Massilia

“ Massilia, situated amongst Gauls, has contracted something of the temperament of its neighbours. How much of the rough and stern discipline of Sparta has survived amongst the Tarentines? Everything grows most vigorously in its own home; when planted in an alien soil its nature changes and it deteriorates into that from which it gets its subsistence. As in the battle with Antiochus you slew the Phrygians in spite of their heavy Gaulish arms, so you will slay them now, you the victors, they the vanquished. I am more afraid of our gaining too little glory in this war than of gaining too much. ”

“ The colony of Narbo was strengthened, and was under Tiberius the most populous city in all Gaul. Thereupon four new burgess–communities were laid out, chiefly in the domain ceded by Massilia (iv. 572) iv. 542., the most important among them being, from a military point of view, Forum Julii (Fréjus) , the chief station of the new imperial fleet, and for trade Arelate (Arles) , at the mouth of the Rhone, which soon—when Lyons rose and trade was tending more and more towards the Rhone—outstripping Narbo, became the true heir of Massilia and the great emporium of Gallo–Italic commerce. ”

“ XXXIV.—On his arrival there, he was informed that, Vibullius Rufus, whom he had taken a few days before at Corfinium, and set at liberty, was sent by Pompey into Spain; and that Domitius also was gone to seize Massilia with seven row-galleys, which were fitted up by some private persons at Igilium and Cosa, and which he had manned with his own slaves, freedmen, and colonists: and that some young noblemen of Massilia had been sent before him; whom Pompey, when leaving Rome had exhorted, that the late services of Caesar should not erase from their minds the memory of his former favours. ”

“ She bestowed the token on Protis, who thus married a daughter of the soil on which he was to establish Massilia. [59] So Massilia ruled the household of Gaul and set in order its culture. In imperial times there was a decline, [60] and the Massilians found their pre-eminence shaken and their trade ruined by the colony which Caesar sent to Arles (destined to develop into a commercial centre) under Tiberius, father of the Emperor. ”

“ To name two only, the Acta Martyrum were written in Greek, the language of Irenaeus (second century) , by the order of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons, [56] and as late as the sixth century Caesarius [57] could make the people of his congregation at Arles sing in Greek. As late as the Middle Ages the territory around Massilia was called Graecia, and its sea Mare Graecum. [58]
Such was the great part played by Massilia. Tradition tells how the leaders of the Phocaeans, Protis and Simos, when they landed in Gaul, went to the local King Nannus for help. ”

“ Let us first glance at the region between the western Alps and the Pyrenees. The Romans had for long commanded this part of the coast of the Mediterranean through their client city of Massilia, one of the oldest, most faithful, and most powerful of the allied communities dependent on Rome. ”

“ Here they made a lasting alliance with the ancient and flourishing Greek colony, Massilia (Marseille) ; and in defending Massilia from the 116 attacks of mountain tribes they were gradually drawn into the acquisition of a permanent hold on the lower valley of the Rhone. This, again, in due time very naturally became the starting-point for fresh advance into the heart of modern France. No one who has seen the Rhone from Lyons to Marseilles can resist the conclusion that a power in possession of its lower reaches must inevitably advance along it northward. ”

“ The antique city of Massilia had surely never, since the days of the earliest Phoenicians, known an odder set of ship-owners. We met to discuss and settle the plan of operations for each voyage of the Tremolino. In these operations a banking-house, too, was concerned—a very respectable banking-house. But I am afraid I shall end by saying too much. Ladies, too, were concerned (I am really afraid I am saying too much) —all sorts of ladies, some old enough to know better than to put their trust in princes, others young and full of illusions. ”

“ The Italian revolution, which otherwise levelled all the non-Latin nationalities in the peninsula, did not disturb the Greek cities of Tarentum, Rhegium, Neapolis, Locri. (6) In like manner Massilia, although now enclosed by Roman territory, remained continuously a Greek city and, just as such, firmly connected with Rome. With the complete Latinizing of Italy the growth of Hellenizing went hand in hand. In the higher circles of Italian society Greek training became an integral element of their native culture. ”

“ Massilia, the ally of Rome, remained a free city. On the west side of the Rhone, from the latitude of Lugdunum (Lyon) , the Cevenna, or range of the Cévennes, was the boundary of the Provincia. ... The limits of the Provincia were subsequently extended to Carcaso (Carcassone) and Tolosa (Toulouse) ; and it will appear afterwards that some additions were made to it even on the other side of the Cévennes. This country is a part of France which is separated by natural boundaries from the rest of that great empire, and in climate and products it is Italian rather than French. ”

“ At the time of the great invasions at the beginning of the fifth century, and at its end when the Visigoths were encroaching more and more, Massilia was a refuge for Christian monks to whose labours literature owes so much. The Monastery of St. Victor ranked with Lérins as a centre of Christian education, and many famous men found a refuge there during the menace of troublous times. Victorinus, Prosper of Aquitaine, Gennadius, Musaeus, Salvian, were among those who sought its peace. ”

“ In the Adriatic sea, moreover, the allied Etruscans and Carthaginians ruled, as in the waters to the west of Sicily and Sardinia. The Greeks, indeed, did not give up the struggle. Those Rhodians and Cnidians, who had been driven out of Lilybaeum, established themselves on the islands between Sicily and Italy and founded there the town of Lipara (175) . Massilia flourished in spite of its isolation, and soon monopolized the trade of the region from Nice to the Pyrenees. ”

“ The prosperity of Magna Græcia declined after the close of the sixth century B. C., when the warlike Samnites and Lucanians began to press southward from their homes in central Italy. The Greek colonies gradually lost their inland possessions, and became limited to mere trading settlements on the coast.
91. Massilia, in Gaul, has already been mentioned as a colony of the Ionic Phocæans. It exerted a controlling influence upon the Celtic tribes [133] by which it was surrounded, and who derived from it the benefits of Greek letters and civilization. ”

“ Pompeius had to make his way with the sword through the insurgent Gaul to Spain, (4) and by way of penalty for their rebellion gave the territories of the Volcae-Arecomici and the Helvii (dep. Gard and Ardeche) over to the Massiliots; the governor Manius Fonteius (678-680) carried out these arrangements and restored tranquillity in the province by subduing the Vocontii (dep. Drome) , protecting Massilia from the insurgents, and liberating the Roman capital Narbo which they invested. ”

“ Phocaea's (24) manhood with un-Grecian faith
Held to their pledged obedience, and dared
To follow right not fate; but first of all
With olive boughs of truce before them borne
The chieftain they approach, with peaceful words
In hope to alter his unbending will
And tame his fury. "Search the ancient books
Which chronicle the deeds of Latian fame;
Thou'lt ever find, when foreign foes pressed hard,
Massilia's prowess on the side of Rome. ”

“ Percy Gardner believes to be the work of Phocaean Greeks at Massilia. Sculpture of this kind must have been a new ray of light for the civilization (or the lack thereof) in Celtic Gaul.
Her friendship with Rome is well attested. Cicero mentions [17] the support given to Rome by the Massilians at the time of the Gallic campaigns. When Fonteius, who had been governor of Gallia Narbonensis, was impeached for extortion, Massilia came up in his defence. Strabo regards the connexion as a well-known fact. [18] Ammianus, too, knew of this traditional friendship: ‘Massilia ... ”

“ Here was an alien and (in spite of the restraint of the government) an encroaching civilisation, utterly unfamiliar to the eyes of the natives, but known to justify its lordly security by that dim background of power which clung to the name of the paramount city of the West. The Roman possessions were an ugly eyesore to a man who held that Africa should be for the Africans. The wise Masinissa might tolerate the spectacle, content (as, indeed, he should have been) with the power and security which Rome's friendship had brought to her ally. ”

“ Bertani, the future organizer of the Sicilian Thousand and Pisacane their precursor; and the great protagonists themselves, Mazzini and Garibaldi;—a diverse band, patricians and plebeians, saints and sinners, royalists and republicans, all moved by one supreme redeeming love of Italy and Rome. Within, the city showed a passive heroism as fine. Calmly and patiently the people bore the destruction of their homes, the growing scarcity, the hopelessness of victory as the toils drew ever closer round the fated city. Six thousand women came forward to offer their service in the hospitals. ”

“ I feel profoundly for Mazzini. At moments I am tempted to say, "Cursed with every granted prayer,"—so cunning is the demon. Mazzini has become the inspiring soul of his people. He saw Rome, to which all his hopes through life tended, for the first time as a Roman citizen, and to become in a few days its ruler. He has animated, he sustains her to a glorious effort, which, if it fails this time, will not in the age. His country will be free. Yet to me it would be so dreadful to cause all this bloodshed,—to dig the graves of such martyrs! ”

“ After introducing himself as one who adores God, Mazzini says that he adores, also, an idea which seems to him to be of God, that of Italy as "an angel of moral unity and of progressive civilization for the nations of Europe.”
Having studied the great history of humanity, and having there found “Rome twice directress of the world, first through the Emperors, later through the Popes," he is led to believe that the great city is destined to a third and more lasting period of supremacy. ”

“ TO M.S. Rome, March 9, 1849.—Last night, Mazzini came to see me. You will have heard how he was called to Italy, and received at Leghorn like a prince, as he is; unhappily, in fact, the only one, the only great Italian. It is expected, that, if the republic lasts, he will be President. He has been made a Roman citizen, and elected to the Assembly; the labels bearing, in giant letters, "Giuseppe Mazzini, cittadino Romano," are yet up all over Rome. ”

“ Messina, Sicily and Italy, in this tragic hour of disaster, feel an infinite sense of emotion before the universal spectacle of nobility and human kindness, before the common impulse that moves, in aid of so many sufferers from the reckless violence of nature, the generous, munificent souls of the world. ”

“ You want to abolish the Corn-laws?—all good society shrieks at you at first: you are a Radical, a regicide, a Judas Iscariot; but in time the nation listens, and the poor have cheap bread. "Mazzini is mad!" the world cries: "why this useless bloodshed? It is only political murder." Mazzini is mad, no doubt: but in time the beautiful dream of Italy—of "Italia, the world's wonder, the world's care"—comes true. ”

“ She was allowed to retain her own territory intact, but all her war-ships, except ten, were given up, and her prisoners restored; an annual tax of about $200,000, for fifty years, was to be paid into the Roman treasury, and she could carry on no war without the consent of Rome. Masinissa was rewarded by an increase in territory, and was enrolled among the "allies and friends of the Roman people."
Rome was now safe from any attack. She had become a great Mediterranean power. Spain was divided into two provinces, and the north of Africa was under her protection. ”

“ That which received the Roman stamp passed current throughout the world.
In the political struggle for the New Italy, Rome had the same symbolic character. Mazzini was never so eloquent as when portraying the glories of the free Rome that was to be recognized, indeed, as the mother of us all. The Eternal City, he believed, was to be the regenerating influence, not only for Europe but for all the world. All the romantic enthusiasm of Garibaldi flamed forth at the sight of Rome. All other triumphs signified nothing till Rome was the acknowledged capital of Italy. ”

“ Among the builders of the New Italy, history has made a large place for Mazzini, the agitator and author, and for Cavour, the statesman, but the common people have kept the first place in their heart for Garibaldi, the soldier, and hero. Mazzini was the John the Baptist of the movement, who descended upon the political ills and wrongs of his time, carrying a torch in one hand and a sword in the other. Cavour was the statesman of the movement, a most skillful diplomat, who organized political and moral forces against the foul wrongs found in the prisons of Naples and the palaces of Rome. ”

“ Only in the north, on the coast of Liguria from the Alps to the Pyrenees, Massalia maintained its independence. Southern Spain, Gades, and the coast of the land of Tarshish (Tartessus) were occupied by the Carthaginians about the middle of the fifth century; and the Greeks and all foreign mariners in general were cut off from the navigation of the ocean, as well as from the coasts of North Africa and Sardinia.
In the fourth century the political situation is totally changed in both east and west. ”