οὐ κακὸς ἐῶν: Megarian Valour and its Place in the Local Discourse at Megara

Abstract

In this essay, the author argues that it is possible to recover from the historiographical tradition something of the Megarians’ own account of their city’s role in the defense of Greece against Persia. Reeves demonstrates that this Persian-War history of the Megarians was articulated and encoded through time by a distinctive community, using a set of idiosyncratic and local memes, and that contentions over the military participation and valour of Megarians in this international conflict constituted an important feature of emic Megarian discourse.