The Marseille Tariff is a Punic language inscription from the third century BCE, found on two fragments of a stone in 1844/45 at Marseille in Southern France. It is thought to have originally come from the temple of Baal-Saphon in Carthage. It is one of the earliest published inscriptions written in the Phoenician alphabet, and one of the longest ever found. It was first published by Jean-Joseph-Léandre Bargès, and is known as KAI 69 and CIS I 165. It is held on display in Marseille at the Musée d'archéologie méditerranéenne. Discovery In June 1845, workers demolishing a house in the old town of Marseille, not far from the Marseille Cathedral, found two fragments of an inscription in the rubble. The inscription was said to be engraved on Pierre de Cassis, such that it was considered to have been locally produced. The mason offered the stones to the director of the museum, who immediately purchased them for ten francs. The French newspapers announced that the text discovered was of such perfect preservation and of such length that no other Phoenician epigraphic monuments then known could compete in importance with this one. Modern chemical analysis of the stone has shown that its place of origin is Carthage. The first two words of the inscription tell us that it originally was part of a temple of the important god Baal-Saphon. The two suffetes mentioned in lines 1-2 and 18-19 of the inscription, who both bore the name Ḥaloṣba‘al (meaning "Ba‘al rescues"), apparently were the eponymous magistrates of the city in the year the inscription was made. The suffetes are comparable with the two eponymous consuls in Rome. The inscription The tariff regulated the payments to the priests for performing sacrifices and described the nature of the victims. All victims are male animals, and females are not mentioned. The inscription reads: {| |+ |- | (line 1) || BT B‘LṢPN B‘[T HMŠ]’TT ’Š ṬN[’ ŠLŠM H’Š ’Š ‘L HMŠ’]TT || Temple of Ba‘alṣaphon. (This is) the tari[ff of pay]ments (for sacrifices) that [the Thirty Men who are in charge of Tariffs se]t up |- | (1-2) || ‘T [R ḤLṢ]B‘L HŠPṬ BN BDTNT BN BD[’ŠMN WḤLṢB‘L] / HŠPṬ BN BD’ŠMN BN ḤLṢB‘L WḤ[BRNM] || in the time of [the magistrates Ḥaloṣ]ba‘al the Suffes, son of Bodtinnīt, (grand)son of Bod[’esmūn, and Ḥaloṣba‘al] / the Suffes, son of Bodesmūn, (grand)son of Ḥaloṣba‘al, and their coll[eagues.] |-