Hiera Orgas significant event Peloponnesian War
Significance in the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides (1.139.2) and Plutarch (Pericles, 30.2) record that the cultivation of the Hiera Orgas by a number of Megarians was one of the complaints cited by the Athenians to justify the implementation of the Megarian exclusion decree, which, in turn, became one of the main causes of the Peloponnesian War. There has been considerable debate over the etiology of the war and the genuineness, or otherwise, of the Athenian response to protect the integrity of the Hiera Orgas by excluding Megarians from all ports and markets under Athenian control in 432 BC. The Megarians, themselves, are not recorded as having denied the accusation, but their ambassadors did complain of the severity of the Athenian response.
It is possible that Pericles used the dispute for his own political purposes, but the success of his public stance in protecting the Hiera Orgas, serves to demonstrate the significance of the religious considerations at play in the dispute.