Wikipedia:Peer review/Phocaea/archive1

Phocaea

Not sure whether this article belongs here, but since it's my first attempt at a complete article I thought I'd list it here and see what happens. I don't expect this article to be all that popular, but any feedback of any kind would be appreciated. Paul August 20:07, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC)

I found the article interesting and informative and it told me clear information about something I knew nothing about before, so I consider it to be a success! Very well done for a first attempt I would say, and well-written too. The only slight niggle I had was with the last sentence of the intro: "Perhaps best known as the founder of Massilia (modern Marseilles)". It's not entirely clear to me what this means - presumably that a group of Phocaeans founded the city, but this doesn't seem to be made entirely clear in the article. Angmering 21:06, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback, and for your kind words. As to your confusion about Phocaea being "best known as the founder of Massilia (modern Marseilles)" - Yes, it means, as you suppose, that Phocaeans founded the city. Can you suggest alternate wording that would make this more clear? Paul August 17:11, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

Hmmmmm, it doesn't really need that much changing. Perhaps something like: The Phocaeans' most lasting legacy was the foundation by a group of their people of the city of Massilia, now modern day Marseilles in France. How does that sound? Angmering 17:55, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Massilia is the Roman name of the city. Its ancient (and modern) Greek name is Massalía (Μασσαλία).