(Capri). A mountainous island off the lower extremity of the Gulf of Cumae (Bay of Naples) in Campania (southwest Italia). Comprising an area of 4 square miles, and formed of a single block of limestone, it includes a high western portion (containing Monte Solaro, 1,932 feet, overlooking the town of Anacapri) and a lower eastern portion (where the principal town Capri is situated). The island has provided late Neolithic finds- notably in a famous seacave, the Blue Grotto- and, accoding to a legend preserved by Virgil, was occupied by the Teleboi from Acarnania (northwest Greece) at the time of the Trojan War. In historical times Capreae had Greek occupants, and from 326 BC belonged to Neapolis (Naples). It was well known for its ephebia, an organization to which wealthy young people belonged. Gradually Romanized, the island became a favorite resort of Augustus, who made it independent of the Neapolitans, ceding them Aenaria (Pithecusae, now Ischia) instead.

In AD 27 his successor Tiberius gave Capreae fame by settling there for the last decade of his reign, controlling the imperial government from the island in order to stay away from the irritations of Rome. It was from Capreae that he arranged the suppression of the conspiracy of Sejanus (31). His isolation and seclusion gave rise to stories of extraordinary debauchery, recored by Tacitus and Seutonius. According to tradition, there were 12 major deities. But the only identifiable remains are those of the Villa Jovis, mentioned yb Suetonius (revealing complex structures that formed part of a large estate on the rocky northeastern tip of the island), the Villa Damecuta on the promontory that juts out from Anacapri (buried by cinders in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79), and the Palazzo al Mare near the principal port (Marina Grande). After the time of Tiberius, Capreae was employed as a place of exile for disgraced imperial personages, notably Crispina and Lucilla, the wife and sister of Commodus (182).