III.] MASSILIA AND ITS COLONIES. 55
runs) of the preference given by the daughter of a Gaulish chief-
tain to a Greek over a native suitor, they founded the colony of
Massilia, in a region far more remote from Greece than any
which had as yet been occupied by a Hellenic settlement. The
influence of that city, which itself was situated in the recesses of a
spacious bay, and protected on the land side by a screen of hills,
soon made itself felt in several directions. Towards the east,
at the foot of the Maritime Alps, there arose a suc-
cession of prosperous towns—Antipolis (Antibes), MassiHa!S °f
Nicaea (Nice), and finally the Portus Herculis
Monoeci (Monaco), where the appellation of the tutelary divinity,
Heracles "dwelling alone," is significant of its position as the
last of the Greek colonies in that direction. Beyond that point
all progress was discouraged by the close approach of the moun-
tains to the sea; for what is now the delightful coast of the
Riviera was then a wild tract, inhabited by fierce Ligurian
mountaineers. Towards the west, also, along the shores of Spain,
we find the settlement of Emporiae at the extremity of the
Pyrenees, and that of Hemeroscopeium, in a position convenient
for traffic, opposite the Balearic islands. But the
most important field of all lay in the interior of
Gaul, with which there was ready communication
by means of the Rhone, since that river reached the sea in the
neighbourhood of Massilia. The other waterways, with which
that country is so well provided, brought thither, not only the
products of the interior, but also articles of sale from lands
beyond: and ultimately, as we have seen, the tin of Britain and
the amber of Frisia found their way by this route into the marts
of the Mediterranean. Owing to the same causes Massilia be-
came also one of the most important starting-points for geo-
graphical discovery.
In one other direction, besides those which have been
mentioned, the colonising spirit of the Greeks found
an opening for its energy. Africa, which from its
harbourless shores and the wide space of sea which
separates it from Greece elsewhere offered no inducements to
settlers of that nation, at one point presented an attractive field
for emigration, where the district of the Cyrenaica approaches