an ancient, large, and considerable city of France, in the department of Aisne and late province of Soissonnois. It was the capital of a kingdom of the same name, under the first race of the French monarchs. It contains about 12,000 inhabitants, and is a bishop's see. The environs are charming, but the streets are narrow, and the houses ill-built. The fine cathedral has one of the most confiderable chapters in the kingdom; and the bishop, when the archbishop of Reims was absent, had a right to crown the king. The castle, though ancient, is not that in which the kings of the first race resided. Soissons is seated in a very pleasant and fertile valley, on the river Aisne, 30 miles west by north of Reims, and 60 north-east of Paris. E. Long. 3. 24. N. Lat. 49. 23.