a city of France, in the department of Hérault, and capital of an arrondissement of the same name. It is beautifully situated on a hill, on the left bank of the river Orbe, where it is joined by the canal of Languedoc, 38 miles S.W. of Montpelier. It is surrounded by old walls flanked with towers, round which is a recently planted promenade; and has a fine old Gothic cathedral, several churches, an old episcopal palace now used for the government offices, a communal college, agricultural society, theatre, and public library. It manufactures silk stockings, starch, gloves, brandy, confectionary, paper, leather, glass, &c.; and has a considerable trade. Beziers is of great antiquity, and has remains of an amphitheatre and other Roman works. The Romans established a colony here in 636; and afterwards it became the head-quarters of the seventh legion, under the title of Bitterra Septumanorum. It was completely destroyed in 1209 by the forces of Simon de Montfort in the crusade against the Albigenses, on which occasion 60,000 persons were barbarously massacred. Beziers was rebuilt in 1289, and again suffered severely in the civil and religious wars of the sixteenth century. Pop. (1851) 17,376.