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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Strab. 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
