DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57734#0097
surrounded by priests and by the fanatical followers
of the Mithras-cult, seated on the semicircular rows of
seats. The red sun-ball is just rising from out the
azure sea, and Mithras, the youthful sun-god, allows
the first rays to dart like arrows into his sanctum. —
But enough of these little fancy-barque's — which are
so easily set afloat on this island at the sight of the
spacious and beautiful waters.
We have long wandered in this chapter over the
mid-altitude of the island in marvelling astonishment
at the dimensions and extent of the Augustus-buildings
which, winding in a glorious ring round the high plain,
stand out from their shady gardens. Then, following
the old Roman roads, we ascended the hills and passed
down through the confusion of boulders to the uncanny
Mithras cavern.
At an early hour of the evening it has already
become cool and dark, while the mountain-tops of the
Sorrentino Peninsula are still gleaming in the last rays
of the setting sun. Fatigued by the exertions made,
and the impressions received, we start on our home-
ward way, in order to end the day and the chapter
with a view presented to us from below the Tuoro
grande, southwards from the upper edge of the valley.
A stone bench on the narrow platform of a preci-
pitous mountain, high above the Mithras cavern, invites
us to rest a while here. In front of us the mainland,
with the Gulf of Poseidon, spreads out before us; to
the left, however, towards the north-east, behind the
Arco naturale the fissured mountain rises steep and in-
accessible 320 metres high out of the sea, on the
back of which stood the Villa of Tiberius. We recognise
the remains of the lighthouse which stood near the palace,
and the tops of the ruins of the latter.
A wondrously mighty and impressive effect the
high palace must have produced as seen from this spot
in the days when the lighthouse (which Statius called “the
rival of the somnambulating moon”) lit up its fires and
9i
of the Mithras-cult, seated on the semicircular rows of
seats. The red sun-ball is just rising from out the
azure sea, and Mithras, the youthful sun-god, allows
the first rays to dart like arrows into his sanctum. —
But enough of these little fancy-barque's — which are
so easily set afloat on this island at the sight of the
spacious and beautiful waters.
We have long wandered in this chapter over the
mid-altitude of the island in marvelling astonishment
at the dimensions and extent of the Augustus-buildings
which, winding in a glorious ring round the high plain,
stand out from their shady gardens. Then, following
the old Roman roads, we ascended the hills and passed
down through the confusion of boulders to the uncanny
Mithras cavern.
At an early hour of the evening it has already
become cool and dark, while the mountain-tops of the
Sorrentino Peninsula are still gleaming in the last rays
of the setting sun. Fatigued by the exertions made,
and the impressions received, we start on our home-
ward way, in order to end the day and the chapter
with a view presented to us from below the Tuoro
grande, southwards from the upper edge of the valley.
A stone bench on the narrow platform of a preci-
pitous mountain, high above the Mithras cavern, invites
us to rest a while here. In front of us the mainland,
with the Gulf of Poseidon, spreads out before us; to
the left, however, towards the north-east, behind the
Arco naturale the fissured mountain rises steep and in-
accessible 320 metres high out of the sea, on the
back of which stood the Villa of Tiberius. We recognise
the remains of the lighthouse which stood near the palace,
and the tops of the ruins of the latter.
A wondrously mighty and impressive effect the
high palace must have produced as seen from this spot
in the days when the lighthouse (which Statius called “the
rival of the somnambulating moon”) lit up its fires and
9i