Tiberius on Capri

Abstract

The imposing and romantic remains of the Tiberian palace on the eastern heights of Capri are now visited by relatively few people, and it is often possible to wander among the ruins for an hour or more without meeting another soul. Yet for about a decade, from A.D. 27 to 37, this villa seems to have been the principal residence of the emperor of the Roman world, and Capri, together with Rome, the administrative centre of that world. As imperial residence, as administrative centre, and as a typical Campanian villa, this and the other imperial buildings on Capri must have been thronged with people, from the emperor's family and friends to the palace staff to administrative personnel. It is the purpose of this paper to consider Tiberius' stay on Capri in various contexts, especially that of the people who were on the island with him, in order to understand more clearly what his life there was like.

Mithridates, Helianax and Late Hellenistic Delos as Global City: Urban Insularity and Integration Fields

“…From the more obvious island urban landscape of Greek and Phoenician cities to the conjunctural 'insularity' of late fifth century Athens (Constantakopoulou, 2010, p. 137-175) and the Roman Empire under Tiberius at Capri (Campos, 2013;Houston, 1985), the interaction between insularity and urbanity played a key role both in urban formation processes and the integration of Ancient Mediterranean cities in the wider world, especially with the emergence of a 'connectivity paradigm' in the study of Ancient Mediterranean cities . Based on the critique of primitivist models of isolated and autonomies cities, late twentieth century scholars stressed the importance of Mediterranean networks and flows to the understanding of cities in their concrete, spatial contexts, being taken as places rather than (only) political entities (Morales & Silva, 2020, with bibliography).…”

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“…Yet as Champlin observes, neither the female Io (who caught Jupiter's eye and was temporarily turned into a heifer to conceal her from Juno) nor male Ion (the illegitimate son of Creusa, born after she was raped by Apollo) have obvious relevance for the name of a clifftop villa on Capri 67. Subsequent editors often emend this last word to Iouis to give the Villa of Jupiter (the name frequently used to designate the impressive physical remains of the extensive residence on 'the eastern height, just below the church of S. Maria del Soccorso') 68. Kaster's recent OCT instead reads uilla quae uocatur Inonis, indicating the Villa of Ino.…”

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“…It must have been navigationally important for sailors in the Gulf of Puteoli and may be associated with the short‐lived naval Portus Julius (built by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 37 BC) and the later naval base at Misenum (McKay, 1967: 3–5). The lone literary mention and the apparent nautical needs helped archaeologists to identify its scanty remains (Fitzpatrick, 1949: 69–70; Houston, 1985: 179–96).…”