<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <P> French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers> 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries . </P> Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once . </Td> </Tr> <P> French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers> 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries . </P> <P> Marseille (English / mɑːrˈseɪ /; French: (maʁsɛj) (listen), locally: (mɑχˈsɛjə); Provençal Marselha (maʀˈsejɔ, maʀˈsijɔ)), also known as Marseilles, is a city in France . The capital of the Bouches - du - Rhône department and Provence - Alpes - Côte d'Azur region, Marseille, on France's south coast, is the country's second largest city, after Paris, with a population of 852,516 in 2012, and an area of 241 km (93 sq mi), the 3rd - largest metropolitan area in France after Paris and Lyon . </P> <P> Known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Massalia (Greek: Μασσαλία, Massalía), Marseille was the most important trading centre in the region and the main commercial port of the French Republic . Marseille is now France's largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships . The city was European Capital of Culture, together with Košice, Slovakia, in 2013 . It hosted the FIFA World Cup 1998 and the UEFA Euro 2016, and will be the European Capital of Sport in 2017 . The city is home to several campuses of Aix - Marseille University and part of one of the largest metropolitan conurbations in France, the Metropolis of Aix - Marseille - Provence . </P>

What city in france was originally a greek state