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ANTIBES (Town) ALPES MARITIMES
Antipolis (Antibes) Alpes-Maritimes, France.
Town on the French Riviera between Nice and Cannes, with a protected
harbor and a small promontory. It was in the Ligurian territory of the Deciates,
and was inhabited from the 10th c. B.C. on. A Greek outpost, established here
by Massilia or Phokaia, left pottery dating from the 6th c. The area has yielded
more and longer Greek inscriptions than anywhere else in S France: the Terpon
stone, a lead curse tablet, the victory monument at Biot, and many sherds with
names of divinities and worshipers. Local coinage, with ANTIP and LEPI in Greek
and a victory trophy (rev.), and head of Apollo (obv.), dates from the 2d c. B.C.
The consul Q. Opimius drove off besieging Ligurians in 154 B.C., and
thereafter Antipolis was protected and developed by Rome; although in Gallia Narbonensis,
it was treated as an Italiote city and given ius Latii. Coin finds indicate its
importance in the Empire, especially in the time of Constantine and the so-called
Gallic usurpers.
Exploratory excavations have located the acropolis under the cathedral
and the adjacent Grimaldi Castle. Here were two Roman cisterns with octagonal
stone columns, and probably the city's main temple; there are Roman houses nearby.
The lower town and port area were expanded in Roman times. Ruins of the theater,
demolished in 1691, lie under the bus station; an amphitheater was apparently
near Rue Fersen. Parts of the ancient ramparts and port jetties survive. Baths
and aqueducts are known, and shipwrecks have been explored. At nearby Vaugrenier
are extensive Roman ruins, and evidence suggesting a Greek shrine of an earth
cult. Finds from the whole area are in the two local museums.
R. V. Schoder, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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