Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/307

 JIASSILIA. conclusion, that if it was wine and water, the wine came from foreign commerce, and commerce anterior to the arrival of the Phocaeans ; " for the vine was not yet introduced into Gaul." But the vine is a native of Gallia Narbonensis, and king Nannus may have had wine of his own making. The Phocaeans now built Massalia ; and though they were con- tinually harassed by the Ligurians, they beat them off, conquered fresh territories, and built new cities in them. The time of the settlement of Massalia is fixed by Scymnus Chius 120 years before the battle of Marathon, or b. c. 600. Strabo (iv. p. 179) found in some of his autho- rities a story that the Phocaeans before they sailed to Gallia were told by an oracle to take a guide from Artemis of Ephesus ; and accordingly they went to Ephesus to ask the goddess how they should obey the oracular order. The goddess appeared to Aris- tarche, one of the women of noblest rank in Ephesus, in a dream, and bade her join the expedition, and take v/ith her a statue from the temple. Aristarche went with the adventurers, who built a temple to Artemis, and made Aristarche the priestess. In all their colonies the Massaliots established the worship of Artemis, and set up the same kind of wooden statue, and instituted the same rites as in the mother- city. For though Phocaea founded Massalia, Ephe- sus was the city which gave to it its religion. [Ephesus, Vol. I. p. 834.] The Gain, as Justin calls them, learned from the Massaliots the usages of civilised life (Justin, xhii. 4), to cultivate the ground, and to build walls round their cities. They learned to live under the rules of law, to prune the vine, and to plant the olive. Thus Greek civility was imported into barbaric Gallia, and France still possesses a large and beautiful city, a lasting memorial of Greek enterprise. Nannus died, and was succeeded by his son Co- manus, to whom a cunning Ligurian suggested that Massalia would some time ruin all the neighbouring people, and that it ought to be stifled in its infancy. Ha told him the fable of the bitch and her whelps, which Phaedrus has (i. 19); but this part of the old story is hardly credible. However, the king took advantage of a festival in JIassalia, which Justin calls by the Roman name of Floralia, to send some stout men there under the protection of JIassaliot hospitality, and others in carts, concealed in hampers covered with leaves. He posted himself with his troops in the nearest mountains, ready to enter the city when his men should open the gates at night, and the Massaliots were sunk in sleep and filled with wine. But a woman spoiled the plot. She was a kinsman of the king, and had a Greek for her lover. She was moved with compassion for the handsome youth as she lay in his arms : she told him of the treachery, and urged him to save his life. The man reported it to the magistrates of the city. The Li- gurians were pulled out of their hiding-places and massacred, and the treacherous king was surprised when he did not expect it, and cut to pieces with 7000 of his men. From this lime the Massaliots on festal days shut their gates, kept good watch, and exercised a vigilant superintendence over strangers. The traditions of the early history of Massalia liave an appearance of truth. Everything is natural. A wojnan's love founded and saved ]Iassalia. A woman's tender heart saved the life of the noble Englishman who rescued the infant colony of Vir- ginia from destruction ; and the same gentle and MASSII.IA, 291 heroic woman, Pocahontas, by marrying another Englishman, made peace between the settlers and the savages, and secured for England a firm footing in Chesapeake Bay. Livy's story (v. 34) of the Phocaeans landing on the site of Massalia at the time of Bellovesus and his Celts being on the way to invade Italy, is of no value. When Cyrus invaded Ionia (ii. c. 546), part of the Phocaeans left Phocaea and sailed to Alalia in Corsica, where the Phocaeans had made a settlement twenty years before. Herodotus, who tells the his- tory of these adventurers at some length, says nothing of their settlement at Massalia. (i. 163 — 167.) Strabo (vi. p. 252), on the authority of Antiochus, names Creontiades as the commander of the Pho- caeans who fled from their country on the Persian invasion, and went to' Corsica and Massalia, whence being driven away, they founded Velia in Italy. It is generally said that the exiles from Phocaea formed the second colony to Massalia ; but though it seems likely enough, the evidence is rather imperfect. When Thucydides says (i. 13) that the Phocaeans while they were founding Jlassalia defeated the Carthaginians in a naval battle, we get nothing from this fact as to the second settlement of Mas- salia. We only learn that the Carthaginians, who were probably looking out for trading posts on the Gallic shore, or were already there, came into con- flict with the Phocaeans ; and if we interpret Thucy- dides' words as we ought to do, he means at the tinie of the settlement of Massalia, whenever that was. Pausanias, who is not a careless writer (x. 8. § 6), states that the Massaliots were a Phocaean colony, and a part of those who fled from Harpagus the Mede ; and that having gained a victoiy over the Carthaginians, they got possession of the country which they now have. The Phocaeans dedicated a bronze statue to Apollo at Delphi to commemorate the victory. There seems, then, to have been an opinion current, that some of the exiles at the time of the Persian invasion settled at Massalia ; and also a confusion between the two settlements. Justin, following Trogus, speaks of the Massaliots having great wars with the Galli and Ligures, and of their often defeating the Carthaginian armies in a war that arose out of some fishing vessels being taken, and granting them peace They also were, he says, in alliance with Rome almost from the time of founding their city ; hut it seems that he had forgotten what he said a little before, that it was not almost from that time, but even before. They also contributed gold and silver to pay the ransom when the Galli took Rome, for which they received freedom from taxation (immunitas), and other privileges; which is veiy absurd, and certainly untrue. The historical connection of Rome and Massalia belongs to a later time. Massalia was built on rocky ground. The harbour lay beneath a rock in the form of a theatre, which looked to the south. Both the harbour and the city were well walled, and the city was of considerable extent. On the citadel stood the Ephcsium, and the temple of Delphinian Apollo, which was a com- mon sanctuaiy of all the lonians, but the Ephesium was a temple of Artemis of Ephesus. The Mas- saliots had ship-houses (veuxTotKOi) and an armoury (o7rAo97)K:77) ; and in the time of their prosperity they had many vessels, arms, and stores of ammu- nition both for navigation and for the siege of cities; by which means they kept off the barbarians and gained the friendship of the Romans. (Strab. pp. u 2