Verdun: A celebrated town and fortress in the department of the Meuse, France. It is situated on the right bank of the Meuse, about 40 miles west of Metz. Verdun was the Roman Verodunum. From the ninth century until the Reformation it was a German town, rising to the position of a free city. By the Peace of Westphalia, 1648, it was ceded to France. In the European war of 1914 it constituted the right flank of the Allied armies in the great battle of the Marne. In 1916 the French armies under Joffre and Petain succ

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