Page:Book of the Riviera.djvu/264

206 is now the rue du Paillon. It was flanked on the east by the steep heights of Mont Boron, on the west by the crag of the Château, which latter served as acropolis and was crowned by a temple dedicated probably to Artemis. The site is thought to be where now stands the chapel of the Ste. Suaire, which is square and on old foundations. The Phocœan town lay in the lap of the port of Lympia. But when the province became Roman, then the town occupied by the great families of consular origin, the officials of government, and all the hangers-on, was at Cemenelium, now Cimiez, on the high ground above modern Nice, and dominating the ancient port. Here had been an older Ligurian fortified town, of which some remains exist in the huge blocks laid on one another without cement that formed the defending wall, and on top of which the Romans built their ramparts. The citadel was at the extreme south point of the plateau. In Cemenelium the principal monuments were the palace of the governor of the province, a temple of Diana, another of Apollo, an amphitheatre and baths. All have been destroyed and have disappeared save the wreckage of the amphitheatre, traversed by a road. Roman sepulchral monuments, urns, mosaics, fragments of marble columns, statuettes, have been unearthed in considerable numbers. The Phocœan colonies established on the littoral of the Maritime Alps fell into complete decay when the Romans occupied the country, and towards the end of the third century Nice dwindled to almost nothing. In 578 the Lombards, under the ferocious Alboin, swept over the country and destroyed Cimiez and Nice. The Franks drove back the Lombards into Italy.