The traveller approaching Marseilles from the sea observes three islets
of bare limestone rock that are apparently a prolongation of that rocky
promontory now crowned by the fortress of S. Nicolas, and that act as a
natural breakwater against wave and storm from the S.E. They go by the
names of Pomegue, Ratonneau, and Chateau d'If. But the classic geographers
called the group the Little Stoechades, and named these islets Phoenice,
Phila, and Iturium; and these three appellations give us in a compact form
the story of ancient Marseilles, founded by the Phoenicians, refounded by
the Greeks, and then made a dependency under the Roman empire.

That Marseilles was a Phoenician colony before the Phoceans settled there
is shown by the monuments that have been exhumed from the foundations of
the modern houses, and are now collected in the museum. There are some
curious images of Melkarth and Melita, the Hercules and Venus of these
Asiatic traders, known also to us through the Bible as Baal and Ashtaroth.
But most curious of all is a long Phoenician table of charges made by the
priests of Baal for the various sacrifices and oblations offered by the
people. This tariff of charges was found in 1845. It consists of twenty-one
lines, and begins:--

"The Temple of Baal.--This is the regulation relative to the dues legally
established by Italis-Baal, the suffete, son of Bod-tanith, son of
Bod-Milcarth, and by Italis-Baal.

"For an entire ox, the ordinary sacrifice, the priests are to receive ten
shekels. At the sacrifice, in addition, three hundred mishekels of flesh.

"Item. For the ordinary sacrifice, of cereals and flour of wheat, also the