(the Iculisma of the ancients), a city of France, capital of an arrondissement of the same name, and of the department of Charente. It stands on an elevated plateau on the left bank of the Charente, 221 feet above the river, and on the railway between Paris and Bordeaux, 66 miles north-east of the latter. It is the seat of a bishop, a court of assize, and a tribunal of primary jurisdiction; and has a public library, a royal college, an obstetric school, a theatre, a museum of natural history, and a society of agriculture, arts, sciences, and belles-lettres. Angoulême is, in general, well built; but many of the streets in the old town are narrow and crooked. It has numerous paper-mills, a cannon foundry, an extensive powder-mill, manufactories of linen, cloth, and porcelain, besides a considerable general trade, particularly in wine and brandy. The chief public buildings are an ancient castle, a cathedral, and a fine bridge over the Charente. Pop. in 1846, 18,482. The arrondissement of the same name is divided into nine cantons, and 143 communes; and by the census of 1846 contained 136,653 inhabitants.