Am.K.'i 



Marin began to dive on a cargo of marble blocks just outside Saint- 

 Tropez harbor. The blocks were lying in less than twenty feet of 

 water, and when they were photographed and measured they turned 

 out to be nine large pieces of column and one architrave. The 

 weight of the architrave was calculated at thirty-eight metric tons, 

 and the weight of the total cargo at about 250 tons. When the crust 

 of these large blocks was scraped away, the stone proved to be 

 white Carrara marble. 



By chance, a large floating crane was at Saint-Tropez to do some 

 work for the navy, and the Club Alpin Sous-Marin was lucky 

 enough to be given use of it. Under the direction of Professor 

 Benoit and Henri Broussard, and with the help of a professional 

 helmet diver, half of the blocks were brought up. By January 1952 

 all but one had been raised, and they stood forlornly on a jetty, 

 draped with tattered weed and surrounded by rusty cables and 

 scrap. Professor Benoit has suggested that these columns were 

 being carried by freighter from Italy to Narbonne, where the temple 

 was- rebuilt during the reign of Antoninus. The temple had been 

 destroyed by fire in a.d. 149 and a rich shipowner and merchant, 

 Fadius Musa, offered to rebuild it at his own expense. The trade- 

 mark of the Fadii has been found in Ostia and many places in Gaul; 

 it would have been simple for a man of such wealth and business 

 connections to carry marble over the Mediterraneari from Carrara 

 in his own ships. 



Along the coast at Marseilles, during excavation to clear war 

 damage near the Vieux Port, workmen uncovered stakes of un- 

 seasoned pine and holm oak. These balks of timber proved to be 

 part of the Greek harbor of Massilia, of about the sixth century b.c. 

 Nearby, at the water's edge, an Ionic capital was found in a con- 

 fusion of rubble and masonry. Since this is the only piece of Greek 

 architecture ever found in Gaul, it has become an extremely impor- 

 tant archaeological document. 



Still farther west, on the Rhone delta, is Fos-sur-Mer, a favorite 

 summer beach for tourists from Marseilles. Here, by the cove of 

 Saint-Gervais, Lie columns and cut blocks in only fifteen feet of 

 water. In spite of the thick mud and weed one of the columns was 

 raised, complete with an impost to support an arch or the lintel of 

 a door. Dr. Beaucaire started diving at Fos-sur-Mer with voluntary 

 assistants in 1948. During four years' work they removed layer 

 after layer of sand, clay, and sticky mud deposited over the centuries 

 by the Rhone, until at last they reached the foundations of old 

 Roman villas. This is a perfect example of how conscientious work 

 can produce results on a difficult site. 



Before we leave the Mediterranean to examine a notorious 

 sunken city of the New World, we should mention a few cities that 

 are truly lost. In the eighth and seventh centuries b.c. the Greeks 

 expanded with enormous energy, colonizing the whole of southern 

 Italy, and other places as well. Of the fabulous and prosperous 

 cities of Magna Graecia - such as Paestum and Tarentum, which 

 are well known today - some are lost without trace. Of all the cities 

 of Magna Graecia, Sybaris was the most luxurious and the most 

 renowned, yet its site ia unknown as are those of its colonies Scidrus 

 and Laus. 



The fantastic wealth of Sybaris came from two principal sources 

 - its rich, "virtuous" soil, and land routes for trade across the toe 



<*>»l./ W.; \ 



This map drawn in 1725 by Count Marsigli 

 shows the position of Fos-sur-Mer (Fox) 

 and its relation to the Rhone. It was 

 at Fos-sur-Mer that Beaucaire discovered 

 the foundations of old Roman villas buried 

 in mud deposits brought down by the Rhone. 



A head of Aphrodite. Creek goddess of love 

 and beauty, found at Fos-sur-Mer. Carved 

 in ivory, it is of Hellenic design and dates 

 from about the first century B.C. 



145 



