Antipolis
- A city in Gaul, now Antibes, Plin. 3, 4, 5, § 35; Mel. 2, 5.
- —Hence, Antĭpŏlĭtānus, a, um, adj., of or from Antipolis: thynni, found in that region, Mart. 13, 103; cf. id. 4, 89.—
- II An old settlement in Latium, afterwards Janiculum, Plin. 3, 5, 9, § 68.
ANTI´POLIS(Ἀντίπολις: Eth. Antipolitanus: Antibes), a town in Gallia Narbonensis. D'Anville ( Notice, &c.) observes that he believes that this town has preserved the name of Antiboulin the Provençal idiom. It was founded by the Greeks of Massalia ( Marseille) in the country of the Deciates; and it was one of the settlements which Massalia established with a view of checking the Salyes and the Ligurians of the Alps. (Strab. p. 180.) It was on the maritime Roman road which ran along this coast. Antibes is on the sea, on the east side of a small peninsula a few miles W. of the mouth of the Varus ( Var). It contains the remains of a theatre, and of some Roman constructions.
Strabo states (p. 184), that though Antipolis was in Gallia Narbonensis, it was released from the jurisdiction of Massalia, and reckoned among the Italian towns, while Nicaea, which was east of the Var and in Italy, still remained a dependency of Massalia. Tacitus (Tac. Hist. 2.15) calls it a municipium of Narbonensis Gallia, which gives us no exact information. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.4) calls it oppidum Latinum,by which he means that it had the Jus Latium or Latinitas; but the passage in Strabo has no precise meaning, unless we suppose that Antipolis had the Jus Italicum. Antipolis, however, is not mentioned with the two Gallic cities, Lugdunum and Vienna (Dig. 50. tit. 15. s. 8), which were Juris Italici; and we may perhaps, though with some hesitation, take the statement of Pliny in preference to that of Strabo.
There are coins of Antipolis. It seems to have had some tunny fisheries, and to have prepared a pickle (muria) for fish. (Plin. Nat. 31.8; Martial (Mart. 13.103.)
[G.L](Ἀντίπολις). The modern Antibes; a town in Gallia Narbonensis on the coast.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHYStrab. 4.1.5, 9; Polyb. 33.8; Livy, Epit. 47; Plin. HN 3.4; 31.43; IG XIV, 2424-30; CIL XII, 165-246; E. Muterse, Antibes: des Origines au IVe Siècle (1939); J.-P. Clébert, Provence Antique (1966) I, 173-75; II, 95-102; J. Clergues, La Recherche Archéologique à Antibes (1966) PI; id., Antibes: La Ville Grecque du VIe Siècle avant J.C. et l'Habitat Protohistorique (1969) PI; P. Méjean, D'Antipolis à Juan-les-Pins (1969) MPI; J.-E. Dugand, De l'Aegitna de Polybe au Trophée de la Brague (1970) 173-203, 213-31, with bibl.MPI; latest reports: Nice-Matin 2 Sept. 1972; 13-15 Aug. 1973; R. Schoder, “Graeco-Roman Antipolis on the French Riviera,” Antipolis 1 (1974) 1-7, bibl.
R. V. SCHODER