Massalia was a Greek colony founded in about 600 BC by immigrants from fokaia (Phokaia — modern-day Foça in Turkey). Massalia survived as a city and today we know it as the city of Marsailles, France. The city was a famous port that was a trading partner and ally of the Roman Republic. From ancient times its most famous son was a sailor named Pytheas, who in some ways was the Columbus of the ancient world.
We don’t know the dates of Pytheas birth or death, but we do know that in around 325 BC he sailed a ship through the straits of Gibraltar (which were guarded by the Carthagianian navy, out into the Atlantic ocean, and hugging the coastlines of present-day Spain and France sailed to Britain to explore the islands that were the source of tin which were used in tools and weapons that were manufactured in Greek, Carthagianian, and Italian factories. Tin, when alloyed with copper makes bronze. The Celtic people of what was originally called Albion (meaning white–from the white cliffs of Dover) would mine the tin ore and load it in animal hide boats that were floated across the English channel to France, from which they made their way to the south. Pytheas had the curiosity to wonder about these mysterious people and left us with a picture of life outside the Roman Empire.
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