Capreae
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- an island in the Tyrrhene Sea, near Campania, now Capri, Plin. 3, 6, 12, § 82; Verg. A. 7, 735; Ov. M. 15, 709; Sil. 8, 541; celebrated as the dwelling-place of the emperor Tiberius, Tac. A. 4, 67; 6, 1; 6, 2; 6, 10; Suet. Tib. 39; 40; 60; 62; 74; Juv. 10, 72; 10, 93; who was thence, and in derision of his wantonness, called Caprinēus, Suet. Tib. 43.
- —Hence, Caprĕensis, e, adj.: secessus, Suet. Tib. 43.
CA´PREAE (Καπρέαι;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. 4.67.) Pliny tells us it was 11 miles in circuit, which is very near the truth. (Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.6. 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 αἱ ἂνω Καπρέαι), 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 bya 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 Apollon. 1.747.) Virgil speaks of them as subject to a king, named Telon, whence Silius Italicus calls Capreae antiqui saxosa Telonis insula.( Verg. A. 7.735; Sil. Ital.; Stat. Silv. 3.5; Tae. Ann. 4.67.) 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; Dio Cass..) 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. 4.67, 6.1; Suet. Tib. 40, 43; Dio Cass.; Juv. Sat. 10.93.) 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 (Plin. Nat. 3.6. s. 12) as the Arx Tiberii.I t is supposed also to be this one that was called, as we learn from Suetonius (Suet. Tib. 65), the Villa Jovis.N ear 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. 3.5. 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. 5. p. 248.)
The name of Taurubulae, mentioned by Statius (3.1. 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,g iven 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.)
[E.H.B]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 (q.v.) lived the last ten years of his reign, indulging in secret debauchery, and accessible only to his favourites.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHYE. Petraccone, L'isola di C. (19 13); P. Mingazzini, ArchCl 7 (1955) 139-63; A. Maiuri, Capri. Storia e monumenti (1956); id., Capri in prehistoric limes and in classical antiquity (1959).
F. PARISE BADONI