Much of the Greek contact with the far western Mediterranean was controlled by a single group of Greeks - the Phokaians. Their role, from the seventh century onwards, both in trade and exchange networks and in establishment of colonies in the region is considerable, but difficult to quantify, and the concept of a Phokaian ‘thassalocracy’ in the seventh and sixth centuries is being increasingly challenged (on the nature of Phokaian contact Morel 1966; 1975; Kerschner 2004). By the Classical period, they were also a disparate group without a mother-city, as Phokaia itself was destroyed c. 540 by the Persian invasion of Ionia, leaving the Phokaian diaspora to settle at Alalia, then at Elea, Massalia and Emporion. Nevertheless, it has been strongly argued (Dominguez Monedero 2004) that they retained a strong sense of Phokaian identity as a major component of their own individual civic identities.
Phokaians have a long history of contact with Spain, Tyrrhenian Italy and the islands of the western Mediterranean, dating back to the seventh century and attested both by East Greek imports such as pottery and by the testimony of Herodotos (1.163-5), who describes the mercantile activities of the Phokaians in southern Spain and a close relationship with Tartessos. Similar traditions of close social and economic connections with indigenous populations are also attached to the foundation of Massalia (Hdt. 1.163-5; Thuc. 1.13.6; Plutarch Solon 2.7; Athenaios
13.36.2-17; Justin 43.3.4-5.10; Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 10.16.4.2; Hyginus 7.11; Livy 5.34.8; Pomponius Mela 2.77.3-4; Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 3.34.6-35.1; Strabon 3.4.6-8, 4.1.4, 14.2.10). During the archaic period, however, their presence took the form of relatively small-scale settlement, much of it in indigenous communities, with only a small number - the most important of which were Elea, Massalia and Emporion - developing into full-scale poleis.
The close links between Phokaian settlement and patterns of trade and interaction with non-Greeks is illustrated by both Massalia and Emporion. Massalia, founded c. 600 on the Rhone delta, dominated contacts with the interior of Gaul via the Rhone valley as well as routes to Spain and an extensive network of maritime trade routes, while Emporion (discussed below, at pp. 184-8) acted as an entrepOt for Greek goods into north-east Spain, possibly under the control of Massalia for at least part of its history. The mechanisms by which these networks operated, and the extent to which the Greeks adopted a dominant role, are open to question. Traditional models stress the proactive role of the Greeks as both providers and traders of luxury goods, but examination of patterns of distribution of these goods has increasingly called this into question. Dietler (1989), for instance, notes that the greatest density of both Massaliote goods and Massaliote settlement is along the coast and around the Rhone delta, suggesting that the city’s strongest social, political and economic links were with the immediate hinterland. During the sixth and early fifth centuries, Massaliote grey-ware pottery spreads rapidly throughout the area, as do Greek sympotic pottery and Greek wine amphorae. Further up the Rhone valley, however, patterns of Greek luxury goods such as the bronzes and Attic pottery found at Vix, Seurre, Chatillon-sur-Glane etc. suggest that they may have been transmitted via local indigenous exchange mechanisms, and Dietler argues strongly that patterns of exchange in the region in the sixth-fifth centuries should take into account a proactive indigenous population as well as the activities of the Phokaians (Dietler 1989; Bats 1998: 624-30; cf. also Shefton 1989; Morel 1990: 277-92).
It should also be borne in mind that the Phokaians were not the only sources of Greek goods and products such as wine, or the only groups operating in the western Mediterranean. There were extensive Etruscan contacts with southern France, and wrecks of Etruscan ships, many of them filled with wine amphorae, have been found off the coast of southern France. An Etruscan ship which was wrecked off Cap d’Antibes in the late sixth century (c. 540-530), to cite only one example, was carrying a cargo of bucchero and Etrusco-Corinthian pottery and Etruscan wine amphorae (Bouloumie 1990). In Spain, and in particular in southern Spain, the Phoenicians (and later the Carthaginians) had a strong presence which may have cut the Greeks out of direct trade with the area from the early fifth century onwards, and it is possible that many Greek imports dating to the fifth century may have been shipped by Phoenicians (see below, pp. 187-90). Despite these caveats, however, Massalia in the fifth century maintained a central role in economic and cultural contacts between the Greek world and the non-Greek hinterland in southern France and northern Spain, as demonstrated by the shipwrecks off Porquerolles, which contained large cargoes of Attic pottery and wine amphorae of a wide variety of Aegean and Massaliote types (Long, Miro and Volpe 1992; on the general importance of Massalia as a trading centre, see Shefton 1994: 68-74). Further evidence of extensive trade networks in the fifth and fourth centuries is provided by the Giglio shipwreck (Bound 1991) and a fourth-century wreck off Majorca.
The city of Massalia itself developed into the largest and most important of the Greek settlements of the far west. The topography of Greek Massalia is not fully determined, but it occupied the promontory on what is now the north side of the Vieux Port, defended by a wall across the landward side (Figure 10.1). The earliest settlement seems to have been concentrated on the area around the Fort St-Jean, on the tip of the promontory, and on the Butte St-Laurent (Gantes 1992: 72-7). By the end of the archaic period, the city seems to have expanded further inland, and during the fifth-fourth centuries, it was extended again to the north and east. By the Hellenistic period, the enclosed area was of c. 50 ha (Treziny 1997: 189-91, 194-6). There were major concentrations of habitation and public buildings on the Butte St-Laurent and the Butte des Moulins, which may have been the akropolis of the Greek city, by the beginning of the fifth century (Gantes 1992: 72-5). The agora was probably located on a saddle oflower ground between the two hills on the side of the modern Place de Lenche. A stadium is known only from a Greek inscription, and may have been located close to the Cathedrale de la Major, but many of the key monuments of Greek Massalia - in particular its temples - are known only from literary sources (Strabon 4.1.4-5). The area to the north of the archaic city seems to have developed as an artisan quarter in the fifth century, marked by finds of kilns, but evolved into a residential area in the later fourth and third centuries (Treziny 1997:
Figure 10.1 Greek Massalia: key archaeological sites.
197). One major problem is the continuous occupation of the site. For instance, the theatre and the so-called ‘wall of Crinas’, which were found during the excavations at the Bourse, both date to the first century ce, but are almost certainly built over earlier fourth-century walls and an earlier Greek theatre (Benoit 1972; Treziny 1997: 18891; Hodge 1998: 79-88).
Since the 1990s, substantial areas of burials have been discovered outside the gates of the city. An area of elite burials near the Bourse was contained within a terraced area, the retaining wall of which was decorated with triglyphs, and organized into what appear to be family groups. The graves, dating from the fourth to the second century, all contain cremations, housed within lead, bronze or ceramic urns and accompanied by grave-goods, although these are not lavish (Treziny 1997: 197-9). The Ste-Barbe cemetery is considerably bigger and contains over 500 graves, also mostly cremation, dating from the fifth century to the mid-second century ce. There is a mixture of cremations and inhumations in simple fossa graves. Most burials contained only modest grave-goods, usually pottery, glass, lamps and sometimes coins, and were marked - if at all - by a simple stone stele, mostly undecorated and carrying only a simple inscription (Moliner 1999: 107-24; Hermary et al. 1999: 815; Bertucchi 1992: 124-37). This plain style of burial seems to bear out ancient sources for the emphasis on simplicity of lifestyle at Massalia, and in particular for Valerius Maximus’ assertion (2.6.7) that mourning and funerary ritual was strictly limited.
The literary tradition about Massalia is also more copious than that for other settlements in France and Spain, although the fact that ancient authors focus on several very specific features, and that our sources are mostly of Hellenistic or Roman date, raises the problem of how far they represent the realities of the fifth and fourth centuries, and how far they enshrine later traditions and topoi about Massalia (Rou-gemont & Guyot-Rougemont 1992; Lomas 2004a: 478-82). In particular, both Greek and Roman authors stress the foundation myths which describe the intermarriage between the ruling family of the Gallic Segobriges and the leaders of the Phokaian settlers (Hdt. 1.163-5; Thuc. 1.13.6; Plutarch Solon 2.7; Athenaios
13.36.2- 17; Justin 43.3.4-5.10; Strabon 4.1.4; Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 10.16.4.2; Hyginus 7.11; Livy 5.34.8; Pomponius Mela 2.77.3-4; Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 3.34.6-35.1). They also stress the supposedly austere moral climate of Massalia, which was reputed to have had strict sumptuary laws controlling display of personal wealth in areas such as dowries, marriage ceremonies and funerals (Valerius Maximus 2.6.7b-8; Athenaios 10.33.26; Tacitus Agricola 4.3.4; Strabon 4.1.5), although other references ascribe a very different moral character, making reference to the occurrence of luxury and decadence of the city (Athenaios
12.25.3- 7; Pseudo-Plutarch Proverb. Alex. 60).
The constitution of Massalia was also an object of fascination amongst ancient authors. It is said to have consisted of an assembly of 600 men ( timouchoi) who hold office for life, an executive of fifteen timouchoi, and three supreme office-holders, chosen from people of at least three generations of citizenship (Strabon 4.1.5), and was widely admired, although not uncritically. Aristotle, who wrote a monograph about it (now lost), acknowledges that the power base was too narrow and had to be modified, under pressure from excluded citizens, creating what he describes as a politeia rather than oligarchy (Aristotle Politics 1305b4, 1321a30), and Cicero thought that it had the potential to become oppressive (Cicero Pro L. Valerio Flacco 63.8, De Re Publica 1.43-4). It is also unclear how long it lasted in the form described by Strabon, and Aristotle’s comments indicate that it was by no means static and unchanging.
The history of Massalia in the Classical period is, therefore, one of economic and territorial development, with the continued domination of the immediate area around the mouth of the Rhone and of smaller neighbouring Greek settlements such as Agatha, Antipolis (Antibes) and Nikaia (Nice/Nizza). The urban development of the city itself continued, with extension of the settlement to new habitation areas, the construction of new walls, and the continued development of the cemetery areas. At the same time, its early control over Emporion seems to have weakened during the fifth century, and it has been suggested (Mierse 1994) that the urban development of Emporion in the fifth century is a reflection of its new independence. Nevertheless, Massalia continued to play an important role in trade with both the Gallic hinterland and Spain throughout the Classical period, and to be a major trading power in the north-west Mediterranean (Jully 1980; Shefton 1994).
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