DECIZE, a town of central France, in the department of Nievre, on an island in the Loire, 24 m. S.E. of Nevers by the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. Julius Caesar mentions it as Decetia, stronghold of the Aedui, and in 52 B.C. held there a meeting of the senate to settle the leadership of the tribe and to reply to his demand for aid against Vercingetorix. Later the counts of Nevers owned it, and granted it a charter of franchise in i226. The church of Saint Are dates in part from the I 1 th and 12th centuries; there are also ruins of a castle of the counts of Nevers. Decize is the starting-point of the Nivernais canal. The coal mine of La Machine, which belongs to the Schneider Com pany of Le Creusot, lies 4 m. to the north. The industries of Decize and its suburbs on both banks of the Loire include the working of gypsum and lime, and the manufacture of ceramic products and glass. Trade is in horses from the Morvan, cattle, coal, iron, wood and stone.