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massalia
Origin of the name of Marseilles
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One does not know from where the name of Μασσαλία (Massalia) comes. Some historians think that the Massalia, like the Lacydon which gave its name to the ancient port, was perhaps a coastal river which was flowing into the large creek where the Greeks who came from Phocaea landed. Others propose a Semitic origin : Matsal, a protective place (see the site Philagora).
"Emporion" which had been founded by the Phocaeans, Massalia, in its turn, founded other colonies. Then, it competed with Carthago which was dominating the maritime trade of the Western Mediterranean sea.
   The Stock Exchange Palace
   Detail of the pediment
   « MASSILIA CIVITAS »
However, whereas Phocaeans had been accepted by the local tribe, Segobriges, Massalia was soon in conflict with the people of the back-country, Salyens (see the site: Marseille grecque). Also it was allied with Rome, and the victory which Rome won over Carthago (at the end of the Punic Wars) enabled it to increase its power considerably.
From the 3rd century bc, it was striking its own coins. Oboles and drachmas, which was often carrying to their obverse a bust of Artemis, protective of the city, were signed on the other side with the characters ΜΑ or ΜΑΣΣΑ or, in entirety, ΜΑΣΣΑΛΙΗΤΩΝ i.e. "[coin] of Massalietes".

But two hundred years later, politically badly inspired, this time, Massalia took Pompee's side against Caesar. In 49 BC, Julius Caesar made a fleet build by Arelate (today : Arles), which triumphed over the fleet of the Massalietes, this ones being more merchant than warlike.
  
    MASSALIETÔN :
    [drachma] of Massalietes
   The Lacydon
   (the Old Port)

After a siege which reduced them to the famine, the inhabitants of Massalia capitulated.
Under Roman influence, the Latin name "Massilia" supplanted then the Greek "Massalia". "Massilia" became later "Marsilia", a name which persists today in Italian (Marsiglia) but was gallicized as "Marseille" at the end of the Middle Ages.
Link : Phéniciens et Grecs en Méditerranée et sur le littoral provençal
(Site Philagora - Pr Jean Bernardi)
 Link : Marseille grecque
(Site of french Ministère de la culture)
 Link : Marseille grecque : les légendes fondatrices. Un savant et passionnant article de Roger Duchêne.
(Site of Université de Bourgogne)