The history of Marseilles is full of interest. Its origin borders on
romance. Six hundred years before the Christian era, a band of piratical
adventurers from Ionia, in Asia Minor, by dint of superior skill in
navigation, pushed their discoveries to the mouth of the Rhone. Charmed
with the white cliffs, green vales, blue waters, and bright skies, which
they here found, they returned to their native country, and persuaded a
colony to follow them to the barbarous shores of Gaul, bearing with them
their religion, language, manners, and customs. On the very day of their
arrival, so says tradition, the daughter of the native chief was to
choose a husband, and her affections were placed upon one of the leaders
of the polished emigrants. The friendship of the aborigines was
conciliated by marriage, and their rude manners were softened by the
refinement of their new allies in war, their new associates in peace. In
arts and arms the emigrants soon acquired the ascendancy, and the most
musical of all the Greek dialects became the prevailing language of the
colony.[141]
[141] American paper.
* * * * *
~Law.~