The town itself is most interesting. Vienne was the ancient city and capital of the Alobroges before the time of Cæsar. Under the Romans it attained great splendour. Cæsar embellished and fortified it, and Augustus and Tiberius bestowed favours on it. It was also the seat of a Prætor, and had a Senate and Council, five legions, and a celebrated school. The city increased to such an extent that it became necessary to extend it on the other side of the Rhone. Vienne was divided into three towns:--Vienne the strong, containing the citadel; Vienne the rich, the town proper; and Vienne the beautiful, on the right side of the Rhone (now called St Colombe), where many fine works of art have been found. During the later Empire Vienne continued to be a place of great importance, not unfrequently the residence of the Emperors, and played a prominent part in the numerous revolutions of the times. It was also the cradle of Christianity in the West, which, as tradition relates, was there founded by St Paul on his way into Spain. The Archbishops of Vienne became for a time Primates of Gaul. But it was soon to encounter the usual series of disasters which overtook the Roman towns of Southern Gaul, being conquered by the Burgundians in 438, ravaged by the Lombards in 558, and destroyed by the Saracens in 737. Boson, King of the new Kingdom of Burgundy and Provence, made Vienne his capital. But the second Kingdom of Burgundy perished in anarchy, and Vienne became the capital of a feudal province ruled by a suzerain called the Dauphin of the Viennois. The town stands on the western slope of a hill facing the river, with two steep heights above it, viz., that of Salonica, crowned with the ruins of a Mediæval Castle, and the Mont Pipet, whose summit is surrounded with an enclosing wall and towers, which occupy the position of, and may have formed the citadel for, the Roman garrison, but the buildings have been altered in later times. Vienne possesses several interesting Roman relics, the most important of which is the temple dedicated to Augustus and Livia (Fig. 1). This building has in its time been dreadfully abused. [Illustration: FIG. 1. TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS AND LIVIA, VIENNE.]