The wooded promontory separating Mentone from Monte Carlo.
shores of the Mediterranean. Like Cannes, there is a conspicuous isolated mass of rock on the otherwise flat shore, which was the nucleus of the Greek town of Nicæa. The remains of the Greek buildings were found at the foot of the rock, which was, no doubt, a fortified place of refuge. The Romans preferred a site farther inland, and at the modern Cimiez, on the rising ground north of the present city, they built Cemenelium, of which shapeless masses of the amphitheatre remain, although a road passes right through them. The site of the Roman baths has also been found, and great quantities of small objects have been discovered. The rock down on the shore became important again after the Lombards had sacked Cimiez, and on it was built a castle, from which the counts ruled under the Frankish kings. It was besieged by the Turks in 1543, when François I. had made his infamous alliance with Kheyr-ed-Dīn, the Corsair admiral, but the bravery of a woman saved the place from being taken by assault.
When Smollett visited Nice the condition of the town must have been exceedingly primitive. He says:
‘The streets are narrow, the houses are built of stone, and the windows in general are fitted with paper instead of glass. This expedient would not answer in a country subject to rain and storms; but here, where there is very little of either, the paper lozenges answer tolerably well. The bourgeois, however, begin to have their houses sashed with glass.’
Of the mosquitoes he writes:
‘In the daytime it is impossible to keep the flies out of your mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears. They crowd into your milk, tea, chocolate, soup, wine, and water; they soil your sugar, contaminate your victuals, and devour your fruit; they cover and defile your furniture, floors, ceilings, and indeed your whole body.’
The Nice Carnival, or Battle of Flowers, has its origin right back in the time of the floral games of the Greeks of Nicæa.
THE UPPER CORNICHE ROAD
The advantages of the upper road over the lower are in the finer scenery and in the absence of dust and trams; but as the return journey gives one a double opportunity, it is easy to go by one and come back by the other.