military in function) that may be surmised for the mêtropolis and are attested epigraphically for Byzantium, Chalcedon and literarily as well for Heraclea (and its own colonies). R. rejects a structural role for the traditional five kômai in Megara and its colonies. Next are the magistracies for which late epigraphic attestation predominates: a basileus, although Byzantium and Chalcedon had an eponymous hieromnamon (perhaps derived from Argos); aisimnatai with prytanic functions, with uncertain connections to spottily attested colleges of probouloi and pentekaideka; stratêgoi (usually five), whose competence could transcend military activity; five damiourgoi (again possibly of Argive provenience); and possibly nomophylakes.
A short conclusion is offered, noting salient points on the causation for Megarian colonisation, composite settlement and state structure. The work closes with an exhaustive bibliography; solid source, geographical and thematic indexes; colour plates, necessarily highly selective; and plans and maps, which I found somewhat disappointing (for their lack of relevant detail). This study of one of the most important archaic colonising poleis will not only interest readers who wish to learn about Megara, Byzantium and Heraclea (to mention only the most important of the states in question), but will also prove useful to scholars and students interested in studying the phenomenon of early Greek colonisation in its entirety.
