Greek Cities in the Western Mediterranean.
both the Greeks and Phoenicians expanded into Western Mediterranean, and sites such as Naples and Marseilles are still cities today. At this time there was an enormous rise in population in Greece, and settlements to the west were needed in order to combat overpopulation. Ancient historians have even documented cases where people were forced to leave their homes on the Aegean islands or mainland Greece for these settlements. .
Another reason, and arguably the more important one, is the fact that Greece was lacking raw materials. From corn and metal, to pitch and timber, Greece needed supply stations for their population. The Etruscans controlled rich mineral deposits, which the Greeks desperately needed. In fact, some of the settlements have been called "ports of trade", whose primary purpose was to trade between two different nations. A good example of this would be the Greek colony of Naukratis on the Nile delta, for it specialized in the import of corn from Egypt to Greece. In the western Mediterranean the colonies of Massalia, which is now Marseilles, and Emporion were both also trading stations.