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The three islands Phoenice, Phila, Iturium Marseilles first a Phoenician colony The tariff of fees exacted by the priests of Baal The arrival of the Ionians The legend of Protis and Gyptis Second colony of Ionians The voyages of Pytheas and Euthymenes Capture of Marseilles by Trebonius Position of the Greek city The Acropolis Greek inscriptions The lady who never "jawed" her husband The tomb of the sailor-boy Hotel des Negociants Menu Entry of the President of the Republic Entry of Francis I. The church of S. Vincent The Cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde The abbey of S. Victor Catacombs The fable of S. Lazarus.
Some merchants have built great cities, as Protis, the founder of Massilia, to whom the Gauls near the Rhine were much attached. Some report also that Thales and Hippocrates the mathematician traded; and that Plato defrayed the charges of his travels by selling oil in Egypt.
The Phoenician colony at Marseilles was probably in decline when, in B.C. 599, a Greek fleet left the port of Phocaea, one of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor, seeking new homes in the West. The colony was under the command of an adventurer named Protis. Attracted by the Bay of Marseilles, and the basin surrounded by hills that lay in its lap, the Greek colony disembarked.
By a happy coincidence the embassy arrived on the day upon which Nannos had assembled the warriors of his tribe, for his daughter, Gyptis, to choose a husband among them. The arrival of the young Greek, Protis, in the midst of this banquet was a veritable coup-de-theatre; he took his place at the board.
At that period, as Hesiod tells us, "Work was no disgrace," nor did trade carry any reproach, while the profession of travelling merchant was even honourable, as it civilised barbarous tribes, and gained the friendship of kings, and learned much in many lands. Some merchants founded great cities, as, for example, Protis, who was beloved by the Gauls living near the Rhone, founded Marseilles.
She did not hesitate for a moment, she went to the Greek stranger and extended it to him. Protis put the goblet to his lips, and the alliance was concluded. The example of Gyptis was followed by some of her maidens. The Gauls agreed to receive the Greeks, and suffer them to colonise the basin of Marseilles.
There was, unquestionably, a Gaulish settlement there. The Keltic name Ar-lath, the "moist habitation," tells us as much. So does the legend of Protis and Gyptis, already related. But it was speedily occupied by a large Greek contingent, and the race was formed of Greek and Gaulish blood united. In the year B.C. 46 a Roman colony was planted at Arles.
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