FIG. 30. CIMIÈZ (Looking N.E.)
presented to the town by the city of Marseilles (see [Part VI.])
Crossing the wide and dangerous channel of the Var (formerly the boundary between France and Savoy) we arrive at Nice.
FIG. 31. CIMIEZ (Looking S.W.)
Nice (or Nizza), although now the most important town on the Riviera, possesses no ancient buildings. In Roman times Cemenelum (now Cimièz), the chief city of the Maritime Alps, stood on a lofty site about three miles up the river Paglione from the modern town. This ancient city has almost entirely disappeared, its only relics being the ruins of a small amphitheatre (Figs. 30 and 31), through the centre of which the public road now passes, and some excavated hypocausts in the garden of a villa adjoining. The amphitheatre measures 214 feet long by 178 feet wide, and it has been calculated that it was capable of containing about 8000 spectators. The form of the arena and the slope of the first series of seats can be distinctly seen, but otherwise the building is a complete ruin. A few of the perforated corbels for the support of the poles which carried the velarium may, however, be still observed on the exterior. But the want of architectural features is to some extent compensated by the grandeur of the views obtained from the walls, comprising the whole of the coast from Bordighera on the east, to the Cap d’Antibes on the west. Proceeding in that direction, a drive along the magnificent Cornice-road soon brings us to the ancient boundary between Gaul and Italy at
