DIE  , a

town of south-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of DrBme, 43 M . E.S.E. of Valence on the Paris-Lyon railway . Pop . (1906) 3090 . The town is situated in a plain enclosed by mountains on the right bank of the DrBme below its confluence with the Meyrosse, which supplies power to some of the industries . The most interesting structures of Die are the old cathedral, with a porch of the 11th century supported on granite columns from an ancient temple of Cybele; and the Porte St Marcel, a Roman gateway flanked by massive towers . The Roman remains also include the ruins of aqueducts and altars . Die is the seat of a sub-prefect, and of a tribunal of first instance . The manufactures are silk, furniture, cloth, lime and cement, and there are flour and saw mills . Trade is in timber, especially walnut, and in white wine known as clairette de Die . The mulberry is largely grown for the rearing of silkworms . Under the Romans, Die (Dea Augusta Vocontiorum) was an important colony .

It was formerly the seat of a bishopric,

united to that of Valence from 1276 to 1687 and suppressed in 1790 . Previous to the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685 it had a Calvinistic university .