Editing History of Monaco (section)

==Greek colonization and Herculean legend==
During the 6th-century BC, [[Phocaea]]ns from Massalia (modern day [[Marseille]]) founded the colony of Monoikos.<ref name="Klieger2012">{{cite book|author=P. Christiaan Klieger|title=The Microstates of Europe: Designer Nations in a Post-Modern World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CrfwGa4aCwYC&pg=PA165|date=29 November 2012|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-7427-2|pages=165–}}</ref> The name of the colony derives from the local veneration of the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] [[demigod]] [[Heracles]], also later adopted by the Romans, who was said to have constructed the ancient path that passed through the region from Spain to Italy.<ref name="Klieger2012"/> The [[Roman emperor]] [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] also wrote of Hercules's construction of Monaco's port and a coastal road.<ref name="Rike1987">{{cite book|author=R. L. Rike|title=Apex Omnium: Religion in the Res Gestae of Ammianus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0LbfTAT--gC&pg=PA24|year=1987|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-05858-3|pages=24–}}</ref> The road was dotted with altars to Heracles, and a temple dedicated to him was established on the Rock of Monaco. The name [[Port Hercules]] was subsequently used for the ancient port.<ref name="Klieger2012"/> ''Monoeci'' meaning "Single One" or ''Monoikos'' meaning "Single House" could be a reference to Hercules or his temple, or the isolated community inhabiting the area around the rock.<ref name="Klieger2012"/>

According to the "travels of Heracles" theme, also documented by [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Strabo]], both Greeks and native [[Ligures|Ligurian]] people asserted that [[Hercules]] passed through the area.