Arènes de Cimiez

This guide to the Arènes de Cimiez in Nice opens with the Roman-era legend of a young man named Pontius, thrown into this arena to face bears under Emperor Valerian, and the story the city later built around him. It traces the ring back to Cemenelum, Roman capital of the province, and to historians who still argue over what kind of spectacle its modest sand floor could really have held. It then jumps forward to the arena's twentieth-century life as a jazz stage hosting Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Stand on the grass beneath the olive trees where both crowds once gathered.