VILLA OF TIBERIUS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1933, Page 4

VILLA OF TIBERIUS

TO BE RESTORED.

CAPRI, January 22.

Among the many Roman villas which once existed and gave. splendour to Capri, the most renowned was that of the Emperor Tiberius, successor of Augustus, who lived on the island for eleven years and from his villa governed the Roman Empire. The villa had an extraordinary history even in old Roman days, when Caligula wanted to carry away all its statues, its marbles and decorations. Fortunately for the villa, he reigned only three years. After his day the Imperial villa fell into neglect, and for more than 1000 years was entirely forgotten. A Barbary pirate, a new Barbarossa, known as Aenobarbus, came with 180 galleys and 10,000 men to raid and plunder the ruins in 1355, and after him the raiding and plundering was carried on by secretaries of embassies, ministers, and ambassadors, art colectors, and sculptors. A little less than a year ago Professor Maiuhi, with funds supplied by the Bank of Naples, began a systematic search in the ruins of the Imperial villa. His work has been justified by the discovery of the foundation, a good part of the walls and marble decorations.

'rhe villa, was a vast structure almost rivalling the Palace of the Caesars in Rome. The excavations have brought to light vast stairs, descending hundreds of feet from the palace, a terrace 270 feet long overlooking the Bay of Naples, four gigantic cisterns for drinking water, as the island had no springs, and many corridors and rooms. The villa, hitherto overgrown with moss and ivy, is situated on the eastern promontory of the Island of Capri, and will probably be in part restored. ’