REII APOLLINA´RES(Riez), in Gallia Narbonensis. Among the Oppida Latina of Gallia Narbonensis, or those which had the Latinitas, Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.100.4) enumerates Alebece Reiorum Apollinarium.The old reading, Alebeceriorum Apollinarium,is a blunder made by joining two words together, which has been corrected from the better MSS., from the inscription COL. REIOR. APOLLINAR.,and from the Table, which has Reis Apollinaris. The place may have taken its name from a temple of Apollo built after the town became Roman. The name Alebece may be corrupt, or it may be a variation of the form Albici or Albioeci. [ALBICI] As Pliny calls the place an Oppidum Latinum, we might suppose that it was made a Colonia after his time, but the name Col. Jul. Aug. Apollinar. Reior., which appears in an inscription, shows it to have been a colony of Augustus.
Riezis in the arrondissement of Dignein the department of Basses Alpes. There are four columns standing near the town, which may be the remains of a temple. The bases and the capitals are marble: the shafts are a very hard granite, and about 18 feet high. There is also a small circular building consisting of eight columns resting on a basement, but it has been spoiled by modern hands. There now stands in it a rectangular altar of one block of white marble, which bears an inscription to the Mother of the Gods and the Great Goddess. At Riezthere have been discovered an enormous quantity of fragments of granite columns; and it is said that there have been a circus and a theatre in the town. (Guide du Voyagyeur, Richard et Hocquart, p. 792.)
[G.L]