Megarian Decree. History

The Megarian Decree, passed in 433 or 432, became the flash point for the war between Athens and Sparta which helped push the states into the Peloponnesian War. As with all issues, there were various layers and interpretations as to what really happened and how it was perceived. The incident that prompted the decree appears simple: the killing of an Athenian official and the usurpation of Athenian farmland by the Megarians. In reality it was Megara support for Corinth against Athens that led Athens to exact revenge.

The Athenian statesman Pericles convinced the popular assembly to issue a decree to prohibit Megarian merchants from trading in Athens and its entire empire. This decree created a trade embargo on Megara, not only crippling the city’s economic livelihood, but denying access to Athenian markets of goods coming through Megara. What lay behind the decree were more political and military issues.

Megara acted as the gateway port for goods coming from the Peloponnese into Athens, especially from Corinth. The Megarian merchants acted as intermediaries and had consistently traded with Athens on good relations. Trade embargoes were unknown in Greece, especially during peacetime. Sparta and Athens had concluded the Thirty Years Peace in 445, with one of its provisions stipulating that disputes between the two states be submitted to arbitration.

The political and military situation, however, had changed since the peace treaty. In 433, Sparta’s ally Corinth, along with some ships from Megara, had been defeated at Corcyra by its fleet, helped by Athens. Corinth had demanded action by Sparta against the Athenians, but Sparta did not want to risk war over an ally’s misadventures. The Corinthians began to clamor that Athens was attempting to take over all of Greece. Pericles realized that Corinth could rally the Spartan allies and perhaps attack Athens, so to counter this threat, Pericles began to isolate Corinth. One way doing this was to punish states that had supported Corinth in its acts against Athens, such as Megara. Corinth and Megara then appealed to Sparta.

The Spartans had so far not pursued any action against Athens after the Corcyran event, and Pericles, who was on friendly terms with the Spartan king Archidamus, may have believed that even in this instance Sparta would not act. The Spartan king had already professed his belief that Sparta could not muster a force capable of reducing the naval empire of Athens. Corinth, however, knew that there were other Spartans who believed Athens was a threat and began to play upon their fears and prejudices.

Thucydides states that the cause of the war was Sparta’s fear of Athens growing stronger, not the pleas of its allies. This may be true, but the allies must have made a strong case of Athenian aggression, at Corcyra, Megara, and other places, in order to force Sparta out of its isolation. Another writer, Diodorus, stated that Sparta sent ambassadors to Athens to demand the repeal of the Megarian Decree or risk war. The two authors are not at odds, though, since Thucydides indicated that the Megarian Decree was the stated cause, not the real cause.

The two sides now were in a situation of defending their national honor. Athens could argue that Sparta did not abide by the peace treaty and thus seek arbitration; on the other hand, Sparta could stress that Athens had systematically ignored the treaty through its actions at Corcyra, Megara, and Potidaea (another Corinthian colony, but part of the Athenian Empire). Archidamus may have hoped to keep Corinth satisfied if the Megarian Decree were rescinded without actually helping or acceding to Corinth’s real demands.

The language of the ambassadors as reported, however, was a “demand,” something that no national state could accept. Both Pericles and Archidamus had created a scenario where neither could back down: Pericles could not accept the Spartan demands without losing face with the Athenian populace, and Archidamus could not retreat without losing support at home or from Corinth. Contemporary Athenian writers indicate that Athens went to war over Megara, and the popular sentiment in Athens may have been that Pericles and the decree pushed Athens into the war.

In the end, Pericles failed to isolate Corinth since Sparta now declared war on Athens, with the stated cause (at least in part) being the Megarian Decree. Archidamus failed to appease the allies by getting Athens to rescind the decree (since it really did not matter to Sparta), and hence being forced by his opponents in Sparta to go to war. While the Megarian Decree may not have been the real reason for the war, it provided a rallying point for both sides. Athens would not have its internal and foreign policy dictated by Sparta; and Sparta would not ignore its allies’ pleas for help. In the end, both sides suffered in the ensuing war.