History Marseille was founded in 600 BC by Phocaean Greeks as a trading port under the name Μασσαλία (Massalia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). It was overrun by Celts and then conquered by the Romans. During the Roman times, it was called Massilia. In 1934 Alexander I of Yugoslavia arrived at the port to meet with the French foreign minister Louis Barthou. He was assassinated there by Vlada Georgieff who hated Alexander's refusal to recognise Croatia as a separate state. Economy Marseilles' harbor is the biggest of the country, and one of the most important of the Mediterranean Sea. Traffic is only permitted when the crypto-marxist CGT union isn't blockading the city, as they do almost every week.