Marseille, which can be called the oldest city in France, is founded in 600 BCE by Greeks from Phocaea in Asia Minor as a trading port under the name Massalia.

The connection between Massalia and the Phoceans is mentioned in Book I, 13 of the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.

The precise circumstances and date of founding remain obscure, but nevertheless a legend survives.

Protis, while exploring for a new trading outpost or emporion for Phocaea, discovered the Mediterranean cove of the Lacydon, fed by a freshwater stream and protected by two rocky promontories.

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, located on the Mediterranean Sea near the mouth of the Rhône River along the well-protected bay now called Vieux-Port (Old Harbor).

Archaeological finds exhibited in the Museum of Antiquities in the eighteenth-century Château Borély suggest that Phoenicians had settled here even earlier.