Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1919 Sep
Contents
Photograph by Edith P. Kingman BOTH ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL RUINS COVER THE SUMMIT KNOWN AS THE CASTIGLIONE Important excavations unearthed walls, pavements, and bas-reliefs of rare archaeological value. A few years later the thrifty peasants covered the ruins with soil and planted vines over the spot where once stood the palace of an emperor. pirates. There was certainly the matter of pirates to be considered. They have always been a pest of the Mediterranean. At the time of Pompey's celebrated cam paign against the Mediterranean pirates, 67 B. C., they were well organized and intrenched; they had naval stations and beacon towers in various places. Cen turies later the English actually did seize Capri, in 1806, and called it the "Little Gibraltar." They might have held it, perhaps, to this day but for the ill luck and incompetence of Colonel Hudson Lowe, later Napoleon's jailer at St. Helena. The ruin of the Capri Pharos, the ancient lighthouse, so close to the largest of the ruined palaces on Capri, is a para mount point in the archaeology of the island. The selection of Capri 'by Au gustus was most likely biased to a con siderable degree by the fact that it was ideally situated for the Pharos. This was one of the most important light houses of antiquity. The limit of this article does not per mit of any elaborate disquisition on Roman lighthouses, but enough informa tion exists regarding them to show that they were permanent, costly structures and abundant, too, not merely in Italy, but also in Gaul and Britain. PHAROS, ONE OF THE SEVEN WONDERS The name Pharos comes from the enormous structure at Alexandria, built in B. C. 285, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and which stood until the thirteenth century. This light house was very high, owing to the low coast; but the practical Romans, wher ever possible, placed their beacons on commanding headlands and made them relatively short and massive. One of them, Tour d'Ordre, at Boulogne, on the French coast,. is illustrated in an old print. It stood until the middle of the seventeenth century. This was probably typical-a strong masonry tower with a fire that was kept burning at the top. As to details of design, the views that have come down to us, on medals, coins, reliefs, and Pompeian wall paintings, show a great variety of elevations. 219
Links
Archive
1919 Oct
1919 Aug
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page
