Caesar. Two naval battles ruined her fleet; and, but for the clemency
of Caesar, the doom of the city would have been sealed. She had
enthusiastically taken the part of Pompey, and had resisted Caesar with
unusual determination. But he appreciated the importance of the colony and
the mercantile energy of her inhabitants, and he did not lay his hand in
retribution too severely upon her.

[Illustration: Ancient Massilia.]

The old Greek city of Massilia occupied the promontory which is still old
Marseilles, clustered on the Butte St. Laurent and Butte des Moulins, where
was the Acropolis, with the temples of Apollo and Diana, and the Butte des
Cannes. The harbour was the natural fiord, which is now the Vieux port;
and the modern splendid street Canebiere runs along the site of the old
shipbuilding-docks of the Greeks. Here was found a few years ago an ancient
galley with keel and ribs of cedar, and coins in her of the date of Julius
Caesar. She is now in the museum. To the south of the old port was a marsh;
the rectangular canal and the Bassin du Carenage mark the position of this
marsh, now built over--a marsh that reached to the base of the limestone
hills that rise to the peak now occupied by Notre Dame de la Garde.

The old Greek walls of Massilia ran in a sweep along where is now the
Boulevard des Dames, Rue d'Aix, and reached the Vieux port at the Bourse.

Considering the importance of the Greek city, its wealth and splendour,
it is surprising to find nowhere in Marseilles any ruins of its ancient
founders. But Marseilles has traversed every historic period, in the midst
of storm; and after a voyage of three thousand years through history, she
has been plundered of every fragment of her ancient treasures. In Rome
the Colosseum and the tomb of Augustus were robbed of their materials for