VILLA OF TIBERIUS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 9

VILLA OF TIBERIUS

PROPOSED RESTORATION .. EXTRAORDINARY HISTORY .. 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 tho island for 11 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 tilla fell into neglect, and for more than 1000 years was entirely forgotten. A Barbary pirate, a now 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 collectors and sculptors. A little less than a year ago Professor Maiuri, with funds supplied by the Bank of Naples, began a systematic, search in the ruins of the Imperial \illa. His work has been justified by the discovery of the foundations, a good part of the walls and marble decorations. The villa, was a vast structure, al most rivalling the Palace of the Caesars, in Romo. The excavations have brought to light vast stairs, descending hundreds of feet from the palace, a terrace 270 ft. long overlooking the Bay of Naples, four gigantic cisterns for drinking water, as the island had no springs, and many corridors and rooms. Tho villa, hitherto overgrown with moss ajid ivy, is situated on the eastern promontory of tho Island of Capri, and will probably be in part restored.