MARSEILLES (Fr. MARSEILLE) (mar-s5.1z', Fr. mar-sa'ye), a city of southern France, chief seaport of France and of the Mediterranean, 219 m. S. by E. of Lyon and 534 m. S.S.E of Paris, by the P.L.M. railway. Pop. (1931) 692,769. It is capital of the department of Bouches-du-Rhone.
Isolated amid alien populations, the Massaliots made their way by prudence and by vigilant administration of their oligarchical government. Their colonies spread east and west along the coast from Monaco to Cape St. Martin in Spain, carrying with them the worship of Artemis; the inland trade, in which wine was an important element, can be traced by finds of Massalian coins across Gaul and through the Alps as far as Tirol. In the 4th century B.C. the Massaliot Pytheas visited the coasts of Gaul, Britain and Germany, and Euthymenes is said to have sailed down the west coast of Africa as far as Senegal. The great rival of Massalian trade was Carthage, and in the Punic Wars the city took the side of Rome, and was rewarded by Roman assistance in the subjugation of the native tribes of Liguria. In the war between Caesar and Pompey Massilia took Pompey's side and in A.D. 49 offered a vain resistance to Caesar's lieuten ant Trebonius. In memory of its ancient services the city was left as a civitas libera, but her power was broken and most of her dependencies taken from her. From this time Massilia has little place in Roman history; it became for a time an important school of letters and medicine, but its commercial and intellectual im portance declined. The town appears to have been Christianized before the end of the 3rd century, and at the beginning of the 4th century was the scene of the martyrdom of St. Victor. Its
reputation partly revived through the names of Gennadius and Cassian, which give it prominence in the history of Semi-Pela gianism and the foundation of western monarchism.
After the ravages of successive invaders, Marseilles was re peopled in the loth century under the protection of its viscounts.
The town gradually bought up their rights, and at the beginning of the 13th century was formed into a republic, governed by a podestat, appointed for life, who exercised his office in conjunc tion with 3 notables, and a municipal council, composed of 80 citizens, 3 clerics and 6 principal tradesmen. Later in the middle ages, however, the higher town was governed by the bishop, and had its harbour at the creek of La Joliette which at that period ran inland to the north of the old town. The southern suburb was governed by the abbot of St. Victor, and owned the Port des Catalans. Situated between the two, the lower town, the republic, retained the old harbour, and was the most powerful of the three divisions. In 1245 and 1256 Charles of Anjou, count of Provence, whose predecessors had left the citizens a large meas ure of independence, established his authority above that of the republic. In 1423 Alphonso V. of Aragon sacked the town. King Rene, who had made it his winter residence, however, caused trade, arts and manufactures again to flourish. On the embodi ment of Provence in the kingdom of France in 1481, Marseilles preserved a separate administration directed by royal officials. Under Francis I. Charles de Bourbon vainly besieged the town with the imperial forces in 1524. During the wars of religion, Marseille took part against the Protestants, and long refused to acknowledge Henry IV. The loss of the ancient liberties of the town brought new disturbances under the Fronde, which Louis XIV. came in person to suppress. He entered the town by a breach in the walls and afterwards had Fort St. Nicolas constructed. Marseilles repeatedly suffered from the plague, notably in 172o-1721.