You Know, That On
Public Occasions, Such As Games, And Certain Sacrifices, Handfuls
Of Medals Were Thrown Among The People; A Practice, Which
Accounts For The Great Number Which Have Been Already Found In
This District.
I saw some subterranean passages, which seemed to
have been common sewers; and a great number of old walls still
standing along the brink of a precipice, which overhangs the
Paglion.
The peasants tell me, that they never dig above a yard
in depth, without finding vaults or cavities. All the vineyards
and garden-grounds, for a considerable extent, are vaulted
underneath; and all the ground that produces their grapes, fruit,
and garden-stuff, is no more than the crumpled lime and rubbish
of old Roman buildings, mixed with manure brought from Nice. This
antient town commanded a most noble prospect of the sea; but is
altogether inaccessible by any kind of wheel carriage. If you
make shift to climb to it on horseback, you cannot descend to the
plain again, without running the risk of breaking your neck.
About seven or eight miles on the other side of Nice, are the
remains of another Roman monument which has greatly suffered from
the barbarity of successive ages. It was a trophy erected by the
senate of Rome, in honour of Augustus Caesar, when he had totally
subdued all the ferocious nations of these Maritime Alps; such as
the Trumpilini Camuni, Vennontes, Isnarci, Breuni, etc. It stands
upon the top of a mountain which overlooks the town of Monaco,
and now exhibits the appearance of an old ruined tower. There is
a description of what it was, in an Italian manuscript, by which
it appears to have been a beautiful edifice of two stories,
adorned with columns and trophies in alto-relievo, with a statue
of Augustus Caesar on the top. On one of the sides was an
inscription, some words of which are still legible, upon the
fragment of a marble found close to the old building: but the
whole is preserved in Pliny, who gives it, in these words, lib.
iii. cap. 20.
IMPERATORI CAESARI DIVI. F. AVG. PONT.
MAX. IMP. XIV. TRIBVNIC. POTEST. XVIII.
S. P. Q. R.
QVODEIVSDVCTV, AVSPICIISQ. GENIES ALPINAE OMNES,
QVAE A MARI SVPERO AD INFERVM PERTINEBANT, SVB
IMPERIVM PO. RO. SUNT REDAC. GENTES ALPINAE DEVICTAE.
TRVMPILINI CAMVNI, VENNONETES, ISNARCI, BREVNI,
NAVNES, FOCVNATES, VINDELICORVM GENTES QVATVOR,
CONSVANETES, VIRVCINATES, LICATES, CATENATES, ABI-
SONTES, RVGVSCI, SVANETES, CALVCONES, BRIXENTES,
LEPONTII, VIBERI, NANTVATES, SEDVNI, VERAGRI,
SALASSI, ACITAVONES MEDVLLI, VCINI, CATVRIGES,
BRIGIANI, SOGIVNTII, NEMALONES, EDENETES,
ESVBIANI, VEAMINI, GALLITAE, TRIVLLATI,
ECTINI, VERGVNNI, EGVITVRI. NEMENTVRI,
ORATELLI, NERVSCI, VELAVNI, SVETRI.
This Trophy is erected by the Senate and People of Rome to the
Emperor Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Julius, in the
fourteenth year of his imperial Dignity, and in the eighteenth of
his Tribunician Power, because under his command and auspices all
the nations of the Alps from the Adriatic to the Tuscanian Sea,
were reduced under the Dominion of Rome. The Alpine nations
subdued were the Trumpelini, etc.
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