ORANGE, a town of France, 18 m. N. of Avignon on the P.L.M. railway. Pop. (1931) 7,11o. Orange (Arausio), capital of the Cavari, was in 105 B.C. the scene of the defeat of a Roman army by the Cimbri and Teutones. It became after Caesar an important Roman colony. Its ramparts and fine buildings were partly destroyed by the Alamanni and Visigoths, and partly ruined by the erections of the middle ages. Orange was included in the kingdom of Austrasia, fell into the hands of the Saracens and was recovered by Charlemagne. It became the seat of an inde pendent courtship in the 11th century. The town had a univer sity from the 14th century till the Revolution. Orange stands at some distance from the left bank of the Rhone, in the midst of meadows, orchards and mulberry plantations, watered by the Meyne, and overlooked by Mont Ventoux, 22 M. to the east.
Orange has famous Roman remains. The triumphal arch ranks third in size and importance among those still extant in Europe; 72 ft. in height, 69 ft. in width, and 26 ft. in depth, it is com posed of three arches supported by Corinthian columns. On three sides its sculptured decorations are well preserved. The arch seems to have been set up in honour of Tiberius, perhaps to commemorate his victory over the Gallic chieftain Sacrovir in A.D. 21. It was used as a donjon in the middle ages. The theatre,
dating from the time of the emperor Hadrian and built against a hill on the summit of which a colossal figure of the Virgin stands, has a façade 121 ft. high, 34o ft. long and 13 ft. thick, which is pierced by three square gates surmounted by a range of blind arches and a double row of projecting corbels, with holes in which the poles of the awning were placed. Of the seats for the spectators, only the lower tiers remain. It was used as an out-work to the fortress built on the hill by Maurice of Nas sau in 1622, and destroyed fifty years later by order of Louis XIV., who in 1660 captured the town. At the beginning of the 19th century it was filled with hovels and stables; the building has been cleared and restored, and now serves as a national theatre. Near the theatre traces have been found of a hippo drome; and there are statues, bas-reliefs and ruins of an amphi theatre. Notre Dame, the old cathedral, originally built by the prefect of Gaul, was ruined by the barbarians, rebuilt in the and 12th centuries, and damaged by the Protestants.
There are manufactories of footwear, brooms, jewellery and beet-sugar. The town deals largely in fruit, and millet-stalks for brooms, as well as in wool, silk, honey and truffles.