Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/441

NICE 427 theatre, baths, hospitals, and convents. There are manufactories of silk, cotton, paper, oil, tobacco, perfumery, soap, and leather, and a considerable trade in those articles and in wine and fruit. Nice is a free port, and there are steamers three times a week to Marseilles and Genoa. It is chiefly noted as a watering place and resort for English invalids, who frequent it in such numbers that they have produced a complete change in the aspect of that part of the town which they inhabit. As many as 5,000 or 6,000 British visitors are found here in the winter, besides a large number of Rus- sians, Poles, French, Germans, and Americans. The climate is remarkably mild and salubrious, and the suburbs, which lie among the low hills a mile or two inland, are particularly delight- ful. The greatest drawback is a dry wind called the mistral, which at times blows from the Alps. But the temperature is regular; there are no sudden changes, and the atmos- phere is clear and pure. The mean annual temperature, deduced from 15 years' observa- tions, is 60, the extremes being in January Nice, from the Promenade des Anglais. and August, 27- and 88J respectively. The climate, however, is not considered favorable for persons afflicted with pulmonary com- plaints. The language of Nice is a dialect of the Provencal called the Nizzard, which may be heard in its greatest purity in the neighbor- ing rural districts. In the town French is generally spoken, and the vernacular is much corrupted. Nice is built near the site of the ancient Ligurian town of Nicaea, founded by the Phoca3ans of Massilia; and even after both became subject to the Romans it contin- ued to be dependent for municipal purposes upon its parent city. In the 12th century Nice was the capital of an independent coun- ty, and in 1388 it became a dependency of the house of Savoy. In 1543 it was captured by the French and the Turks under Khair ed-Din Barbarossa, who were however unable to re- duce the citadel. It was taken by Catinat in 1691, and by the duke of Berwick in the ser- vice of Louis XIV. in 1706. It fell into the hands of the French in 1793, but was restored to Sardinia in 1814. Nice was ceded with Sa- voy to France by the treaty of March 24, 1860, subject to the consent of the inhabitants by bal- lot. The vote, taken on April 15, resulted in a large majority in favor of annexation. NICE, or Nic%a (now Isnilc), an ancient city of Asia Minor, in Bithynia, situated on the E. shore of Lake Ascania, 54 m. S. E. of Byzan- tium or Constantinople. It was said to have been colonized by Bottiasans, who called it An- core, and having been destroyed by the Mysi- ans was rebuilt after the death of Alexander the Great by Antigonus, who named it Anti- gonea. Lysimachus changed this appellation to Nicsea in honor of his wife. It became a place of great importance, and disputed with Nicomedia the title of metropolis of Bithynia, Under the Byzantine emperors it was long a bulwark against the Arabs and Seljuks, the lat- ter of whom conquered it about 1080. Before the end of the century it was taken from them by the soldiers of the first crusade, but it was restored at the next treaty of peace. In 1204, Constantinople having become the seat of a Latin empire, Theodore Lascaris made Nicaaa the capital of a Greek kingdom or empire in western Asia, comprehending Bithynia, Mysia, Ionia, and a part of Lydia. He was succeed- ed by John Ducas Vatatzes (1222-'55), Theo-