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PHOCAEA (mod. Fukia or Fokha)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 448 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHOCAEA (mod. Fukia or Fokha)  an See also:ancient See also:city on the western See also:coast of See also:Asia See also:Minor, famous as the See also:mother city of See also:Marseilles . It was the most See also:northern of the Ionian cities, and was situated on the coast of the See also:peninsula which separates the gulf of Cyme, occupied by Aeolian settlers, from the Hermaean Gulf, on which stood See also:Smyrna and See also:Clazomenae.l Its position between two See also:good harbours, Naustathmus and Lampter (See also:Livy See also:xxxvii . 31), led the inhabitants to devote themselves to maritime pursuits . According to See also:Herodotus the Phocaeans were the first of all the Greeks to undertake distant voyages, and made known the coasts of the Adriatic, Tyrrhenia and See also:Spain . Arganthonius, See also:king of Tartessus in Spain, invited them to emigrate in a See also:body to his dominions, and, on their declining, presented them with a large sum of See also:money . This they employed in constructing a strong See also:wall around their city, a See also:defence which stood them in good See also:stead when See also:Ionia was attacked by See also:Cyrus in 546 . Eventually they determined to seek a new See also:home in the See also:west, where they already had flourishing colonies, e.g . It was said to have been founded by a See also:band of emigrants from See also:Phocis, under the guidance of two Athenian leaders, named Philogenes and See also:Damon, but it joined the Ionian confederacy by accepting the See also:government of Athenian rulers of the See also:house of See also:Codrus . Alalia in See also:Corsica and Massilia (mod . Marseilles) . A large See also:part of the emigrants proceeded only as far as See also:Chios, returned to See also:Phocaea, and submitted to the See also:Persian yoke . Phocaea continued to exist under the Persian government, but greatly reduced in See also:population and See also:commerce .

Though it joined in the Ionian revolt against See also:

Persia in 500 it was able to send only three See also:ships to the combined See also:fleet which fought at Lade . But a Phocaean took the supreme command . It never again played a prominent part in Ionian See also:history, and is rarely mentioned . In the See also:time of Timur Fujah was a fortress of Sarukhan, but had been previously in Genoese hands . The ruins still visible on the site See also:bear the name of Palaea Fokia, but they are of little See also:interest . The See also:modern See also:town in the immediate neighbourhood, still known as Fokia, was founded by the Genoese in 1421 on See also:account of the See also:rich See also:alum mines in the neighbourhood . It has a See also:fair natural See also:harbour, which is the nearest outlet of the rich See also:district of Menemen . About 188o, while the Gediz Chai was throwing its silt unchecked into the Gulf of Smyrna and gradually filling the navigable channel, there was talk of reviving Fokia as a new See also:port for Smyrna, and connecting it with the . See also:Cassaba railway . But, in deference to Smyrniote protests, a new See also:estuary was cut for the Gediz . Fokia has acquired See also:local importance however as a port of See also:call for See also:coasting steamers, and it is used to some degree as a summer See also:residence by Smyrniotes . (D .

G .

End of Article: PHOCAEA (mod. Fukia or Fokha)
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