NARBONNE, a t. in the s. of France, in the department of Aude, 55 m. S.W. of Mont pellier, on a branch (La Robine) of the canal du Midi. It is the Narbo Martius of the Romans; but there is reason to believe that it was well known to the Greeks 500 .years before the Christian era. It was colonized by the Romans 118 B. c., and probably got the designation from Q. Marcius Rex, one of the consuls at the time. Situated only about 8 m. from the sea, on the direct road into Spain and into the basin of the Garonne, Narbonne was in early times a place of great commercial prpsperity. It was the second settlement founded in south Gallia by the Romans,. and was considered by them an important acquisition, both for its strength and as the key to the road into Spain. 'Under Tiberius it flourished greatly, the arts and sciences being cultivated with success, and its schools rivaling for a long time those of Rome. About 309 A.D. it became the capital of Gallia Narbonensis, and contained among other buildings a capitol, theater, foram, aqueducts, triumphal arches. etc. It was taken in 719 by the Saracens, who planted
here a Moslem colony, and destroyed the churches. In 859 it fell to the arms of the Northmen. During the 11th and 12th centuries it was a flourishing manufacturing city, but subsequently it fell into comparative decay, and is now entirely destitute of any monument of its former splendor. A considerable number of architectural fragments— as capitals, marble slabs with inscriptions, friezes, etc.—have been found, and have been grouped into a collection of antiquities.
The. present very dirty town contains one imposinglauilding, the cathedral of St. Just, founded in 1271, but still unfinished. The honey of Narbonne is the best in France, both for color and flavor. Manufactures are carried on to some extent. Pop. '76, 18,325.