CAPRI, the ancient Capreoe, a small island of Italy on the south side of the Bay of Naples, in 40° 32' N. lat. and 14° 11' E. long., and separated by a space of 3 A miles from the promontory of Sorrento. It is a mass of limestone rock, with an area of about 20 square miles, rising into two distinct peaks or plateaus, with a little valley of great fertility between. The coast consists for the most part of precipitous cliffs, and there are only two landing-places in the whole circuit. The scenery throughout the island is of unusual beauty, and some of the sea-caves are unrivalled for the splendid colours reflected on the rock. The two most famous are called respectively the Blue and the Green Grotto; the former, though it has only become a popular resort in the present century, seems to have been known in the 17th. The inhabitants still retain distinct traces of the Greek type of countenance and figure. They are industrious, religious, and simple, and, in general, poor. Besides the cultivation of the narrow surface that can be reclaimed from the rock, they chiefly depend on the capture of the quails which visit the island in May and December; and about 200 of the young men take part annually in the coral fishery off the coast of Africa. The chief towns are Capri in the east, with 2332 inhabitants, and a beautiful cathedral and a seminary; and Anacapri in the west, situated on the summit of Monte Solara, and accessible by a stair of 552 steps cut in the rock....
First inhabited, according to Virgil and Tacitus, by the Teleboae, Capri afterwards became a naval station of the Etruscans; and in the 5th century b.c. passed under the power of the Greeks of Neapolis. From that city it was purchased by Augustus, who occasionally retired to its grateful seclusion in the latter part of his life. It is chiefly celebrated, however, as the retreat of Tiberius, where he spent the last ten years of his reign. He erected twelve villas in different parts of the island, the most famous of which was the Villa Jovis, built on the summit of the eastern cliffs 1500 feet above the sea. Large parts of the building, which combined the strength of a fortress with the luxury of a palace, still remain to bear witness to the power and wealth of the empire. The whole island, indeed, is full of Roman remains, and has yielded to the archaeologist a rich harvest of mosaics, bas-reliefs, coins, and inscriptions. Of the last one of the most remarkable is the strange lamentation of Hypatus, which was discovered in the Mithraic temple at Metromania. On the fall of the Roman empire, Capri passed to the see of Rome, and it formed part of the bishopric of Sorrento till the 10th century, when it received a bishop of its own. Of its mediaeval history the principal remains are the castles of Castiglione and Anacapri. In 1803 it was captured by Sir Sidney Smith, and defended by new fortifications; but in 1808, while Sir Hudson Lowe was in command, it was recaptured by Murat.
See Hadrava, Letters sull ’ isola di Capri, Dresden, 1794; Hans Andersen, Improvisators ; and three articles (reprinted from the Saturday Review, 1873) in J. R. Green’s Stray Studies, 1876.
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