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The Morrígan: In this story, the Morrigan is called the Dagda's envious queen, fierce of mood.She is also called a "shape-shifter" and a cunning raven caller whose pleasure was in mustered hosts.The Morrígan is often considered a triple goddess, but this triple nature is ambiguous and inconsistent.

The Morrígan: These triple appearances are partially due to the Celtic significance of threeness.Sometimes she appears as one of three sisters, the daughters of Ernmas: Morrígan, Badb and Macha.Sometimes the trinity consists of Badb, Macha and Anand, collectively known as the "Morrígna".

The Morrígan: Occasionally, Nemain or Fea appear in the various combinations.However, the Morrígan can also appear alone, and her name is sometimes used interchangeably with Badb.The Morrígan is mainly associated with war and fate, and is often interpreted as a "war goddess".

The Morrígan: W. M. Hennessy's "The Ancient Irish Goddess of War", written in 1870, was influential in establishing this interpretation.She is said to derive pleasure from mustered hosts.Her role often involves premonitions of a particular warrior's violent death, suggesting a link with the banshee of later folklore.

The Morrígan: This connection is further noted by Patricia Lysaght: "In certain areas of Ireland this supernatural being is, in addition to the name banshee, also called the "badhb"".Her role was to not only be a symbol of imminent death, but to also influence the outcome of war.Most often, she did this by appearing as a crow flying overhead, and would either inspire fear or courage in the hearts of the warriors.

The Morrígan: In some cases, she is written to have appeared in visions to those who are destined to die in battle as washing their bloody armor.In this specific role, she is also given the role of foretelling imminent death with a particular emphasis on the individual.There are also a few rare accounts where she would join in the battle itself as a warrior and show her favouritism in a more direct manner.

The Morrígan: The Morrígan is also associated with the land and animals, particularly livestock.Máire Herbert argues that "war "per se" is not a primary aspect of the role of the goddess."Herbert suggests that "her activities have a tutelary character.

The Morrígan: She oversees the land, its stock and its society.Her shape-shifting is an expression of her affinity with the whole living universe."Patricia Lysaght notes that the "Cath Maige Tuired" depicts the Morrígan as "a protectress of her people's interests" and associates her with both war and fertility.

The Morrígan: According to Proinsias Mac Cana, the goddess in Ireland is "primarily concerned with the prosperity of the land: its fertility, its animal life, and (when it is conceived as a political unit) its security against external forces."Likewise, Maria Tymoczko writes, "The welfare and fertility of a people depend on their security against external aggression," and notes that "warlike action can thus have a protective aspect."It is therefore suggested that the Morrígan is a manifestation of the earth- and sovereignty-goddess, chiefly representing the goddess' role as guardian of the territory and its people.

The Morrígan: She can be interpreted as providing political or military aid, or protection to the king—acting as a goddess of sovereignty, not necessarily of war.It has also been suggested that she was closely linked to the "fianna", and that these groups may have been in some way dedicated to her.These were "bands of youthful warrior-hunters, living on the borders of civilized society and indulging in lawless activities for a time before inheriting property and taking their places as members of settled, landed communities."

The Morrígan: If true, her worship may have resembled that of Perchta groups in Germanic areas.There is a burnt mound site in County Tipperary known as "Fulacht na Mór Ríoghna" ("cooking pit of the Mórrígan").The fulachtaí sites are found in wild areas, and are usually associated with outsiders such as the fianna, as well as with the hunting of deer.

The Morrígan: There may be a link with the three mythical hags who cook the meal of dogflesh that brings the hero Cúchulainn to his doom.The "Dá Chích na Morrígna" ("two breasts of the Mórrígan"), a pair of hills in County Meath, suggest to some a role as a tutelary goddess, comparable to Anu, who has her own hills, "Dá Chích Anann" ("the breasts of Anu") in County Kerry.Other goddesses known to have similar hills are Áine and Grian of County Limerick who, in addition to a tutelary function, also have solar attributes.

The Morrígan: There have been attempts by some modern researchers and authors of fiction to link Morgan le Fay with the Morrígan.Morgan first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Vita Merlini" in the 12th century.In some Arthurian legends, such as "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", Morgan is portrayed as a hag whose actions set into motion a bloody trail of events that lead the hero into numerous instances of danger.

The Morrígan: Morgan is also depicted as a seductress, much like the older legends of the Morrígan, and has numerous lovers whom she might be even abducting for this purpose (as in some stories of Lancelot and Ogier the Dane, among others).The character is frequently depicted as wielding power over others to achieve her own purposes, allowing those actions to play out over time, to the benefit or detriment of other characters.However, while the creators of the literary character of Morgan may have been somewhat inspired by the much older tales of the goddess, the relationship ends there.

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette, Michigan Marquette is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Marquette County.The population was 21,355 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city of the state's Upper Peninsula.

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette is a major port on Lake Superior, known primarily for shipping iron ore, and is the home of Northern Michigan University.In 2012, Marquette was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the United States by CBS MoneyWatch.The land around Marquette was known to French missionaries of the early 17th century and the trappers of the early 19th century.

Marquette, Michigan: Development of the area did not begin until 1844, when William Burt and Jacob Houghton (the brother of geologist Douglass Houghton) discovered iron deposits near Teal Lake west of Marquette.In 1845, Jackson Mining Company, the first organized mining company in the region, was formed.The village of Marquette began on September 14, 1849, with the formation of a second iron concern, the Marquette Iron Company.

Marquette, Michigan: Three men participated in organizing the firm: Robert J. Graveraet, who had prospected the region for ore; Edward Clark, agent for Waterman A. Fisher of Worcester, Massachusetts, who financed the company, and Amos Rogers Harlow.The village was at first called New Worcester, with Harlow as the first postmaster.On August 21, 1850, the name was changed to honor Jacques Marquette, the French Jesuit missionary who had explored the region.

Marquette, Michigan: A second post office, named Carp River, was opened on October 13, 1851 by Peter White, who had gone there with Graveraet at age 18.Harlow closed his post office in August 1852.The Marquette Iron Company failed, while its successor, the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, flourished and had the village platted in 1854.

Marquette, Michigan: The plat was recorded by Peter White.White's office was renamed as Marquette in April 1856, and the village was incorporated in 1859.It was incorporated as a city in 1871.

Marquette, Michigan: During the 1850s, Marquette was linked by rail to numerous mines and became the leading shipping center of the Upper Peninsula.The first ore pocket dock, designed by an early town leader, John Burt, was built by the Cleveland Iron Mining Company in 1859.By 1862, the city had a population of over 1,600 and a soaring economy.

Marquette, Michigan: In the late 19th century, during the height of iron mining, Marquette became nationally known as a summer haven.Visitors brought in by Great Lakes passenger steamships filled the city's hotels and resorts.South of the city, K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base was an important Air Force installation during the Cold War, host to B-52H bombers and KC-135 tankers of the Strategic Air Command, as well as a fighter interceptor squadron.

Marquette, Michigan: The base closed in September 1995, and is now the county's Sawyer International Airport.Marquette continues to be a shipping port for hematite ores and, today, enriched iron ore pellets, from nearby mines and pelletizing plants.About 7.9 million gross tons of pelletized iron ore passed through Marquette's Presque Isle Harbor in 2005.

Marquette, Michigan: The Roman Catholic Bishop Frederic Baraga is buried at St. Peter Cathedral, which is the center for the Diocese of Marquette.In addition to the Marquette #1 Post Office there is the "Northern Michigan University Bookstore Contract Station #384".The first day of issue of a postal card showing Bishop Frederic Baraga took place in Marquette on June 29, 1984, and that of the Wonders of America Lake Superior stamp on May 27, 2006.

Marquette, Michigan: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.The city includes several small islands (principally Middle Island, Gull Island, Lover's Island, Presque Isle Pt.Rocks, White Rocks, Ripley Rock, and Picnic Rocks) in Lake Superior.

Marquette, Michigan: The Marquette Underwater Preserve lies immediately offshore.Marquette Mountain, used for skiing, is located in the city, as is most of the land of Marquette Branch Prison of the Michigan Department of Corrections.The town of Trowbridge Park (under Marquette Township), is located to the west, Sands Township to the south, and Marquette Township to the northwest of the city.

Marquette, Michigan: The climate is a hemiboreal humid continental (Köppen: "Dfb") with four distinct seasons that is strongly moderated by Lake Superior and is located in Plant Hardiness zone 5b.Winters are long and cold with a January average of .Winter temperatures are slightly warmer than inland locations at a similar latitude due to the release of the heat stored by the lake, which moderates the climate.

Marquette, Michigan: On average, there are 11.6 days annually where the minimum temperature reaches and 73 days with a maximum at or below freezing, including a majority of days during meteorological winter (December thru February).Being located in the snowbelt region, Marquette receives a significant amount of snowfall during the winter months, mostly from lake-effect snow.Because Lake Superior rarely freezes over completely, this enables lake effect snow to persist throughout winter, making Marquette the third snowiest location in the contiguous United States as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with an average annual snowfall of .

Marquette, Michigan: The snow depth in winter usually exceeds .Marquette is the city with the deepest snow depths with a population of more than 20,000 in the US (and one of the largest in North America outside the western Cordillera or eastern Canada), as temperatures remain low throughout the winter and cold, dry air is intercepted by the Great Lakes.The warmest months, July and August, each average , showing somewhat of a seasonal lag.

Marquette, Michigan: The surrounding lake cools summertime temperatures and as a result, temperatures above are rare, with only 3.4 days per year.Spring and fall are transitional seasons that are generally mild though highly variable due to the alternation of air masses moving quickly.Spring is usually cooler than fall because the surrounding lake is slower to warm than the land, while in fall the lake releases heat, warming the area.

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette receives of precipitation per year, which is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, though September and October are the wettest months with January and February being the driest.The average window for morning freezes is October 15 thru May 7.The highest temperature ever recorded in Marquette was on July 15, 1901 and the lowest was on February 8, 1861.

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette receives an average of 2,294 hours of sunshine per year or 51 percent of possible sunshine, ranging from a low of 29 percent in December to a high of 68 percent in July.The City of Marquette has received national attention for its measures to adapt to climate change, such as coastline restoration and moving portions of Lakeshore Boulevard which are flooded by Lake Superior 100 yards inland.Property owners are required to maintain “riparian buffers” of native plants along waterways.

Marquette, Michigan: A county task force has created a guidebook in cooperation with the University of Michigan for landscaping which can reduce the habitat for disease-bearing ticks.A federally funded stormwater drain project will route runoff which flows into Lake Superior into restored wetlands.As of the census of 2010, there were 21,355 people, 8,321 households, and 3,788 families residing in the city.

Marquette, Michigan: The population density was .There were 8,756 housing units at an average density of .The racial makeup of the city was 91.1% White, 4.4% African American, 1.5% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 0.3% from other races, and 1.8% from two or more races.

Marquette, Michigan: Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.4% of the population.There were 8,321 households of which 18.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.3% were married couples living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 54.5% were non-families.38.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Marquette, Michigan: The average household size was 2.05 and the average family size was 2.71.The median age in the city was 29.1 years.12.2% of residents were under the age of 18; 30.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 22.3% were from 25 to 44; 21.9% were from 45 to 64; and 13% were 65 years of age or older.

Marquette, Michigan: The gender makeup of the city was 51.8% male and 48.2% female.At the 2000 census, there were 19,661 people, 8,071 households and 4,067 families residing in the city.The population density was 1,723.9 per square mile (665.3/km²).

Marquette, Michigan: There were 8,429 housing units at an average density of .The racial makeup of the city was 95% White, 0.8% African American, 1.7% Native American, 0.8% Asian, 0% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 1.33% from two or more races.Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.77% of the population.

Marquette, Michigan: 15.5% were of German, 12.6% Finnish, 8.9% French, 8.5% English, 8.2% Irish, 6.8% Italian and 6.7% Swedish ancestry according to Census 2000.There were 8,071 households of which 23.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.2% were married couples living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.6% were non-families.37.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Marquette, Michigan: The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.81.Age distribution was 16.8% under the age of 18, 25.9% from 18 to 24, 23.8% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.8% who were 65 years of age or older.The median age was 31 years.

Marquette, Michigan: For every 100 females, there were 94.4 males.For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.The median household income was $29,918, and the median family income was $48,120.

Marquette, Michigan: Males had a median income of $34,107 versus $24,549 for females.The per capita income for the city was $17,787.About 7.2% of families and 17.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.3% of those under age 18 and 5.1% of those age 65 or over.

Marquette, Michigan: Along with Northern Michigan University, the largest employers in Marquette are the Marquette Area Public Schools, UP Health System-Marquette (a regional medical center that is the only Level 2 Trauma center in the Upper Peninsula), Marquette Branch Prison, RTI Surgical, Charter Communications, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.Marquette is known for its breweries, including Ore Dock Brewing Company and Blackrocks Brewery.Five breweries were extant in the city ().

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette's port was the 140th largest in the United States in 2015, ranked by tonnage.The city of Marquette has a number of parks and recreational facilities that are used by city and county residents.Presque Isle Park is Marquette's most popular park located on the north side of the city.

Marquette, Michigan: It includes of mostly forested land and juts out into Lake Superior.The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, noted for designing Central Park in New York City.Amenities include a wooden band shell for concerts, a park pavilion, a gazebo, a marina, a concession stand, picnic tables, barbecue pits, walking/skiing trails, playground facilities, and Moosewood Nature Center.

Marquette, Michigan: The city has two popular beaches, South Beach Park and McCarty's Cove.McCarty's Cove, flanked by the red U.S. Coast Guard Station lighthouse on its south shore, serves as a reprieve from hot summer days, where city and county residents alike take advantage of the cool, but tolerable, water temperatures and the cooling effects of the lake-generated sea breeze.Both beaches have picnic areas, grills, children's playgrounds and lifeguard stands.

Marquette, Michigan: Other parks include Tourist Park, Founder's Landing, LaBonte Park, Mattson Lower Harbor Park, Park Cemetery, Shiras Park, Williams Park, Harlow Park, Pocket Park, Spring Street Park and Father Marquette Park.There are also numerous other recreational facilities located within the city.Lakeview Arena is best known for its use as an ice hockey facility, but it also hosts a number of public events.

Marquette, Michigan: A skateboard park is located just outside the arena and open during the summer.Lakeview Arena was home to the Marquette Electricians and Marquette Senior High School's Redmen hockey team.In 1974, the arena replaced the historic Palestra, which had been located a few blocks away.

Marquette, Michigan: Gerard Haley Memorial Baseball field home of the Marquette Blues and Reds is located in the north side along with numerous little league and softball fields.Marquette has the largest wooden dome in the world, the Superior Dome—unofficially but affectionately known as the YooperDome.During the football season, the Dome is used primarily for football on its newly renovated astro turf field.

Marquette, Michigan: The turf was installed in July 2009.Northern Michigan University holds its home football games in the Dome, as does the Michigan High School Athletic Association with the upper peninsula's High School football playoffs.The dome also hosts numerous private and public events that draw in thousands from around the region.

Marquette, Michigan: The Marquette Golf Club has brought international recognition to the area for its unique and dramatic Greywalls course, opened in 2005.The course features several panoramic views of Lake Superior and winds its way through rocky outcroppings, heaving fairways and a rolling valley, yet is located less than two miles (3 km) from the downtown area.The city is also known for fishing for deep water lake trout, whitefish, salmon and brown trout.

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette has an extensive network of biking and walking paths.The city has been gradually expanding the paths and has been promoting itself as a walkable and livable community.Cross Country ski trails are also located at Presque Isle Park and the Fit Strip.

Marquette, Michigan: Camping facilities are located at Tourist Park.The combination of hilly terrain (a vertical difference from top to bottom) and large area snow falls makes snowboarding and downhill skiing a reality on the edge of town.Live theatrical productions are also provided through Northern Michigan University's Forest Roberts Theatre and Black Box Theatre, Marquette's Graveraet School Kaufman Auditorium and Lake Superior Theatre, a semi-professional summer stock theatre.

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette is served by American Eagle and Delta Connection out of Sawyer International Airport (MQT, KSAW) with daily flights to Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis–Saint Paul, .The airport is located south of downtown Marquette.The city is served by a public transit system known as MarqTran, which runs buses through the city and to nearby places such as Sawyer International Airport and Ishpeming.

Marquette, Michigan: The system operates out of a transit center in the adjacent Marquette Township in addition to a small transfer station in downtown.In addition, Indian Trails bus lines operates daily intercity bus service between Hancock and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.The line operates a stop at MarqTran's transit center.

Marquette, Michigan: Marquette has limited freight rail service by the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I).The Canadian National Railway also goes through nearby Negaunee.The LS&I serves the Upper Harbor Ore Dock, which loads iron ore pellets from nearby mining operations onto lake freighters for shipment throughout the Great Lakes.

Marquette, Michigan: Three state highways serve Marquette.They are: The City of Marquette is served by the Marquette Area Public Schools.The district is the largest school district in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin, with about 3,100 students and 420 faculty and Staff.

Mary (programming language): Mary (programming language) Mary is a programming language designed and implemented by RUNIT at Trondheim, Norway in the 1970s.It borrowed many features from ALGOL 68 but was designed for systems programming (machine-oriented programming).

Mary (programming language): An unusual feature of its syntax was that expressions were constructed using the conventional infix operators, but all of them had the same precedence and evaluation went from left to right unless there were brackets.Assignment had the destination on the right and assignment was considered just another operator.Similar to C, several language features appear to have existed to allow producing reasonably well optimised code, despite a quite primitive code generator in the compiler.

Mary (programming language): These included operators similar to the codice_1 "et alter" in C and explicit register declarations for variables.Notable features: A book describing Mary was printed in 1974 (Fourth and last edition in 1979): "Mary Textbook" by Reidar Conradi & Per Holager.Compilers were made for Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk's SM-4 and Norsk Data Nord-10/ND-100 mini-computers.

Mary (programming language): The original Mary compiler was written in NU ALGOL, ran on the Univac-1100 series and was used to bootstrap a native compiler for ND-100/Sintran-III.RUNIT implemented a CHILL compiler written in Mary which ran on ND-100 and had Intel 8086 and 80286 targets.When this compiler was ported to the VAX platform, a common backend for Mary and CHILL was implemented.

Mary (programming language): Later, backends for i386 and SPARC were available.Since the Mary compiler was implemented in Mary, it was possible to run the compiler on all these platforms.Mary is no longer maintained.

Mountaineering: Mountaineering Mountaineering is the set of activities that involves ascending mountains.Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas.

Mountaineering: Indoor climbing, sport climbing and bouldering are also considered mountaineering by some.Unlike most sports, mountaineering lacks widely-applied formal rules, regulations, and governance; mountaineers adhere to a large variety of techniques and philosophies when climbing mountains.Numerous local alpine clubs support mountaineers by hosting resources and social activities.

Mountaineering: A federation of alpine clubs, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA), is the International Olympic Committee-recognized world organization for mountaineering and climbing.Humans have been present in mountains since prehistory.The remains of Ötzi, who lived in the 4th millennium BC, were found in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps.

Mountaineering: However, the highest mountains were rarely visited early on, and were often associated with supernatural or religious concepts.Nonetheless, there are many documented examples of people climbing mountains prior to the formal development of the sport in the 19th century, although many of these stories are sometimes considered fictional or legendary.The famous poet Petrarch describes his 26 April 1336 ascent of Mount Ventoux () in one of his "epistolae familiares", claiming to be inspired by Philip V of Macedon's ascent of Mount Haemo.

Mountaineering: For most of antiquity, climbing mountains was a practical or symbolic activity, usually undertaken for economic, political, or religious purposes.A commonly cited example is the 1492 ascent of Mont Aiguille () by Antoine de Ville, a French military officer and lord of Domjulien and Beaupré.The Age of Enlightenment and the Romantic era marked a change of attitudes towards high mountains.

Mountaineering: In 1757 Swiss scientist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure made the first of several unsuccessful attempts on Mont Blanc in France.He then offered a reward to anyone who could climb the mountain, which was claimed in 1786 by Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard.The climb is usually considered an epochal event in the history of mountaineering, a symbolic mark of the birth of the sport.

Mountaineering: By the early 19th century, many of the alpine peaks were reached, including the Grossglockner in 1800, the Ortler in 1804, the Jungfrau in 1811, the Finsteraarhorn in 1812, and the Breithorn in 1813.In 1808, Marie Paradis became the first woman to climb Mont Blanc, followed in 1838 by Henriette d'Angeville.The beginning of mountaineering as a sport in the UK is generally dated to the ascent of the Wetterhorn in 1854 by English mountaineer Sir Alfred Wills, who made mountaineering fashionable in Britain.

Mountaineering: This inaugurated what became known as the Golden Age of Alpinism, with the first mountaineering club - the Alpine Club - being founded in 1857.One of the most dramatic events was the spectacular first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 by a party led by English illustrator Edward Whymper, in which four of the party members fell to their deaths.By this point the sport of mountaineering had largely reached its modern form, with a large body of professional guides, equipment, and methodologies.

Mountaineering: In the early years of the "golden age", scientific pursuits were intermixed with the sport, such as by the physicist John Tyndall.In the later years, it shifted to a more competitive orientation as pure sportsmen came to dominate the London-based Alpine Club and alpine mountaineering overall.In the 19th century, the focus of mountaineering turned towards mountains beyond the Alps, and by the turn of the 20th century, mountaineering had acquired a more international flavour.

Megara: Megara Megara (; , ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece.It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens.

Megara: Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King Pandion II, of whom Nisos was the ruler of Megara.Megara was also a trade port, its people using their ships and wealth as a way to gain leverage on armies of neighboring poleis.Megara specialized in the exportation of wool and other animal products including livestock such as horses.

Megara: It possessed two harbors, Pagae to the west on the Corinthian Gulf, and Nisaea to the east on the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean Sea.It is part of Athens metropolitan area.According to Pausanias, the Megarians said that their town owed its origin to Car, the son of Phoroneus, who built the citadel called 'Caria' and the temples of Demeter called Megara, from which the place derived its name.

Megara: In historical times, Megara was an early dependency of Corinth, in which capacity colonists from Megara founded Megara Hyblaea, a small "polis" north of Syracuse in Sicily.Megara then fought a war of independence with Corinth, and afterwards founded Chalcedon in 685 BC, as well as Byzantium (c. 667 BC).Megara is known to have early ties with Miletos, in the region of Caria in Asia Minor.

Megara: According to some scholars, they had built up a "colonisation alliance".In the 7th/6th century BCE these two cities acted in concordance with each other.Both cities acted under the leadership and sanction of an Apollo oracle.

Megara: Megara cooperated with that of Delphi.Miletos had her own oracle of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in Didyma.Also, there are many parallels in the political organisation of both cities.

Megara: In the late 7th century BC Theagenes established himself as tyrant of Megara by slaughtering the cattle of the rich to win over the poor.During the second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) Megara fought alongside the Spartans and Athenians at crucial battles such as Salamis and Plataea.Megara defected from the Spartan-dominated Peloponnesian League (c. 460 BC) to the Delian league due to border disputes with its neighbour Corinth; this defection was one of the causes of the First Peloponnesian War (460 – c. 445 BC).

Megara: By the terms of the Thirty Years' Peace of 446–445 BC Megara was forced to return to the Peloponnesian League.In the (second) Peloponnesian War (c. 431 – 404 BC), Megara was an ally of Sparta.The Megarian decree is considered to be one of several contributing "causes" of the Peloponnesian War.

Megara: Athens issued the Megarian decree, which banned Megarian merchants from territory controlled by Athens; its aim was to constrict the Megarian economy.The Athenians claimed that they were responding to the Megarians' desecration of the "Hiera Orgas", a sacred precinct in the border region between the two states.Arguably the most famous citizen of Megara in antiquity was Byzas, the legendary founder of Byzantium in the 7th century BC.

Megara: The 6th century BC poet Theognis also came from Megara.In the early 4th century BC, Euclid of Megara founded the Megarian school of philosophy which flourished for about a century, famous for the use of logic and dialectic.During the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, Megara sent a force of 400 peltasts to Thermopylae.

Megara: During the Chremonidean War, in 266 BC, the Megarians were besieged by the Macedonian king Antigonus Gonatas and managed to defeat his elephants employing burning pigs.Despite this success, the Megarians had to submit to the Macedonians.In 243 BC, exhorted by Aratus of Sicyon, Megara expelled its Macedonian garrison and joined the Achaean League, but when the Achaeans lost control of the Isthmus in 223 BC the Megarians left them and joined the Boeotian League.

Megara: Not more than thirty years later, however, the Megarians grew tired of the Boeotian decline and returned their allegiance to Achaea.The Achaean strategos Philopoemen fought off the Boeotian intervention force and secured Megara's return, either in 203 or in 193 BC.The Megarians were proverbial for their generosity in building and endowing temples.

Megara: Saint Jerome reports "There is a common saying about the Megarians [...:] 'They build as if they are to live forever; they live as if they are to die tomorrow.'"The Greeks used the proverb "worthy of the Megarians share" (), meaning dishonorable/dishonored.Megara seems to have experienced democracy on two occasions.

Megara: The first was between 427, when there was a democratic uprising, and 424, when a narrow oligarchy was installed (Thuc.3.68.3; 4.66-8, 73-4).The second was in the 370s, when we hear that the people of Megara expelled some anti-democratic conspirators (Diod.

Megara: 15.40.4).By the 350s, though, Isocrates is referring to Megara in terms that suggests that it was an oligarchy again (Isoc.8.117-19).

Megara: One of the first actions of the new oligarchy in 424 was to compel the people to vote openly, which suggests that the democracy had made use of the secret ballot.Megarian democracy also made use of ostracism.Other key institutions of the democracy included a popular Assembly and Council, and a board of five (or six) generals.

Megara: Megara is located in the westernmost part of Attica, near the Megara Gulf, a bay of the Saronic Gulf.The coastal plain around Megara is referred to as Megaris, which is also the name of the ancient city state centered on Megara.Megara is 8 km west of Nea Peramos, 18 km west of Eleusis, 19 km east of Agioi Theodoroi, 34 km west of Athens and 37 km east of Corinth.

Megara: The Motorway 8 connects it with Athens and Corinth.The Megara railway station is served by Proastiakos suburban trains to Athens and Kiato.There is a small military airfield south of the town, ICAO code LGMG.

Megara: The main town Megara had 23,456 inhabitants at the 2011 census.The largest other settlements in the municipal unit are Vlychada (pop.1,462), Kineta (1,446), Pachi (542) and Lakka Kalogirou (517).

Martin of Tours: Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316 – 8 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours.He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in Western tradition.

Martin of Tours: A native of Pannonia, he converted to Christianity at a young age.He served in the Roman cavalry in Gaul, but left military service at some point prior to 361, when he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, establishing the monastery at Ligugé.He was consecrated as Bishop of Caesarodunum (Tours) in 371.

Martin of Tours: As bishop, he was active in the suppression of the remnants of Gallo-Roman religion, but he opposed the violent persecution of the Priscillianist sect of ascetics.His life was recorded by a contemporary hagiographer, Sulpicius Severus.Some of the accounts of his travels may have been interpolated into his "vita" to validate early sites of his cult.

Martin of Tours: He is best known for the account of his using his military sword to cut his cloak in two, to give half to a beggar clad only in rags in the depth of winter.His shrine in Tours became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.His cult was revived in French nationalism during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1, and as a consequence he was seen as a patron saint of France during the French Third Republic.

Martin of Tours: Martin was born in AD 316 or 336 in Savaria in the Diocese of Pannonia (now Szombathely, Hungary).His father was a senior officer (tribune) in the Roman army.A few years after Martin's birth his father was given veteran status and was allocated land on which to retire at Ticinum (now Pavia), in northern Italy, where Martin grew up.

Martin of Tours: At the age of ten he attended the Christian church against the wishes of his parents and became a catechumen.Christianity had been made a legal religion (in 313) in the Roman Empire.It had many more adherents in the Eastern Empire, whence it had sprung, and was concentrated in cities, brought along the trade routes by converted Jews and Greeks (the term 'pagan' literally means 'country-dweller').

Martin of Tours: Christianity was far from accepted amongst the higher echelons of society; among members of the army the worship of Mithras would have been stronger.Although the conversion of the Emperor Constantine and the subsequent programme of church-building gave a greater impetus to the spread of the religion, it was still a minority faith.As the son of a veteran officer, Martin at fifteen was required to join a cavalry "ala." At the age of 18 around 334 or 354, he was stationed at "Ambianensium civitas" or Samarobriva in Gaul (now Amiens, France).

Martin of Tours: It is likely that he joined the "Equites catafractarii Ambianenses", a heavy cavalry unit listed in the "Notitia Dignitatum".As the unit was stationed at Milan and is also recorded at Trier, it is likely to have been part of the elite cavalry bodyguard of the Emperor, which accompanied him on his travels around the Empire.According to his biographer, Sulpicius Severus, he served in the military for only another two years, though it has been argued that these two years, "are in fact not nearly enough to bring the account to the time when he would leave, that is, during his encounter with Caesar Julian (the one who has gone down in history as Julian the Apostate) Martin would have been 45 years old when Julian acceded to the throne, and at the usual end of a military contract.

Martin of Tours: Jacques Fontaine thinks that the biographer was somewhat embarrassed about referring to [Martin's] long stint in the army, [because of the perennially tenuous relation between the Christian conscience and war]."Richard A. Fletcher says that Martin served for five years before obtaining a discharge, two of them after his baptism in 354.Regardless of whether or not he remained in the army, Sulpicius Severus reports that just before a battle in the Gallic provinces at Borbetomagus (now Worms, Germany), Martin determined that his switch of allegiance to a new commanding officer (away from antichristian Julian and unto Christ), along with reluctance to receive Julian's pay just as Martin was retiring, prohibited his taking the money and continuing to submit to the authority of the former now, telling him, "I am the soldier of Christ: it is not lawful for me to fight."

Martin of Tours: He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but in response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the troops.His superiors planned to take him up on the offer, but before they could, the invaders sued for peace, the battle never occurred, and Martin was released from military service.Martin declared his vocation, and made his way to the city of Caesarodunum (now Tours), where he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers Christian orthodoxy.