Listed 1 sub titles with search on: The inhabitants for wider area of: "ALPES DE HAUTE PROVENCE Prefecture PROVENCE" .
RIEZ (Town) PROVENCE
Reii Apollinares (Riez), in Gallia Narbonensis. Among the Oppida Latina of Gallia
Narbonensis, or those which had the Latinitas, Pliny (iii. c. 4) enumerates Alebece
Reiorum Apollinarium. The old reading, Alebeceriorum Apollinarium, is a blunder
made by joining two words together, which has been corrected from the better MSS.,
from the inscription COL. REIOR. APOLLINAR., and from the Table, which has Reis
Apollinaris. The place may have taken its name from a temple of Apollo built after
the town became Roman. The name Alebece may be corrupt, or it may be a variation
of the form Albici or Albioeci. As Pliny calls the place an Oppidum Latinum, we
might suppose that it was made a Colonia after his time, but the name Col. Jul.
Aug. Apollinar. Reior., which appears in an inscription, shows it to have been
a colony of Augustus.
Riez is in the arrondissement of Digne in the department of Basses
Alpes. There are four columns standing near the town, which may be the remains
of a temple. The bases and the capitals are marble: the shafts are a very hard
granite, and about 18 feet high. There is also a small circular building consisting
of eight columns resting on a basement, but it has been spoiled by modern hands.
There now stands in it a rectangular altar of one block of white marble, which
bears an inscription to the Mother of the Gods and the Great Goddess. At Riez
there have been discovered an enormous quantity of fragments of granite columns;
and it is said that there have been a circus and a theatre in the town. (Guide
du Voyagyeur, Richard et Hocquart)
This is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited Feb 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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