BEZIERS, a city of France, in the department of Hérault, the 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 Languedoc canal, 38 miles S.W. of Montpellier. It is surrounded by old walls flanked with towers, round which is a promenade planted with trees, and has a fine old Gothic cathedral, Saint Nazaire, dating from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, several churches, an old episcopal palace, now used for the Government offices, a communal college, an agricultural society, a theatre, and a public library. It manufactures silk stockings, starch, gloves, brandy, confectionery, paper, leather, and glass, and has a considerable trade. Béziers is of great antiquity, and has the remains of an amphitheatre, a causeway across the marsh of Cap-estang, and other Roman works. The Romans established a colony there, and it was the headquarters of the seventh legion, under the title of Boeterra Septimanorum. The present name occurs in the form Besara as early as Festus Avienus (5th or 6th century). The town 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 massacred. The walls of the town were rebuilt in 1289; but it again suffered severely in the civil and religious wars of the 16th century, and all its fortifications were destroyed in 1632. Population in 1872, 30,067.