Mon'aco, a small principality on the Mediterranean, 149 miles BNE. of Marseilles, and 9 from Nice. Area, 8 sq. m.; pop. (1873) 5741; (1900) 15,180, of whom 3292 were in the town of Monaco, 6218 in Condainine, and 3794 in Monte Carlo. The territory, which is encircled by the French dep. of Alpes Maritimes and the sea, consists mainly of the rocky promontory on which the capital is built, and a small strip of coast. The family of Grimaldi acquired Monaco in 968, Mentone and Roquebrune and Castillon about 1230, and Antibes in 1237. Honore II. put his country under a French protectorate in 1644. In 1846 Mentone and Roquebrune were annexed by Sardinia, and after 1859 the whole territory belonged for a short time to Victor Emmanuel; and in 1861 the lawful owner sold Mentone and Roquebrune to Napoleon III. for 4,000,000 francs. About 1000 of the inhabitants are employed in the rooms and gardens of the celebrated Casino. These gambling-rooms, built at Monte Carlo on ground leased till 1913 from the Prince of Monaco, belong to a joint-stock company, and have about 400,000 visitors annually. The climate of Monaco is milder than that of any other place in the Riviera ; palms and aloes grow most luxuriantly, and rare wild flowers are found on its rocky promontory. See Pemberton's Monaco, Past and Present (1867), and French works by Metivier (2d ed. 1865) and Boyer de Sainte-Suzanne (1884).