The Importance of the McGarian Exclusion Decree

The sanctions against Megara and his subsequent refusal to revoke them were associated solely with paracles. The McGarian decree was open to criticism and many people in fact criticized paracles for it. Paracles though was a personal friend of Archidamus who was the most influential king of Sparta at this time. He probably expected that the Spartan leader would perceive his peaceful intentions and the limited purposes of his McGarian decree. But he underestimated the passions that had been aroused by the combination of events that had taken place in the last three years.