Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/417

 POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE MASSALIOTM. 401 adventurous Phokoean mariner. It would appear that Massalia was founded by amicable fusion of Phokoean colonists with the indigenous Gauls, if we may judge by the romantic legend of the Protiadae, a Massaliotic family or gens existing in the time of Aristotle. Euxenus, a Phokrcan merchant, had contracted friendly relations with Nanus, a native chief in the south of Gaul, and was invited to the festival in which the latter was about to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Petta. According to the custom of the country, the maiden was to choose for herself a husband among the guests, by presenting him with a cup : through accident, or by preference, Petta presented it to Euxe- nus, and became his wife. Protis of Massalia, the offspring of this marriage, was the primitive ancestor and eponym of the Protiadae. According to another story respecting the origin of the same gens, Protis was himself the Phoka;an leader who mar ried Gyptis, daughter of Nannus king of the Segobrigian Gauls. 1 Of the history of Massalia we know nothing, nor does it ap- pear to have been connected with the general movement of the Grecian world. We learn generally that the Massaliots admin- istered their affairs with discretion as well as with unanimity, and exhibited in their private habits an exemplary modesty, that although preserving alliance with the people of the interior, they were scrupulously vigilant in guarding their city against surprise, permitting no armed strangers to enter, that they introduced the culture of vines and olives, and gradually extended the Greek alphabet, language, and civilization among the neighboring Gauls, that they possessed and fortified many positions along the coast of the gulf of Lyons, and founded five colonies along the eastern coast of Spain, that their government was oligar- chical, consisting of a perpetual senate of six hundred persons, yet admitting occasionally new members from without, and a small council of fifteen members, that the Delphinian Apollo and the Ephesian Artemis were their chief deities, planted as guardians of their outlying posts, and transmitted to their colo- nies. 2 Although it is common to represent a deliberate march 'Aristotle, Ma<T<ra?./<jrwv Trolirela, ap. AthcnaMim, xiii, p. 576; Justin, xliii, 3. Plutarch (Solon, c. 2) seems to follow the same sto-y as Justin. f Strabo. iv, pp. 179-182: Justin, xliii, 4-5; Cicero, Pro Flacco. 26. J< TOL. III. 260C.