DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57734#0105
We proceed onwards along the narrow path,
which is continued by means of inlaid steps and rises
at first at a slight gradient, but soon leads along a
steeper ascent to the height whereon the ruin stands
and which, although describing a slight curve, never-
theless, about follows the direction once taken by the
principal staircase of the palace (Figs. 26 a. 27).
Immediately on beginning the ascent we look down
into a little, fairly-preserved apartment, lying 3 metres
lower, to which a narrow modern stairway leads
(Fig. 27, A 1). This undoubtedly served as a vestibule,
and was the lowest-lying space in the palace — upon
which one first entered.
Here already, as is also the case throughout our
wanderings through the remains of the palace, we
must have recourse to the explanations furnished in
the illustrations (Figs. 26 a. 27), which serve to
greatly facilitate an understanding for the whole.
Fig. 26 reproduces an interesting drawing of the
whole of the ruins made by the architect F. Alvino
of Naples as he saw them in 1853 — when they
were in a better state of preservation than at the
present day — while Fig. 27 shows us a ground-plan-
reconstruction by the author of the present work,
which plan, while based on the measurements taken
by Alvino, strives to fill in that which was already
then missing therein. These additions are shown in
red, while that which still exists is represented in
black ink.
Fig. 28 furnishes (for the purposes of comparison)
a section of the grand Augustus-Palace on the Palatine
at Rome — so far as the same has, as yet, been
excavated. It is drawn to the same scale as the
Tiberian Palace on Capri and the similarity in the
apportionment of the apartments is astonishing, excepting
only that the apartments of the Palatine occupy an
area four times as large. This last-mentioned palace
was formerly called “the Flavian”, but it has recently
99
which is continued by means of inlaid steps and rises
at first at a slight gradient, but soon leads along a
steeper ascent to the height whereon the ruin stands
and which, although describing a slight curve, never-
theless, about follows the direction once taken by the
principal staircase of the palace (Figs. 26 a. 27).
Immediately on beginning the ascent we look down
into a little, fairly-preserved apartment, lying 3 metres
lower, to which a narrow modern stairway leads
(Fig. 27, A 1). This undoubtedly served as a vestibule,
and was the lowest-lying space in the palace — upon
which one first entered.
Here already, as is also the case throughout our
wanderings through the remains of the palace, we
must have recourse to the explanations furnished in
the illustrations (Figs. 26 a. 27), which serve to
greatly facilitate an understanding for the whole.
Fig. 26 reproduces an interesting drawing of the
whole of the ruins made by the architect F. Alvino
of Naples as he saw them in 1853 — when they
were in a better state of preservation than at the
present day — while Fig. 27 shows us a ground-plan-
reconstruction by the author of the present work,
which plan, while based on the measurements taken
by Alvino, strives to fill in that which was already
then missing therein. These additions are shown in
red, while that which still exists is represented in
black ink.
Fig. 28 furnishes (for the purposes of comparison)
a section of the grand Augustus-Palace on the Palatine
at Rome — so far as the same has, as yet, been
excavated. It is drawn to the same scale as the
Tiberian Palace on Capri and the similarity in the
apportionment of the apartments is astonishing, excepting
only that the apartments of the Palatine occupy an
area four times as large. This last-mentioned palace
was formerly called “the Flavian”, but it has recently
99