v08_0826 - MASSALIA - MARSEILLES Litra du trésor d'Auriol à la tête d'Athéna

MASSALIA - MARSEILLE

(525/520-480-474 BC)

Marseille, the Massalia of the Greeks, was founded at the end of the 7th century BC by Phocaean settlers from Asia Minor who settled not far from the Rhône delta between the sea and the Lacydon. Very quickly, thanks to the amphorae trade, the city developed. Coinage began in the second half of the 6th century BC. The capture of Phocaea by the Persians, around 540 BC, made Marseilles a metropolis which soon spread throughout the western Mediterranean, despite the Carthaginian presence and the commercial competition of the Etruscans. Archaic coinage is better known thanks to the discovery of the so-called Auriol treasure in 1867, made up of more than 2,130 obols..