Massalia's hand in the Civil War of 49 BC cost the city dearly. Backing Pompey against Caesar was a catastrophic miscalculation — after a six-month siege, the city surrendered, lost its fleet, its treasury, and most of its territorial autonomy. Bronze coinage of this type, struck in the final years of genuine Massalian independence, effectively marks the end of the city's five-century run as a self-governing Greek colonial power on the Gaulish coast.
Massalia's hand in the Civil War of 49 BC cost the city dearly. Backing Pompey against Caesar was a catastrophic miscalculation — after a six-month siege, the city surrendered, lost its fleet, its treasury, and most of its territorial autonomy. Bronze coinage of this type, struck in the final years of genuine Massalian independence, effectively marks the end of the city's five-century run as a self-governing Greek colonial power on the Gaulish coast.