The French city of Marseilles is on the site of a much older settlement, the ancient city of Massalia.

Founding the city in 600 B.C. were Greeks from Phocaea, an Ionian colony in Asia Minor that, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, were the first Greeks to go to sea for more than a few days at a time. Tradition says that a man named Protis founded Massalia (also written Massilia), which later became Marseilles.

One of the few Greek colonies in Western Europe, Massalia thrived, particularly as a trading partner and sometime ally of the Roman Republic. Following the Greek blueprint, Massalia had a 600-member assembly as its governing body. By the 4th Century B.C., the city had 50,000 residents, making it one of the ancient world's major ports. A famous resident of Massalia was Pytheas, the famed astronomer and mathematician who was the first to notice that Earth's tides coincided with the phases of the Moon.

Massalia allied itself with Rome during the Punic Wars and enjoyed the prosperity that Rome also enjoyed after the latter's victory in all of those wars. The Massalians took sides during the civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Their choice, to back Pompey, put them at odds with Caesar, whose forces besieged Massalia in 49 B.C. Roman troops entered the city and seized it for Rome.

Massalia survived the fall of Rome but was then conquered by the Visigoths.