Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "CAPRI Island CAMPANIA".
This island in the Gulf of Naples was an important center in the prehistoric
period, of which there remain relatively abundant traces. According to Virgil
(Aen. 7.73) it was reached by the Teleboi coming from Acarnania at the time of
the Trojan war. The colonizers, settled both at the Marina and at Anacapri. The
two centers, joined by a path worn in the slope of Mt. Solaro, remained relatively
independent until the time of Augustus. Construction during the Roman Imperial
epoch destroyed nearly every trace of the preceding age.
Visited by Augustus in 29 B.C., the island became the residence of
Tiberius between A.D. 27 and 31. During the reign of Augustus began the construction
of the imperial villas that, according to Tacitus (Ann. 4.67), numbered twelve
under Tiberius. Excavations in the 19th c. and again in 1935 have brought to light
the remains of two large villas, the Villa Jovis on the E promontory and the Villa
di Damecuta, as well as remnants of minor dwellings. The Villa Jovis surrounds
a four-sided court where there are cisterns for collecting water. A ramp leading
from Viale dei Mirti to the entrance hall provided access to the palace. A corridor
paved in white mosaic led to a second vestibule, from which one could pass to
the E to the lodgings and to the bath on the floor above. To the W a flight of
steps and a ramp led to the imperial apartments, a large semicircular hall and
the private quarters at the N, opening on the W toward the sea. On the N flank
of the mountain is the loggia of an ambulatio, interrupted at midpoint by a residential
section, and ending to the E in a perpendicular drop to the sea. On the ridge
of the mountain was a lighthouse.
The Villa di Damecuta, on the promontory that juts out from the plateau
of Anacapri, includes a belvedere, a residential section and an even more scenic
lodging on the slope of the promontory. The building complex was buried in 79
by the cinders from Mt. Vesuvius. The remains of other villas are scarce.
The grotto of the Arsenale and the grotto of Matermania were transformed
into large nymphaea. After Tiberius the island continued at intervals to be an
imperial residence until the Flavian age.
F. Parise Badoni, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
The modern Capri; a small island, nine miles in circumference, off Campania, at the southern entrance of the Gulf of Puteoli. The scenery is beautiful, and the climate soft and genial. Here the emperor Tiberius lived the last ten years of his reign, indulging in secret debauchery, and accessible only to his favourites.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Capreae (Kapreai; Capri), an island off the coast of Campania, lying
immediately opposite the Surrentine Promontory, from which it was separated by
a strait only 3 miles in width. (Tac. Ann. iv. 67.) Pliny tells us it was 11 miles
in circuit, which is very near the truth. (Pliny, iii. 6. s. 12.) Like the mountain
range, which forms the southern boundary of the Bay of Naples, and of which it
is, in fact, only a continuation, Capreae consists wholly of limestone, and is
girt almost all round with precipitous cliffs of rock, rising abruptly from the
sea, and in many places attaining to a great elevation. The western portion of
the island, now called Anna Capri (a name probably derived from the Greek hai
ano Kapreai), is much the most elevated, rising to a height of 1,600 feet above
the sea. The eastern end also forms an abrupt hill, with precipitous cliffs towards
the mainland; but between the two is a depression, or saddle, of moderate height,
where the modern town of Capri now stands. The only landing-places are two little
coves on either side of this.
Of the history of Capreae very little is known prior to the time of
Augustus. A tradition alluded to by several of the Latin poets, but of the origin
of which we have no explanation, represents it as occupied at a very early period
by a people called Teleboae, apparently the same whom we find mentioned as a piratical
race inhabiting the islands of the Echinades, off the coast of Acarnania. (Schol.
ad Apoll. Rhod. i. 747.) Virgil speaks of them as subject to a king, named Telon,
whence Silius Italicus calls Capreae antiqui saxosa Telonis insula. (Virg. Aen.
vii. 735 ; Sil. Ital. viii. 543; Stat. Silv. iii. 5; Tae. Ann. iv. 67.) In historical
times we find that the island passed into the hands of the Neapolitans, and its
inhabitants appear to have adopted and retained to a late period the Greek customs
of that people. But Augustus having taken a fancy to Capreae, in consequence of
a favourable omen which he met with on landing there, took possession of it as
part of the imperial domain, giving the Neapolitans in exchange the far more wealthy
island of Aenaria. (Suet. Aug. 92; Dion Cass. lii. 43.) He appears to have visited
it repeatedly, and spent four days there shortly before his death. (Suet. Aug.
98.) But it was his successor Tiberius who gave the chief celebrity to Capreae,
having, in A.D. 27, established his residence permanently on the island, where
he spent the last ten years of his life. According to Tacitus, it was not so much
the mildness of the climate and the beauty of the prospect that led him to take
up his abode here, as the secluded and inaccessible character of the spot, which
secured him alike from danger and from observation. It was here accordingly that
he gave himself up to the unrestrained practice of the grossest debaucheries,
which have rendered his name scarcely less infamous than his cruelties. (Tac.
Ann. iv. 67, vi. 1; Suet. Tib. 40, 43; Dion Cass. lviii. 5; Juv. Sat. x. 93.)
He erected not less than twelve villas in different parts of the island, the remains
of several of which are still visible. The most considerable appears to have been
situated on the summit of the cliff facing the Surrentine Promontory, which, from
its strong position, is evidently that designated by Pliny (iii. 6. s. 12) as
the Arx Tiberii. It is supposed also to be this one that was called, as we learn
from Suetonius (Tib. 65), the Villa Jovis. Near it are the remains of a pharos
or light-house, alluded to both by Suetonius and Statius, which must have served
to guide ships through the strait between this headland and the Surrentine Promontory.
(Suet. Tib. 74; Stat. Silv. iii. 5. 100.)
Strabo tells us that there were formerly two small towns in the island,
but in his time only one remained. It in all probability occupied the same site
as the modern town of Capri. (Strab. v. p. 248.)
The name of Taurubulae, mentioned by Statius (iii. 1. 129),appears
to have been given to some of the lofty crags and rocks that crown the island
of Capri: it is said that two of these still bear the names of Toro grande and
Toro piccolo. From its rocky character and calcareous soil Capri is far inferior
in fertility to the opposite island of Ischia: the epithet of dites Capreae, given
it in the same passage by Statius, could be deserved only on account of the imperial
splendour lavished on the villas of Tiberius. Excavations in modern times have
brought to light mosaic pavements, bas-reliefs, cameos, gems, and other relics
of antiquity. These, as well as the present state of the island, are fully described
by Hadrava. (Lettere sull' Isola di Capri. Dresden, 1794.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
