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Greek city of Massalia (Marseille) in Gaul
Silver Tetra Obol 16mm (2.23 grams) Struck 121-49 B.C.
Reference: LT.- – BN.1340-1343 – Br/M.97/1 – Sch/L.- – MHM.55/43
Monogram HB under chin, Diademed and draped bust of Artemis right, with necklace and earrings; bow and quiver on the shoulder; granulated.
MAΣΣA/ X // ΠAΔ Lion passing right; listel. Greek letters between the lion’s paws and on the exergue.
Coin Notes:
With this monogram HB on the obverse and these letters of the exergue, ten drachmas have been listed. Comments: This is the latest issue of drachmas, the largest, with more than 60 varieties of different. This series once again poses a chronological problem. C. Brenot thinks that the manufacture of “drachmas” stopped when the city was taken in 49 BC, while G. Depeyrot places the end of the “tetroboles” in 82 BC at the time where C. Valerius Flaccus was Proconsul in Gaul. The coinage of Marseille will certainly cause a lot of ink to flow before we have a corpus of the issues of the city with a study of coin connections.
Greek contact with Gaul dated from circa 600 B.C. when the Phokaians founded the city of Massalia (Marseilles)on the Mediterranean coast. Two hundred years alter the Massilots formed an alliance with the ROman Republic, an arrangement which was destined to be of inestimable value to the Romans as it protected the vital communications with Spain. In the latter part of the Second Century B.C. Massalia found itself seriously threatened by the Celtic tribes. The Romans utilized this situation to intervene in the affairs of southern Gaul, and the Ligurain tribes were conquered by 123 B.C., the Allobroges and the Arverni two years alter. These successes led to the formation of the Roman province of Gallia. Transalpina – the provincia whose memory is perpetuated by present-day Provence. In 118 B.C. Narbo Martius (Narbonne) was founded as a Roman colony and trade witht he interior of the country rapidly began to flourish as Roman businessmen established themselves in the provincia. The final conquest of the whole of Gaul was carried out by Julius Caesar between 58 and 50 B.C. These remarkable campaigns are immortalized in Caesar’s famous “Commentaries.”
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Marseille, the ‘Massalia’ of the Greeks, founded by the Phocaeans in 600 BC, was born from the Greeks’ desire to promote trading posts in order to compete with the Carthaginians and the Etruscans for the domination of the Western Mediterranean. The very foundation of the city is mythological. When the young Marseille, Protis, leader of an expedition, landed in a creek, he was received by Nannos, king of Segobriges and married his daughter Gyptis. The Greek received as a dowry a cove around the Lacydon, a natural harbor located on the site of the current Old Port. Marseille is absolutely not a Celtic or Gallic creation and belongs to the Greek world. Thanks to its metropolis, the colony developed and received an extra population from its metropolis with people who fled the Persian danger at the beginning of the Persian Wars (494-479 BC). The Greeks, who perfectly mastered the rules of maritime navigation and trade, set up trading posts or colonies on the western coasts of the Mediterranean, from Emporium (Aumpurias) to Nikaia (Nice) via Agathè (Agde), Olbia (Hyères) and Antipolis (Antibes), without forgetting that of Alailia (Aleria, Corsica), founded in 565 BC The Massaliotes tried with varying degrees of success to trade with the hinterland and the Salyan tribes. They nevertheless founded the outposts of Avenio (Avignon) and Cavaillo (Cavaillon). Between the 4th and 1st centuries BC, the Gulf of Lion is often compared to the Gulf of Marseilles, which clearly shows the role played by traders and sailors from Massalia. Marseille, from the outset had to face a double danger which would be its strength: inside, it had to fight against the native Ligurian tribes; Outside, it must face the Carthaginian maritime power which extends its hegemony over the islands of the western Mediterranean, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and the Balearic Islands. Political power is in the hands of a Greek oligarchy composed of the Council of Fifteen and a Boulé of six hundred members. Very early, from the 6th century, the Massaliotes placed themselves under the protection of Apollo Delphian and Artemis who are found on the coins of the city. A temple dated 530 BC, dedicated to Apollo, was also found in the excavations undertaken from 1967. The capture of Phocaea by the Persians, around 540 BC, made Marseilles a metropolis which soon spread throughout the western Mediterranean, despite the Carthaginian presence and commercial competition from the Etruscans. Between the 5th and 1st centuries BC, Marseille and its hinterland experienced unprecedented development. Marseille enjoyed great prosperity in the 5th century BC, thanks to a period of tranquility in the western Mediterranean after the Carthaginian defeat at Himera in 480 BC. The Etruscans were in turn defeated by the Syracusans at Cumae . For nearly seventy years the Massaliote ships were able to sail quietly through the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Sicilian affair in 413 BC and the Athenian and then Carthaginian intervention, accompanied by the destruction of Agrigento, led to a serious conflict which was to last half a century.
Humans have inhabited Marseille and its environs for almost 30,000 years: palaeolithic cave paintings in the underwater Cosquer cave near the calanque of Morgiou date back to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC; and very recent excavations near the railway station have unearthed neolithic brick habitations from around 6,000 BC.
Marseille, the oldest city in France, was founded in 600 BC by Greeks from Phocaea (as mentioned by Thucydides Bk1,13) as a trading port under the name Μασσαλία (Massalia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). The precise circumstances and date of founding remain obscure, but nevertheless a legend survives. Protis, while exploring for a new trading outpost or emporion for Phocaea, discovered the Mediterranean cove of the Lacydon, fed by a freshwater stream and protected by two rocky promontories. Protis was invited inland to a banquet held by the chief of the local Ligurian tribe for suitors seeking the hand of his daughter Gyptis in marriage. At the end of the banquet, Gyptis presented the ceremonial cup of wine to Protis, indicating her unequivocal choice. Following their marriage, they moved to the hill just to the north of the Lacydon; and from this settlement grew Massalia.[10]
Massalia was one of the first Greek ports in Western Europe, growing to a population of over 1000. It was the first settlement given city status in France. Facing an opposing alliance of the Etruscans, Carthage and the Celts, the Greek colony allied itself with the expanding Roman Republic for protection. This protectionist association brought aid in the event of future attacks, and perhaps equally important, it also brought the people of Massalia into the complex Roman market. The city thrived by acting as a link between inland Gaul, hungry for Roman goods and wine (which Massalia was steadily exporting by 500 BC), and Rome’s insatiable need for new products and slaves. Under this arrangement the city maintained its independence until the rise of Julius Caesar, when it joined the losing side (Pompey and the optimates) in civil war, and lost its independence in 49 BC.
It was the site of a siege and naval battle, after which the fleet was confiscated by the Roman authorities. During Roman times the city was called Massilia. It was the home port of Pytheas. Most of the archaeological remnants of the original Greek settlement were replaced by later Roman additions.
Marseille adapted well to its new status under Rome. During the Roman era, the city was controlled by a directory of 15 selected “first” among 600 senators. Three of them had the preeminence and the essence of the executive power. The city’s laws amongst other things forbade the drinking of wine by women and allowed, by a vote of the senators, assistance to allow a person to commit suicide.
It was during this time that Christianity first appeared in Marseille, as evidenced by catacombs above the harbour and records of Roman martyrs. According to provencal tradition, Mary Magdalen evangelised Marseille with her brother Lazarus. The diocese of Marseille was set up in the first century AD (it became the Archdiocese of Marseille in 1948).
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