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ON leaving Toulon the traveller ihould diredt his courfe towards Ollioules which is
nearly nine miles diftant. From henccj after crofling the lofty mountain de la Beaume,
and quitting the ancient Via Aureliaj which leads to Aix^ tlie capital of Provencc, he will
proceed to Marfeilles.
The diftance from the laft mentioned city to Toulon does not exceed thirty mUes. The
country, which is mountainous, prefents a variety of romantic fcenery. Bct^veen the mountains
are many vallies of abundant fertility; along thefe the road winds, now ihadowed by
olive trees, and now interfering the richeft meadows; the whole producing the moit picturefque
and agreeable efFc£l: and the beauty of the landfcape is iHll further heightened
by the various fti-eams rufhing from the furrounding hills, which, after fertilizing tlie foil
through which they pafs, imite and mingle their pellucid waters, and thence precipitate
themfeives into the Mediterranean Sea.
Marfeilles, which is one of the handfomeft and moft commercial port towns in Provence,
is iituated in a fine bay of the Mediterranean, in long. 5° 22' weft of Greenwich
Obfervatory, and 43° 18' north latitude. It was the Maffilia of the ancients, and was
foimded by a colony of Phocians, as mentioned in the introduAion, who came f rom Ionia,
and fettled in that part of the country inhabited by the Gavares and Salyes, which extended
along the coaft from Telo-Martius, or Toulon, to the Sinus Gradus, or Mout h of
the Rhone.
This colony is univerfally allowed to have been the firft who introduced the Arts and
Belles Lettres into Gaul : its public fchools had acquired fuch celebritj', that the Romans
even deigned to fend liither many of their youtlis to be educated.
T o that fuperiority of knowledge, inh-epidtty, and courage, may be attributed the frequent
advantages gained by thofe people over the Carthaginians, Ligiuians, and Gauls.
In fuch a flourifhing ilate did tlie republic continue for fcveral centurics, that, long before
» I/Otcly the head quarters of the rcpubUcsD army.
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