148 REMARKS ON FOUR EXTRACTS 
or no authority. Duncan’s authority might be 
less unobjectionably quoted, who translates the 
words littere Grece by Greek characters. 
It is urged, besides, that the Greek colony 
from Phocis, which founded Marseilles some 
centuries before the overthrow of the Roman 
republic, diffused among the Gauls the know- 
ledge of the Greek language, and a taste for the 
Greek literature. This argument is sustained 
by a reference to a passage in the Geography of 
Strabo.* I offer the following as a close trans- 
lation of as much of the passage in question as 
relates to our subject:— 
“‘Of which the present state of Marseilles is a 
proof. For there all persons of a cultivated 
wind are devoted to eloquence and philosophy. 
So that that city has of late afforded the bar- 
barians a school of instruction, and induced the 
Gauls to apply to Greek literature; so that they 
even wrote their contracts in the Greek lan- 
guage. And the state of learning at Marseilles, 
at this present time, (that is, in the reign of 
Tiberius,) has induced the most distinguished 
of the Romans for their love of philosophy to 
* Geogr. p. 248, Edit, Falcon. Oxon. 
