Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/523

Rh N I C N I C 481 1650 Nice possesses a Eussian church, two synagogues, and several Protestant chapels. Architecturally the most remarkable church is Notre Dame, a modern Gothic build ing with two towers 213 feet high, erected by the town in 1835 to commemorate its preservation from cholera. The secular buildings include the town-house, the prefec ture, the theatres, the hospitals, the lycee (founded by the Jesuits in the 17th century), the natural history museum, the library (especially rich in theology), and, at some distance from the town, the astronomical and meteorological observatory on Mount Gros. The indus trial establishments comprise perfume factories, distilleries, oil- works, furniture and wood work factories, confectionery works, soap-works, tanneries, and a national tobacco factory employing several hundred persons. Besides the vine, the trees principally cultivated in the neighbourhood are the olive, the orange, the mulberry, and the carob; and the staple exports are oil, agricultural produce, fruits, and flowers. The harbour, which as yet only covers 10 acres, is being enlarged. In 1881 the population of the city was 54,953, and of the commune 66,279, an increase respectively of about 9000 and 13,900 since 1872. During winter there is a large proportion of strangers from all parts of the world. Protected towards the north by hills which rise stage behind stage to the main ridge of the Alps, Nice is celebrated for the mildness of its climate. The mean tem perature is 60 Fahr.,that of winter being 49, of spring 56, of summer 72, and of autumn 63. For a few nights in winter the mercury sinks below freezing point, but snow is practically unknown, falling, on an average, only half a day in the year. The highest reading of the thermometer is rarely above 90. There are sixty-seven days with rain in the course of the year ; but it usually falls in heavy showers which soon leave the sky clear again, though the whole annual amount exceeds 32 inches. Fine days and rainy days are almost equally distributed throughout the different seasons. The winds are very variable, some times changing several times a day. Apart from the ordinary land and sea breezes, the most frequent is the east wind, which is especially formidable during autumn. The south-west wind is moist and warm ; the north-east, which is happily rare, brings storms of hail and even snow in winter. The mistral (from the north-west) and the tramontane (from the north) are generally stopped by the mountains ; but when they do reach the city they raise intolerable dust-storms. For two thousand years the climate of Nice has been considered favourable in chest complaints. Those who are requiring rest, and those suffering from gout, asthma, catarrhs, rachitic affections, scrofula, stone, also experience benefit ; but the reverse is the case when heart disease, nervous disorders, or ophthalmia are concerned. Autumn is the best season ; in spring the sudden changes of temperature demand great care. Means of passing the time pleasantly are fairly abundant. The city is at its liveliest during the carnival festivities, in which, as at Rome, battles are waged with sweetmeats and flowers. Nice (Nicssa) was founded about two thousand years ago by the Phocteans of Marseilles, and received its name in honour of a victory (v iKfi) over the neighbouring Ligurians. It soon became one of the busiest trading stations on the Ligurian coast; but as a city it had an important rival in the town of Cemenclium, which continued to exist till the time of the Lombard invasions, and has left its ruins at Cimiez (Italian, Cemella), 2J miles to the north. In the 7th cen tury Nice joined the Genoese league formed by the towns, of Liguria. In 731 it repulsed the Saracens; but in 859 and 880 they pillaged and burned it, and for the most of the 10th century remained masters of the surrounding country. During the Middle Ages Nice had its share in the wars and disasters of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, and both the king of France and the emperor of Germany endeavoured to subjugate it; but in spite of all it maintained its municipal liberties. In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries it fell more than once into the Viands of the counts of Provence; and at length in 1388 it placed itself under the protection of the counts of Savoy. The maritime strength of Nice now rapidly increased till it was able to cope with the Barbary pirates; the fortifications were largely extended and the roads to the city improved. During the struggle between Francis I. and Charles V. great damage was caused by the passage of the armies invading Provence ; pestilence and famine raged in the city for several years. It was in Nice that the two monarchs in 1538 concluded, through the mediation of Paul III., a truce of ten years ; and a marble cross set up to commemorate the arrival of the pope still gives its name, Croix de Marbre, to part of the town. In 1543 Nice was attacked by the united forces of Francis I. and Barbarossa; and, though the inhabitants, with admirable courage, repulsed the assault which succeeded the terrible bombardment, they were ultimately compelled to surrender, and Barbarossa was allowed to pillage the city and to carry of! 2500 captives. Pestilence appeared again in 1550 and 15SO. In 1600 Nice was taken by the duke of Guise. By opening the ports of the countship to all nations, and proclaiming full freedom of trade, Charles Emmanuel in 1626 gave a great stimulus to the commerce of the city, whose noble families took part in its mercantile enterprises. Captured by Catinat in 1691, Nice was restored to Savoy in 1696; but it was again besieged by the French in 1705, and in the following year its citadel and ram parts were demolished. The treaty of Utrecht in 1713 once more gave the city back to Savoy; and in the peaceful years which followed the &quot; new town&quot; was built. From 1744 till the peace ol Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) the French and Spaniards were again in possession. In 1775 the king of Sardinia destroyed all that remained of the ancient liberties of the commune. Conquered in 1792 by the armies of the French Eepublic, the countship of Nice continued to be part of France till 1814; but after that date it reverted to Sardinia. By a treaty concluded in 1860 between the Sardinian king and Napoleon III. it was again transferred to France, and the cession was ratified by nearly 26,000 electors out of a total of 30,700. Nice is the seat of a bishopric, at present dependent on the archbishopric of Aix, and the headquarters of a military division forming part of the corps d armee of Marseilles. Massena and Garibaldi were natives of the city. See Roubaudi, Nice et ses environs, Turin, 1843 ; Tisserand, Hist, de la cite de Nice, Nice, 1862 ; Lacoste. Nice pittoresque et pratique, Nice, 1876. NICEPHORUS I., emperor of Constantinople from 802 to 811, born at Seleucia in Pisidia, is alleged on very doubtful authority to have been a descendant of Jaballah, who had been monarch of the small Arabian kingdom of Ghassdn in the time of Heraclius, and for a time had professed the Mohammedan religion. In the reign of Irene he rose to the office of logothetes, or lord high treasurer, and in 802 he was joined by her favourite eunuchs in a plot by which she was dethroned and exiled, while he himself assumed the crown (October 31). Soon after his accession, Bardanes, one of his ablest generals, rose in revolt against him and received much powerful support, including that of Leo the Armenian and Michael the Armorian (names which reappear in history), but the skilful diplomacy of Nicephorus soon brought the rebel to the position of a suppliant, willing to accept the seclusion of a monastery. The conspiracy headed by the patrician Arsaber in 808 had a similar issue. In 803 Nicephorus had entered into a treaty with Charlemagne by which the limits of the two empires were amicably fixed, Venice, Istria, the maritime parts of Dalmatia, and South Italy being assigned to the East, while Rome, Ravenna, and the Pentapolis were recognized as belonging to the West; this treaty was renewed in 810. Shortly after the retirement of Bardanes, who had been appointed to march against the Saracens, Nicephorus in person took the field against Haroun al-Rashid, but sustained a great defeat at Crasus in Phrygia ; and subsequent inroads of his conqueror compelled him to sue for peace, which was granted only on condition of an annual tribute of 30,000 pieces of gold, besides three additional pieces (perhaps, as Finlay suggests, medallions of superior size) for himself, and three for his son Stauracius. By the death of Haroun in 809 Nicephorus was left free to turn his attention to the Bulgarians, whose warlike king, Crumn, had begun to harass the empire in the north ; but six days after it had crossed the frontier the powerful Byzantine army was XVII 6 1