The first inhabitants are supposed to have come from Spain and Liguria, but the Mediterranean naval powers took small notice of their rights, and drew supplies of honey, wax, timber and slaves from the country, and fought amongst themselves for a mono poly of the trade. The Greeks are said to have founded Alalia (aleria), on the east coast, but their colony of Massilia in Gaul proved more lucrative, and Alalia was afterwards an Etruscan colony, until that nation succumbed to the superior power of Carthage.
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