DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57734#0027
muffled tones through the waters ? This poetical fable
exists in reality on this wonderful sea-shore. The only
difference is that here dwelt, between marble-faced
walls and in open, painted pillared courts, the fasti-
dious toga-clad grandees of a voluptuous period, who,
in respect of extravagance and external sensual de-
lights, but, at the same time, in the direction of art
reached the highest limit. Where now the waves
beat against the venerable walls, now robbed of their
embellishments, there once stood marble and bronze
statues; the peristyle stood out between well-tended
flowers and fountains, and through the columns of
the last terrace by the water-side, one gazed across the
Gulf to Neapolis, to the mountain at the foot of which
lay the flourishing Pompeii, and to the heights of
the Peninsula of Surrentum.
That this antique sea-level, 6 metres below the
present one, must have existed many milleniums before
the Roman period, is further evidenced by the many
grottoes (Fig. 6) which are found at this elevation
all round the island. The waves continue until this
day to work at the enlargement of the caverns, the
sun, with the aid of the waters, throws its glistening
reflex on the stalactite roofs and there, where the
ever-thirsty breakers in their rising and falling lap at
the dripping walls, a coral-red layer of stone has ad-
hered, producing a bold and striking contrast to the
colors of the water which pass from an intense blue
into an emerald green.
It was probably several centuries after the days of
Tiberius when the island began to sink slowly again
into the sea to the extent of 11 metres, so that one
portion of the lower grottoes disappeared under the
sea-level; but, after about 12 centuries, the island
again rose about 5 metres, at which altitude (of
6 metres over the ancient level) it has remained until
the present day. And thus it happens that at a
height of 5 metres above the present level one still
exists in reality on this wonderful sea-shore. The only
difference is that here dwelt, between marble-faced
walls and in open, painted pillared courts, the fasti-
dious toga-clad grandees of a voluptuous period, who,
in respect of extravagance and external sensual de-
lights, but, at the same time, in the direction of art
reached the highest limit. Where now the waves
beat against the venerable walls, now robbed of their
embellishments, there once stood marble and bronze
statues; the peristyle stood out between well-tended
flowers and fountains, and through the columns of
the last terrace by the water-side, one gazed across the
Gulf to Neapolis, to the mountain at the foot of which
lay the flourishing Pompeii, and to the heights of
the Peninsula of Surrentum.
That this antique sea-level, 6 metres below the
present one, must have existed many milleniums before
the Roman period, is further evidenced by the many
grottoes (Fig. 6) which are found at this elevation
all round the island. The waves continue until this
day to work at the enlargement of the caverns, the
sun, with the aid of the waters, throws its glistening
reflex on the stalactite roofs and there, where the
ever-thirsty breakers in their rising and falling lap at
the dripping walls, a coral-red layer of stone has ad-
hered, producing a bold and striking contrast to the
colors of the water which pass from an intense blue
into an emerald green.
It was probably several centuries after the days of
Tiberius when the island began to sink slowly again
into the sea to the extent of 11 metres, so that one
portion of the lower grottoes disappeared under the
sea-level; but, after about 12 centuries, the island
again rose about 5 metres, at which altitude (of
6 metres over the ancient level) it has remained until
the present day. And thus it happens that at a
height of 5 metres above the present level one still