Cemenelum

Cemenelum rises on a hill in Cimiez, Nice, where a Gallo-Roman city once stood beside the older Greek settlement of Nikaia. Roman forces established a base here between 122 and 118 BCE, and the settlement later became the capital of Alpes Maritimae.

The surviving remains show a city with an amphitheatre and three bath complexes. The amphitheatre grew from an Augustan structure for 500 to 600 spectators into a Severan building holding about 5,000, while the baths served the community through the third and fourth centuries. A paved east-west street lies two metres below today’s ground, with shop entrances, shutter grooves and a sewer beneath it. Christian use continued into the fifth century, when a baptistery and an episcopal complex appeared among the Roman buildings.

Modern villas cover much of the ancient city, but the amphitheatre, baths and fragments of the Via Julia Augusta remain visible. Nearby museum displays include a statue of Antonia, mother of Emperor Claudius, and a base dedicated to Cornelia Salonina.