They Are All Built Square; And, Being Whitened With
Lime Or Plaister, Contribute Greatly To The Richness Of The View.
The hills are shaded to the tops with olive-trees, which are
always green; and those hills are over-topped by more distant
mountains, covered with snow.
When I turn myself towards the sea,
the view is bounded by the horizon; yet in a clear morning, one
can perceive the high lands of Corsica. On the right hand, it is
terminated by Antibes, and the mountain of Esterelles, which I
described in my last. As for the weather, you will conclude, from
what I have said of the oranges, flowers, etc. that it must be
wonderfully mild and serene: but of the climate, I shall speak
hereafter. Let me only observe, en passant, that the houses in
general have no chimnies, but in their kitchens; and that many
people, even of condition, at Nice, have no fire in their
chambers, during the whole winter. When the weather happens to be
a little more sharp than usual, they warm their apartments with a
brasiere or pan of charcoal.
Though Nice itself retains few marks of antient splendor, there
are considerable monuments of antiquity in its neighbourhood.
About two short miles from the town, upon the summit of a pretty
high hill, we find the ruins of the antient city Cemenelion, now
called Cimia, which was once the metropolis of the Maritime Alps,
and the scat of a Roman president. With respect to situation,
nothing could be more agreeable or salubrious. It stood upon the
gentle ascent and summit of a hill, fronting the Mediterranean;
from the shore of which, it is distant about half a league; and,
on the other side, it overlooked a bottom, or narrow vale,
through which the Paglion (antiently called Paulo) runs towards
the walls of Nice. It was inhabited by a people, whom Ptolomy and
Pliny call the Vedantij: but these were undoubtedly mixed with a
Roman colony, as appears by the monuments which still remain; I
mean the ruins of an amphitheatre, a temple of Apollo, baths,
aqueducts, sepulchral, and other stones, with inscriptions, and a
great number of medals which the peasants have found by accident,
in digging and labouring the vineyards and cornfields, which now
cover the ground where the city stood.
Touching this city, very little is to be learned from the antient
historians: but that it was the seat of a Roman praeses, is
proved by the two following inscriptions, which are still extant.
P. AELIO. SEVERINO.
V. E. P.
PRAESIDI. OPTIMO.
ORDO. CEMEN.
PATRONO.
By the Senate of Cemenelion, Dedicated to His Excellency P.
Aelius Severinus, the best of Governors and Patrons.
This is now in the possession of the count de Gubernatis, who has
a country-house upon the spot. The other, found near the same
place, is in praise of the praeses Marcus Aurelius Masculus.
M. AVRELIO. MASCVLO.
V. E.
OB. EXIMIAM. PRAESIDATVS
EIVS. INTEGRITATEM. ET
EGREGIAM. AD OMNES HOMINES
MANSVETVDINEM.
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