Massalia (Greek: Μασσαλία; Latin: Massilia; modern Marseille) was an ancient Greek colony founded ca. 600 BC on the Mediterranean coast of present-day France, east of the river Rhône, by Ionian settlers from Phocaea, in Western Anatolia. After the capture of Phocaea by the Persians in 545 BC, a new wave of settlers fled towards the colony.[1][2][3]

History

Vestiges of the ancient port of Massalia.

After the middle of the 6th century BC, Massalia became an important trading post of the western Mediterranean area, and it grew into creating colonies of its own in Gaul during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC: Agathe (late 5th–early 4th c. BC), Olbia [fr] (ca. 325), Tauroentium (early 3rd c.), Antipolis and Nikaia (ca. mid-3rd c.).[4][3] Massalia was known in ancient times for its explorers: Euthymenes travelled to the west African coast in the late 6th century BC, and Pytheas explored northwestern Europe in the late 4th century BC.[2]

The colony remained a faithful ally of Rome during all of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC). The retreat of Carthage from the Iberian coast after its defeat in the Second Punic War (218–201) gave Massalia the dominancy over the Gulf of Lion, and the fall of Carthage in 146 probably led to the intensification of trade between the Greek colony and the Celtiberians.[5]

After Massalia chose neutrality during the Civil Wars, the city was besieged and eventually had to surrender to Caesar in 49 BC. Massalia lost most of its territory in the aftermath of this defeat.[3]

During the Roman and Late Antique periods, the city, then known as Massilia in Latin, remained a major center of maritime trade. It became a civitas within the Roman Empire at the latest ca. 300 AD.[3]

Proverbs

Suda write that the Greeks used the proverbs Ἐκ Μασσαλίας ἥκεις (you are coming out of Massalia) and Ἐς Μασσαλίαν πλεύσειας (you might sail to Massalia), and they used it in reference to those living an effeminate and soft life because the men of Massalia were wearing fancy long perfumed robes and tied their hair up and the other Greeks thought that they were a disgrace because of this softness.[6][7]

Political system

Massalia was ruled as an oligarchic republic by a closed aristocracy descending from the original settlers. An assembly of 600 timouchoi, whose membership was conditioned to the involvement in trading activities, elected 15 magistrates, 3 of them with executive power.[8][3]

Legacy

A genetic study conducted in 2011 found that 4% of the inhabitants of Provence were derived for haplogroup E-V13, which is especially frequent among Phocaeans (19%), and that 17% of the Y-chromosomes in Provence may be attributed to Greek colonization. According to the authors, these results suggest "a Greek male elite-dominant input into the Iron Age Provence population".[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Lafond 2006.
  2. ^ a b Rivet & Drinkwater 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e Guyon 2012.
  4. ^ Collin Bouffier 2009, p. 38.
  5. ^ Collin Bouffier 2009, pp. 38–39.
  6. ^ Suda, epsilon, 499
  7. ^ Suda, epsilon, 3161
  8. ^ Collin Bouffier 2009, pp. 36–37.
  9. ^ King et al. 2011.
Bibliography

Further reading

Categories