ANCIENT HELLINIC SITE UNEARTHED IN MARSEILLE!

Interesting. How long did the city survive as a Hellenistic speaking port city.

Originally posted by Exarchus Originally posted by philiptheuniter Interesting. How long did the city survive as a Hellenistic speaking port city. Not a long time, the Roman Republic after the punic wars made it a roman city.

500-600 years of hstory is quite a long time, not any short time, don't you think?

Marseilles did had importance in the "Hesperides" (the far west) being the major of the Greek colonies of the area (as much as Gadir/C�diz was for the Phoenician ones). Quite significatively, not long after the foundation of Marseilles, the Celts, dwelling there since c.1300 BCE are driven out of NE Spain (Catalonia and the Ebro valley) and their place is take by Iberians and Basques. Greeks found them Emporion (modern Ampuries), near the Pyrenees, seemingly a small Hellenic trade outpost in the now Iberian territory.

This fact has also implications for Iberian Celts: cut from their continental relatives, the main Celtic culture (La T�ne) will never arrive to them, nor will do druidism. I suspect that Greeks found easier to trade with Iberians than with the warlike Celts, in any case it seems rather likely that they helped the Iberians somehow, even if it was out of interest.

Marseilles also competed with the Etruscans, who forced the Greeks to abandon their project of building a colony in Corsica. So it did play an important role in pre-Roman times.

Originally posted by Augustus The city of "Massalia" was in the past a very wealthy town of greek origin.As Maju mentioned,it colided against the local population before the 2nd colonization era (7th-6th century B.C.).

Well, in fact I think they only collided with Celts only and that they had good relatioships with the older nations of Ligurians, Iberians and Basques. The two first coastal nations were rather civilized even before the easterners arrived.

I put emphasis in one of the great local sociopolitical transformations reflected in archaeological remains: the Celts that had been in NW Spain for 7 centuries suddenly were driven away and Iberians (and in lesser degree Basques) take their place. This event (c. 600BCE) is coincident with the foudation of the factory of Emporion (modern Ampuries), dependant of Marseilles, near the end of the Pyrenees. This even had large importance for the Celts of Iberia because it caused them to be separated from their continental kin and therefore never took part in the cultural phase of La T�ne and never recieved Drudism from Britain.

In any case, it proves that Greeks had easier relationships wih Iberians and other aborigin peoples than with the warying Celts. Th small size of the factory, totally surrounded by Iberian lands and towns shows that the Iberians were no threat for Greek merchants. I assume the same situation can be extrapolated to Ligurians, another people confronted with Celts, that logically welcomed the new powerful ally from abroad.