Greek (Phocaean) colony founded c. 600 BCE on the southern Gaulish coast, a major maritime trading power and cultural conduit between the Greek world and Celtic Gaul, allied with Rome for centuries.
Sided with Pompey against Caesar in the Roman Civil War; besieged and stripped of independence and much of its territory by Caesar in 49 BCE, though it survived as a subordinate city.
The atlas holds 2 border frames for Massalia — the shape you scrub through changes in 600 BC · 200 BC.