ssages, vaulted with stone and lined with cement. Here
and there one finds detached apartments like small chambers, where I
suppose the people remained concealed till the danger was over.
Diodorus Siculus tells us, that the antient inhabitants of this country
usually lived under ground. "Ligures in terra cubant ut plurimum;
plures ad cava, saxa speluncasque ab natura factas ubi tegantur corpora
divertunt," "The Ligurians mostly lie on the bare ground; many of them
lodge in bare Caves and Caverns where they are sheltered from the
inclemency of the weather." This was likewise the custom of the
Troglodytae, a people bordering upon Aethiopia who, according to
Aelian, lived in subterranean caverns; from whence, indeed they took
their name trogli, signifying a cavern; and Virgil, in his Georgics,
thus describes the Sarmatae,

Ipsi in defossis specubus, secura sub alta
Ocia agunt terra.--

In Subterranean Caves secure they lie
Nor heed the transient seasons as they fly.

These are dry subjects; but such as the country affords. If we have not
white paper, we must snow with brown. Even that which I am now
scrawling may be useful, if, not entertaining: it is therefore the more
confidently offered by--Dear Sir, Yours affectionately.

LETTER XVII

NICE, July 2, 1764.

DEAR SIR,--Nice was originally a colony from Marseilles. You know the
Phocians (if we may believe Justin and Polybius) settled in Gaul, and
built Marseilles, during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus at Rome. This
city flourished to such a degree, that long before the Romans were in a
condition to extend their dominion, it sent forth colonies, and
established them along the coast of Liguria. Of these, Nice, or Nicaea,
was one of the most remarkable; so called, in all probability, from the
Greek word Nike, signifying Victoria, in consequence of some important
victory obtained over the Salii and Ligures, who were the antient
inhabitants of this country. Nice, with its mother city, being in the
sequel subdued by the Romans, fell afterwards successively under the
dominion of the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, the kings of Arles, and
the kings of Naples, as counts of Provence. In the year one thousand
three hundred and eighty-eight, the city and county of Nice being but
ill protected by the family of Durazzo, voluntarily surrendered
themselves to Amadaeus, surnamed the Red, duke of Savoy; and since that
period, they have continued as part of that potentat