Tyche's Favourites/Massalia
Foreigners in Southern Gallia[edit]
The coast of modern-day Provence has some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Europe, dating back to pre-human hominids around 1 million BC. There is evidence of continued habitation, and repeated migration of other peoples, sometimes displacing the natives. Between the 10th and 4th centuries BC, the dominant peoples were the Ligures. They are of uncertain origins, possibly descendants of the indigenous neolithic people, but ancient commentators were certain they were not Keltoi. They were not literate, but had their own Indo-European language. They were a warlike and mobile people, and invaded Italy from time to time.
Between the 8th and 5th centuries BC, tribes of Keltic peoples, probably coming from Central Europe, also began moving into Provence. They had weapons made of iron, which allowed them to easily defeat the local tribes, who were still armed with bronze weapons. One tribe, called the Segobriga, settled near Massalia. The Caturiges, Tricastins, and Cavares settled to the west of the Druentia river.
Keltoi and Ligures lived widely widespread in Provence and the Kelto-Ligures eventually shared the territory of Provence, each tribe in its own alpine valley or settlement along a river, each with its own king and dynasty. They built hilltop forts and settlements, later given the Latin name oppida. They worshipped various aspects of nature, establishing sacred woods at Sainte-Baume and Gemenos, and healing springs at Glanum and Vernėègues. Later, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the different tribes formed confederations; the Voconces in the from the Isère to the Vaucluse; the Cavares in the Comtat; and the Salyens, from the Rhone river to the Var. The tribes began to trade their local products, iron, silver, alabaster, marble, gold, resin, wax, honey and cheese; with their neighbors, first by trading routes along the Rhone river, and later Tyrrhenoi traders visited the coast.
The Tyrrhenoi were the first of many foreigners to arrive seeking opportunities in trade, though they never settled, preferring to trade off their ships. At this time the Phoenicians were also setting up trading posts throughout the western Mediterranean (primarily the islands and the coasts of Iberia), and between them the two peoples dominated trade in the Gulf of Lion. The first to found permanent posts in Provence were Greeks. Traders from the island of Rhodes were visiting the coast of Provence in the 7th century BC, bringing pottery and luxury goods. They gave their name to the Rhodanos river and founded Rhodanousia. Some time later, the colony of Theline was founded on the other fork of the Rhodanos.
Massalia's Early History[edit]
In around 600BC, Greeks from the Ionian city of Phokaia founded a trading port on the southern coast of Gallia. The precise circumstances and date of Massalia's founding is a mystery, but a legend persists. Protis, while exploring for a new trading outpost or emporion for Phocaea, discovered the Mediterranean cove of the Lakydon. Protis was invited inland to a banquet held by the chief of the local Ligurian tribe for suitors seeking the hand of his daughter Gyptis in marriage. At the end of the banquet, Gyptis presented the ceremonial cup of wine to Protis, indicating her unequivocal choice. Following their marriage, they moved to the hill just to the north of the Lacydon; and from this settlement grew Massalia.
Massalia was one of the first Greek ports in Western Europe and was the first settlement given city status in Gallia. A number of other colonies followed, including Agathe Tyche, Emporion and Rhode in Iberia and Alalia on Kurtyn (Corsica). This common mother city helped foster trading links between those Phokaian-founded settlements and Massalia. However, the Carthaginians and Etruscans did not accept the rising commercial power of Massalia lightly, and after a costly naval victory, the colonists were driven off Kurtyn. In around 540BC, a second wave of colonists from Phokaia arrived, fleeing destruction of that city at the hands of the Persians, many eventually settling at Elea in Italia.
Facing an opposing alliance of the Etruscans, Carthage and the Celts, the Greek colony allied itself with the expanding Roman Republic for protection. This protectionist association brought aid in the event of future attacks, and perhaps equally important, it also brought the people of Massalia into the complex Roman market. The city thrived by acting as a link between inland Gaul, hungry for Roman goods and wine, and Rome's insatiable need for new products and slaves.
Massalia founded colonies of its own, largely to secure its trade routes and ensure safe places for ships to take on food and water, and shelter against bad weather. They covered a sweep of villages and towns along the southern coast of Gallia, including Tauroeis, Olbia, Antipolis, Nikaia and Monoikos.
Some time between 330BC and 320BC, the mathematician, astronomer and navigator Pytheas set off on his famous voyage through the Pillars of Herakles and into the northern waters around Alba (Britain) and Scandia. He hoped to establish an alternate trading route for tin from Alba, but it was cheaper and simpler to continue trading over land routes.
Massalia in 300BC[edit]
Massalia is one of the largest trading ports in the bowl of the world, with a population of some 6,000 and a stone wall encircling its fifty hectares of land. It is situated on a hill overlooking the cove of Lakydon which is fed by a freshwater stream and protected by two rocky promontories. It has a large temple of the Delphinian Apollo on a hilltop overlooking the port, and a temple of the cult of Artemis of Ephesus (the Ephesium) at the other end of the citadel. Massalia had a large shipyard and a number of armouries.
Society
Massalia had all the hallmarks of a Greek town, the institutions of the agora (market), gymnasium and baths all featured, along with the theatre and temples. Alongside the two prominent temples, were those to Artemis and Herakles. The latter two are popular with the local Keltoi population, who would visit to make sacrifices there.
Like many expatriots, Massalioi like to think of themselves as authentic Greeks, trying to preserve their identity to the exclusion of local Keltic influences. It is for this reason that only those of Greek ancestry can be recognised as citizens, with the sizable local Kelto-Hellenic population excluded from citizenship. As in any other Greek polis, only free Greek males may participate directly in political life, in return for military service. Theoretically, every member of the council (or their sons in the case of older men) is liable to be called up to fight should the city be threatened. On feast days, the gates were locked and the walls manned by citizens, after an attack by one of the Ligurian kings nearly succeeded in taking the city soon after its founding. However, the reality is that Massalioi prefer to let others do their fighting for them, co-opting the local tribes, and when all else fails seeking assistance from the Roman Republic. Ultimately, Massalia is an affluent city prospering through trade, and its aristocrats and other worthy men are more interested in profit than anything else.
There was a conservative streak to social mores. Women were discouraged from drinking wine. The more licentious sorts of plays were banned. Sumptuary laws restricted the amount of conspicuous wealth people could put on display, and limited the amount of a dowry that might pass from a woman's family to her husband.
Like other Greek societies, the Massalioi kept slaves, and Keltoi slaves were easily available from the interior. They were often used to work the fields of the small chora directly under the city's control, additionally the local Ligurians offered daily hire as agricultural labourers.
Massalians cultivated literature, but the city didn't produce a great deal, nor did it host any prominent philosophers or writers. There was great demand for tutors and physicians.
Three languages were commonly spoken: Greek, Keltoi and Ligurian. Increasingly, Latin is spoken as trade with the Roman republic increases.
Government
Initially, the Massilian constitution was a narrow aristocratic regime. However, an attempt was soon made to reduce the power of the great families by insisting that, if a man belong to the Council his son could not, and if an elder brother belonged to the Council his younger brother could not be a member. Such specifics probably lapsed, but the tendency led to the evolution of the aristocratic system to a more plutocratic oligarchic system. This government is headed by the Council of Six Hundred. To be a member, councillors has to be able to prove they were of citizen decent for at least three generations or, alternatively, has to possess children. It is likely that membership was also based upon certain property requirements, which excluded the majority of the population. Membership was for life. The list of councillors is revised from time to time. The Council elects an executive council of fifteen— oi timoukoi—from the main body. The timoukoi are led by three presidents.
An unusual feature of the Massilian government is that a criminal condemned to death is maintained at public expense for one year, after which the criminal is executed as a pharmakos or purification of the city. Another is poison was kept by the state; if a man wished to commit suicide, he would apply to the council and if he could make his case would be granted a dose.
The laws were those common to Ionia, and were displayed in public. Foreigners were forbidden from carrying arms in the city, being required to turn them in at the gate, and having them returned when they left.
Economy
Trade was Massalia's lifeblood. They exported their own products; local wine, salted pork and fish, aromatic and medicinal plants, coral and cork, salt, olive oil, cups, mixing bowls, to inland markets in Gallia. They were a destination for re-export primarily of grain, amber, tin and slaves.
Game Mechanics
Massalia is a Large Town with 1200 families and is Market Class II.
Military
Massalia can theoretically call out 600 men to fight. These are divided into three classes, 60 hippeis (cavalry), 240 hoplites and 300 psiloi, which is reflected on the rolls of the council. The arms and equipment within each class varies depending on the wealth of the individual. So for the cavalry, the richest men have four horses, a full hoplite panoply and a groom armed as a mounted skirmisher. The poorest would have two horses, quilted linen or leather armour, a shield, helmet and greaves, a sword, spear and a couple of javelins. For the hoplites, the richest would have a full panoply and a shieldbearer. The poorest would have a helmet, shield, spear and a sword. For the psiloi, the richest would have quilted linen or leather armour, shield, helmet, a sword and javelins. The poorest would have some javelins or a bow/sling and a knife.
The hoplites are those most commonly called up, especially to defend the city on feast days or in times of crisis. When the city troops are mobilised to fight outside the city, one of the presidents is elected strategos, in command of the whole. They are often accompanied by mercenaries and troops levied from the local tribes.
Massalia has a powerful navy, with several of the wealthiest man able to fund a warship, or at least fund part of the costs of running a ship and its crew. These crews are comprised of professional rowers, not citizens, to avoid giving political power to the common men. Massalia can muster some 50-60 warships, ranging from hemiolias, through trihemiolias up to trieres.
Foreign Relations
Massalia is intimately enmeshed in the regional political makeup of the western Mediterranean. It is not a minor player and is thus subject to the attention of the other major powers in the region, and some minor ones as well.
Kart-Hadast - descendants of Phoenician colonists, the Qarthadastim are the pre-eminent commercial and maritime power in the western Mediterranean. From their base in north Africa (modern Tunis), they control an empire of markets, ports and naval bases spanning coastal southern and eastern Iberia, the Balearic islands, southern Kurtyn (Corsica), Sardin (Sardinia) and western Sikelia (Sicily). Their naval squadron out of Gader (Cadiz) blockades the Pillars of Herakles, preventing anyone from sailing into the seas beyond and trading directly with Alba (Britain), the source of most tin. Their warships prowl the seas, keeping the sea-lanes safe for their trade vessels and harassing the fleets of other nations should the whim take them. They prefer to employ mercenaries to do their fighting, and leverage their huge wealth (especially in Iberian silver) to achieve their goals. Massalia has clashed with Carthage in the past, though relations are peaceful at present (but will never be cordial as long as the two vie for control of trade in the region).
They are presently on friendly terms with the Roman Republic, various Tyrrhenoi city-states and have long-standing and well-funded alliances with some of the Keltoi, Ligures and Iberian tribes. Their control of western Sikelia puts them in regular opposition with Syrakousai and the other Greek cities on the island.
Roman Republic - a city-state in central Italia that is growing in power and influence in the region, the Romans are still very much a Latin power, locked in incessant conflict with their Samnite neighbours. While their interests happily coincide with those of Massalia, they are largely consumed with events inside Italia. From time to time, they have responded to requests for aid from Massalia in the form of troops, of whom they have a large pool of citizen-soldier manpower to draw upon. They see themselves very much as the senior partner in relations with Massalia, and can be high-handed and arrogant in their handling of Massalian affairs.
While friendly with the Carthaginians, they are often in conflict with all of their neighbours; Tyrhennoi, Samnites and other Sabellian tribes, Keltoi, the city-states of Megale Hellas.
Tyrhennoi - the Etruscans are not one people, but a loose confederation of city-states in northern Italia. They were the amongst the first foreigners to trade into Gallia, though they never established any permanent trading posts. They resent Massalia's growing projection into their natural sphere of influence, and drove Massalian colonists out of Alalia, on Kurtyn almost two centuries ago. Their power is waning, they were once the dominant power in Italia, an Etruscan monarch ruling in Rome and with control over the island of Kurtyn. Under threat from the Keltoi, southern Greeks and Romans in Italia, and Carthaginians in the wider region, they are a shadow of their former glory. In the last century the city-state of Felsina passed under the influence of the Keltoi as the Boii conquered the region, renaming the city Bononia.
Their league commonly works together with the Carthaginians to contain Massalian influence, but is often in conflict with the Roman Republic and their Keltoi neighbours.
Syrakousai and Megale Hellas - southern Italia and coastal Sikelia were heavily colonised by the city-states of Greece, raising many settlements there which had a shared identity of common "Greek-ness" in the Hellenistic era. They are, however, just as disunited as Greeks from the homelands, each man owing allegiance only to his polis. Syrakousai is the mightiest of them, one of the biggest cities in the western Mediterranean, home to some 200,000 souls and a major power in its own right. Ruled by the tyrannos Agathokles and his mercenaries, it has seen the rise and fall of many of his ilk, though political turmoil hasn't reduced the city's economic or military muscle.
Syrakousai is in almost constant conflict with the Carthaginians, who often meddle in the city's affairs, which has frequently led to open warfare on land and at sea. The Greek city-states of Sikelia are often drawn into these conflicts on one side or the other. The city-states of southern Italia have tense relations with the Roman Republic and the Tyrhennoi.
