Marseille is one of the most beautiful coastal cities in the Mediterranean, a destination that cannot be missed for anyone visiting France - but very few know that it was the Ancient Greeks who founded the city.
The port city in southern France was founded by Greeks back in 600 BC when the first immigrants arrived in the area and established a trading colony, becoming a city that would never lose its importance.
Marseille was founded when many Phocaeans left their homeland in today’s Turkey (then Greek-speaking Asia Minor) and reached the northern shores of the Western Mediterranean.
They found a locale which could easily accommodate a large port and in a few years’ time, a new Greek colony had been established with the name "ΜΑΣΣΑΛΙA" (Massalia).
Greek Origins of Marseille
According to legend, Gyptis, the daughter of the king of the Segobriges, married a Greek man called Protis, who then received a site for the founding of the city of Massalia.
Greek philosopher Aristotle also recounts a myth concerning the foundation of Massalia.
According to this tale, Protis, the son of Euxenous from Phocaea, married Gyptis, the daughter of a King of a Celt tribe named Segobriges or Segusiavi, who lived in Gaul, ancient France. This marriage was the beginning of the story of Marseille.
When the Greek man married this rich and beautiful Celtic woman, the local King gave him the right to obtain a piece of land and build his town.
This small settlement was the foundation of what was to become the well-known city of Massalia.
However, this well-known legend may have been disproven since, according to archaeological evidence, the Phocaeans were not the first Greeks to arrive on the northern shores of the western Mediterranean Sea.
The entire coastal region comprised of the modern regions of Catalonia, Spain, and France had seen the arrival of many Ionian Greeks before that time during their expeditions to the West to find new places to live and people with whom to trade.
Nonetheless, the city of Massalia itself was indeed established by Phocaeans, as they were the first to permanently settle there.
These first Greek settlers of the port city very quickly established a wide network of trade relationships with neighboring cities not only along the coast but into the French mainland areas, as well, where various Celtic tribes once lived.
Other neighbouring Greek colonies
The “Massaliotes,” as the Greeks of Marseille were known, first established good relations with other neighbouring Greek colonies in the region in the early stages of their colonisation.
These colonies included the cities of Agde (Agathe Tyche, meaning ”Good Fortune”) in France; Antibes; Emporiae (the modern city of Empuries in Catalonia); Rhoda (the modern Roses in Catalonia); and the well-known cities of Nice (Nikaia) and Monaco, the modern-day cosmopolitan principality.
Prosperous Traders
The outward-looking and trade-friendly attitude of the Greeks of Marseille offered their city the opportunity to expand economically, and as a consequence, to thrive and prosper.
Shipments of Greek produce constantly arrived at the region’s ports, and ancient Gaul was able to form a consistent, well-established network of communications and relations with the metropolitan areas of Greece via their colonies, especially Marseille.
During the following centuries, the people of Marseille continued to traded with the entire Mediterranean region, and the port grew in importance and size.
Consequently, a great deal of pottery, artwork, coins, and other objects from that period have been discovered all over France, from the southern to the very northern extremes of the country.
The Massaliotes as Masters of Trade
This active engagement with the entire region of Gaul made the Massaliotes the unchallenged masters of trade of the time.
Greek coinage was freely circulating across France, local Celtic tribes were using Greek themes to make their own coins, and the whole region was heavily influenced by the Greek settlers’ ”soft power” of commerce and trade.
Their influence even reached the shores of Britain, where local coins discovered in Kent and Surrey have depictions of Apollo. These coins are believed to have been influenced by the designs used in Marseille.
Of course, centuries later, the Romans arrived, other peoples and tribes made it to the shores of southern France, and history played out.
However, the distinctive Greek origins of Marseille have somehow managed to remain intact in the city’s psyche to this very day.
This is why Marseille is a city that, many centuries after its founding, still remains proud of its ancient roots which connect its people with the Greeks, the first original Marseillais.
READ MORE: Cargèse: The secret Greek hamlet in Corsica you never knew about.
