Phocaea

Marseille, founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC, is the starting point of the French leg of the relay.

Marseille was once one of the world’s richest cities, its natural harbor an international hub dating back to 600 BC and its founding by Greeks of Phocaea.

The Little Iliad and the Phoca�s, according to the Herodotean life, were composed by Homer when he lived at Phocaea with a certain Thestorides, who carried them off to Chios and there gained fame by reciting them as his own.

But in vain did Pythermus of Phocaea, the mouthpiece of the embassy, put on his purple robe in order to manifest the importance and wealth of the cities, when the ephors introduced the legation before the common assembly.

He marched northwards from the valley of the Maeander; in the first instance against Phocaea, which appeared to have taken the leading part in resistance, or at any rate had done most to gain the help of Sparta; after Miletus it was the most powerful city of the Ionians.