City
Masilia Grecorum
Marseille
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Masilia Grecorum, Massilia of the Greeks, marks the city as a Greek foundation, and the map even names the surrounding land Gretia. Settlers from Phocaea in Asia Minor founded it around 600 BC beside a sheltered rocky bay, the Lacydon, which is now the Old Port of Marseille. The name itself is probably older than the Greeks, most likely a local Ligurian word. The Roman writer Pliny uses the same Greek label. Besieged by Caesar in 49 BC, the city lost its fleet and much of its power, yet kept its Greek character for centuries. The sea route from here on to Forum Julii, now Fréjus, is missing from the map.