who sent an army to their assistance.  The commander of this army, after defeating their enemies, granted them all the harbours, and the whole sea-coast, between their city and the confines of Italy; and thus at once secured their safety and extended their territory.  A short time afterwards, Marius conferred on them another benefit, not inferior in importance and utility.  While he was waiting for the Cimbri in Transalpine Gaul, he was under great difficulty to procure provisions up the Rhone, in consequence of the mouth of the river being obstructed with sand-banks.  To remedy this inconvenience, he undertook a great and laborious work, which, from him, was called Fossa Marina:  this was a large canal, beginning at his camp, near Arles, and carried on to the sea, which was fed with water from the Rhone; through this canal, the largest transports could pass.  After his victory over the Cimbrians, Marius gave this canal to the people of Marseilles, in return for the support and supplies they had afforded him in his war against them.  As there was no passage into the interior of this part of Gaul, except either through the Rhone or this canal, the Marseillians, who were now masters of both, enriched themselves considerably, partly by the traffic they carried on, and partly by the duties they levied on all goods which were sent up the canal and the river.  In the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, they took part with the former, who, in return, gave them all the territory on the western bank of the Rhone.  Caesar, exasperated at their hostility towards him, and at their ingratitude (for he, on the conquest of Gaul, had enlarged their territories, and augmented their revenues), blocked up their port by sea and land, and soon obliged them to surrender.  He stripped their arsenals of arms, and obliged them to deliver up all their ships, as well as deprived them of the colonies and towns that were under their dominion.

The Marseillians, in the pursuit of commerce, made several voyages to distant, and, till then, unknown parts of the world:  of these, the voyage of Pytheas, the extent, direction, and discoveries of which we have already investigated, was the most remarkable and celebrated.  Euthymenes, another Marseillian navigator, is said to have advanced to the south, beyond the line; but little credit seems due to the very imperfect accounts which we possess of his voyage.  The Marseillians also planted several colonies on the coasts of Gaul, Italy, and Spain, viz.  Nicaea, Antipolis (Antibes,) Telo Martius (Toulon,) &c.

Arelas (Arles) was also a place of some trade, and celebrated for its manufactures, especially its embroidery, and its curious and rich works in gold and silver.  It was at this place that Caesar built, in the short period of thirty days, the twelve galleys which he used in blocking up the port of Marseilles; and he manned them with its inhabitants;—­a proof, as Huet observes, that they were well versed in maritime affairs at this time.