In Troubadour-Land by Sabine Baring-Gould

The three islands Phoenice, Phila, Iturium -- Marseilles first a Phoenician colony -- The tariff of fees exacted by the priests of Baal -- The arrival of the Ionians -- The legend of Protis and Gyptis -- Second colony of Ionians -- The voyages of Pytheas and Euthymenes -- Capture of Marseilles by Trebonius -- Position of the Greek city -- The Acropolis -- Greek inscriptions -- The lady who never "jawed" her husband -- The tomb of the sailor-boy -- Hôtel des Négociants -- Ménu -- Entry of the President of the Republic -- Entry of Francis I. -- The church of S. Vincent -- The Cathedral -- Notre Dame de la Garde -- The abbey of S. Victor -- Catacombs -- The fable of S. Lazarus.

The traveller approaching Marseilles from the sea observes three islets of bare limestone rock that are apparently a prolongation of that rocky promontory now crowned by the fortress of S. Nicolas, and that act as a natural breakwater against wave and storm from the S. E. They go by the names of Pomègue, Ratonneau, and Château d'If. But the classic geographers called the group the Little Stoechades, and named these islets Phoenice, Phila, and Iturium; and these three appellations give us in a compact form the story of ancient Marseilles, founded by the Phoenicians, refounded by the Greeks, and then made a dependency under the Roman empire.