Part 7

In early Christian times this temple seems to have been converted into a church, and a circular-headed window opened in the wall of the cella. A chapel dedicated to St Césaire was in the tenth century erected against the north wall, with a door into the main church, now built up. The temple is well illustrated in Texier and Pullan’s “Byzantine Architecture,” and is said to be “full of the sentiment of pure Greek art.” The carving of the capital, as shewn in Texier’s drawing, is in the best style. “The proportions of the entire column, which are excellent,” says Texier “and the foliage of the capital, which seems to have been inspired by that of the monument to Lysicrates, prove that this little building, concealed amongst the mountains of Provence, was the work of a Greek artist of the colony of Massilia.”

It has already been pointed out how capriciously the Roman remains have been preserved in Southern Gaul. While a small provincial town like Nimes possesses so many splendid examples, the great and ancient cities of Marseilles and Narbonne have scarcely a single relic of their Greek or Roman civilisation left. At Marseilles some fragments of walls with an archway and some subterranean vaults under the Church of St Sauveur are the only remains of the splendid edifices which no doubt once adorned this ancient and important city.

All along the coast between the Rhone and the Pyrenees, many towns existed and flourished under the Empire, but there is now scarcely a fragment of Roman work to be found in the whole province.

Leaving therefore for the present this south-western district, we shall now follow the great Aurelian way which conducted from Spain and Gaul eastward into Italy. This road passes through the celebrated Riviera, the favourite winter resort of the delicate from every country in Europe, and even from America. It consists of a narrow strip of land between the lower spurs of the Alps and the sea; but this level strip is frequently interrupted by branches or roots sent down from the mountains which run out as Capes into the Mediterranean, enclosing in their arms beautifully sheltered sunny bays, each having a town or village of its own. The Roman road clung to the mountains, the engineers finding it easier to span with bridges the higher rugged ravines of the torrents than the broad channels of the rivers near their mouths, where the shingly and shifting foundation was found insecure. Of the towns and stations which existed along this route in Roman times, some vestiges may still be traced.

TOULON, now the great naval arsenal of France in the Mediterranean (formerly Telo Martius), contains no Roman buildings; but some miles to the eastward, on the road by the coast leading to Hyères, the ruins of an ancient Roman town called POMPONIANA have been discovered and partly excavated--exposing to view portions of the walls of houses, vaults, walls of enceinte, frescoes, fragments of sculpture, aqueducts, baths, &c. The wall of a quay presents the peculiarity of being built above a basement formed of large cubes of stone, superimposed, but not united with cement, which seems to be of Cyclopean work.

Moving eastward we pass LE LUC (Forum Voconii) in the middle of the fertile “garden of Provence,” where one Roman sculpture of a boar hunt has been preserved; and following the course of the river Argens, with the rocky mountains of Les Maures on the right we arrive at FRÉJUS, an important sea-port in Roman times, and then known as Julii Forum.

This town is supposed to have been first occupied by the Phœnicians, and afterwards by the Greek colonists. It was enlarged and improved by Julius Cæsar and Augustus. It then possessed a valuable harbour at the mouth of the river Argens, to which Augustus sent the fleet of galleys which he took from Anthony at the battle of Actium; but the sediment of the river has now silted up the harbour, and formed a flat plain of about a mile in breadth between the ancient port and the sea. The protecting walls of the harbour, with a solid obelisk at the end, which no doubt marked the entrance, still remain, but are now high and dry on the plain. Adjoining these are the walls of a strong fort or castellum for the protection of the port, built with Roman masonry of small sized cubic stones. The “Porte dorée,” is an archway close to the railway, built with similar masonry, divided with courses of brick work, now greatly restored and renewed. It is

supposed to have been the gate between the port and the town. Some ruins of the baths have been discovered adjoining this. Considerable remains of the ancient Roman city walls, enclosing five times the extent of the present town, still remain. Close to the railway station relics of the “gate of Gaul,” and other Roman works are observable. Following these from the railway station towards the left, the ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre (Fig. 27), through which the public road passes by a picturesque archway, are soon reached. The interior is fairly preserved, together with the arches which sustained the seats, staircases, &c., but the exterior walls and arcades (if the building ever had an ornamental exterior, which is doubtful) are now completely awanting. The Amphitheatre is 375 ft. long by 273 ft. wide. The east side rests on the slope of a hill, so that little building was required in that position, but the west side of the structure is raised from the level plain.

Continuing round the old walls of the town to the eastward, we find in a garden the ruins of a Roman Theatre. The dimensions of this building, which was of small size compared to those we have met with at Orange and Arles, are quite traceable, but the scena is gone all but the foundations, and only some walls and ruined arches of the auditorium remain above ground.

A little further round the walls, traces are observed of the great aqueduct which brought the water of the river Siagnolles to Fréjus from a distance of above 20 miles. On turning the north-east angle of the walls, the ruined piers of the aqueduct are seen stretching across the plain. At the above point the conduit is in a canal owing to the height of the ground. On reaching the main road leading from Fréjus to the eastwards, the aqueduct takes a sudden bend to the east, and follows the road for a considerable distance. At this bend was an entrance gate of the town, called the gate of Rome, a portion of which still exists. From here a branch canal took the water to the port. In its long course the aqueduct is sometimes in cutting, and sometimes carried on lofty piers and arches 87 feet wide. Those near the town (Fig. 28) are amongst the finest specimens, but some portions in the more remote valleys also still retain their arches, and at one place the aqueduct is carried in two parallel canals on separate arches.

Between Fréjus and Cannes, the Roman Via Aurelia passes inland through the chain of the Esterelle mountains, whence the Romans obtained much of the granite and porphyry found in their monuments. At Cannes and neighbourhood there are a few Roman relics. A bridge over one of the small streams which descend from the hills through the town is said (but this is doubtful) to be of Roman origin. A delightful walk of an hour from Cannes over the hills leads by Vallauris to CLAUSONNE, where the well preserved remains of the Roman aqueduct (Fig. 29) which conveyed the water supply to Antibes are still to be seen.

At ANTIBES, the ancient Roman Antipolis, there are no Roman remains; but according to M. Lenthéric, a stone has been found here with a Greek inscription, giving proof of the ancient worship of the Hellenes in this region in the fifth century B.C.

At VENCE, the ancient Ventium, a town some seven miles inland, a number of Roman inscriptions are built into the wall of the Cathedral, and two granite columns are preserved, which are supposed to have been anciently

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.

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

LA TURBIE (Turbia or Trophæa), a small town standing on an inland pass formed by a notch in the mountains, which here rise in great precipices directly from the sea. On this neck a trophy was built in commemoration of the victories of Augustus over the Alpine tribes. The monument (Fig. 32) has been of great size, and is built with large blocks of stone. It probably stood on a square base, on which was erected the great circular mass above. It was adorned with statues, and a colossal figure of the emperor crowned the top. The design would thus resemble a great many of the splendid mausoleums erected about that time in Italy. As above noticed this edifice bears a strong likeness to the Tour Magne at Nimes. The massive Roman work is still traceable in the lower parts filled in with rubble between. Fragments of an inscription have been found in the ruins commemorating the triumphs of the divine Emperor and High Priest Augustus. In mediæval times this monument was, as usual, converted into a fortress, as the work of the upper part still shews. It is executed in inferior masonry, and the cornice is Italian in character. The fortress was blown up by Marshal de Villars in the seventeenth century. The gateways of the town (_see_ Part VI.) and other structures have been built with massive stones from the ruins of the trophy, which, as so often happens, has been used as a convenient quarry.

A splendid view of the coast is obtained from the summit, including Monaco, Monte Carlo, Mentone, and point after point to the eastward leading into Italy. But though we now stand on the borders of Italy, we should still have far to travel through the land ere we encountered such a fine series of Roman structures as those we have just been contemplating. Not till we reach Verona, or Rome itself, are monuments to be found comparable with the amphitheatres of Arles and Nimes, or the theatre of Orange; and there is probably no temple even in Rome so complete and striking in its unity and spirit as the Maison Carrée at Nimes. But our way lies not across this border. We must now turn back and follow in the later edifices the course of Roman Art after the Fall of the Empire, and the growth and development of the new styles which sprung from it.