Road station
Beteris
(settlement and bridge at Béziers)
Beteris is Béziers, above the crossing of the Orb, a town of the Volcae Arecomici settled since at least 750 BC. Caesar made it a colony for veterans of the Seventh Legion, and its people called themselves Septimani. The Greek geographer Strabo calls it a safe city near Narbonne, and the Roman naturalist Pliny praises its wine. In 356 a church council met here, after which Bishop Hilary of Poitiers was sent into exile in Phrygia. The town was sacked in Germanic raids in 276 and taken by the Visigoths around 412.