Page:Book of the Riviera.djvu/263

CHAPTER XIII

NICE

A shifted site—Ancient Nike—Cemenelium—History of Nice—Saracens at Cap Ferrat—Bertrand de Balb—The barony of Beuil—The Castle—Internecine strife—Truce—The marble cross—Catherine Ségurane—Destruction of the Castle—Annexation of Nice to France—Cathedral—Church of the Port—Masséna—Garibaldi—General Marceau—Rancher—Story of Collet—Cagnes—Painting by Carlone—Eze—David's painting—Puget Teniers—Touët-de-Beuil.

NICE is a town that has uneasily shifted its seat some three or four times. Whether it were directly settled from Phocœa or mediately from Marseilles, we do not know. But a Greek city it was, as its name implies, Nike, Victory, speaking of a fight there, engaged either against the Phœnicians, who resisted their settling into quarters already appropriated, or else against the native Ligurians.

Anciently, the river Paillon flowed into the tiny bay of Lympia, but it brought down so much rubble as to threaten to choke it, and huge embankments of stone were built to divert the course of the river to the farther side of the calcareous rock of the Château. These have been discovered in the process of excavations in the Riquier quarter. When the Greeks settled here, they found the conditions perfect for their requirements. The Port of Lympia then extended inland to where

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