Geography

​After Crommyon, the Scironian Rocks loom over Attica, leaving no passage along the sea. Above them is the road leading from the Isthmus to Megara and Attica. The road approaches the rocks so closely that in many places it is even on the edge of a precipice, because of the mountain hanging over it, which is difficult to pass and high. Here is localized the myth about Sciron and Pityocamptes, who plundered the said mountainous country, and whom Theseus slew. And the Athenians have named the northwest wind, which blows down violently from these heights, “Sciron,” as a sinister wind. After the Scironian Rocks, the promontory Minoa projects, forming the harbor in Nisaea. Nisaea is the seaport of Megara, distant eighteen stadia from the city, connected to it on both sides by long walls; and this too used to be called Minoa.

​In ancient times, then, the same Ionians who held Attica held this country also, before Megara was yet founded; wherefore the Poet, too, does not make mention of these places specifically, but, in calling all those in Attica “Athenians,” has included these also, considering them as Athenians under the common name; as, when he says in the Catalogue: “And those who held Athens, the well-built city,” we must understand that the Megarians of today are also included, as having also taken part in the expedition. And here is a proof: for in ancient times Attica was called Ionia and Ias, and when the Poet says, “And there were Boeotians and Iaones,” he means the Athenians; and Megaris was a part of this territory.

​Furthermore, the Peloponnesians and the Ionians, since they often disputed about their boundaries, in which Cromwyonia also was included, came to an agreement and erected a pillar at the place agreed upon near the Isthmus itself, which had an inscription on the side facing the Peloponnese: “This is the Peloponnese, not Ionia,” and on the side facing Megara: “This is not the Peloponnese, but Ionia.” Moreover, those who have written the *Atthis*, though they disagree in many things, at least those worthy of mention agree on this: that, the sons of Pandion being four, namely, Aegeus, Lycus, Pallas, and a fourth, Nisus, and Attica having been divided into four parts, Nisus obtained by lot Megaris and founded Nisaea. Now Philochorus says that his rule extended from the Isthmus as far as the Pythium, but Andron says as far as Eleusis and the Thriasian Plain. Although different writers have described the division into four parts in different ways, it is sufficient to take these lines from Sophocles; Aegeus says that his father determined, “having assigned to me the eldest portion... to the coast-lands of this earth,” and to Lycus “he assigns the garden opposite Euboea, and for Nisus he selects the neighboring land of Sciron’s shore, and the southern part of the land has fallen to Pallas, this harsh breeder of giants.” That Megaris, therefore, was a part of Attica, they use these as proofs.

​After the return of the Heracleidae and the division of the country by them and the Dorians who had come down with them, it happened that many were expelled from their own homes into Attica, among whom was Melanthus, the king of Messene; and he actually became king of the Athenians with their consent, after defeating in a duel Xanthos, the king of the Boeotians. And since Attica had become populous because of the refugees, the Heracleidae, being afraid, and being instigated chiefly by those in Corinth and Messene—by the former because of their proximity, and by the latter because Codrus, the son of Melanthus, was then king of Attica—made an expedition against Attica. But being defeated in battle, they withdrew from the rest of the country, but kept possession of Megaris, and founded the city of Megara, and made the inhabitants Dorians instead of Ionians; and they also destroyed the pillar which marked the boundary between the Ionians and the Peloponnesians.