Workers digging the foundations for Emperor Augustus's villa in the first century AD unearthed giant bones and stone weapons. The emperor displayed these strange finds in his residence, the Palazzo a Mare. Modern analysis suggests these were fossils of large extinct mammals rather than evidence of giants. Archaeological evidence confirms human presence on Capri dating back to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Ancient Greek colonists from Magna Graecia became the first recorded inhabitants. They called the island Tiberia or possibly derived its name from the word for wild boar. Fossils of wild boars have been found on the island supporting this theory. The geographer Strabo noted that ancient Capri had two towns before they merged into one. Emperor Augustus developed the island as a private resort building villas temples and aqueducts. He planted gardens across the limestone landscape creating a sanctuary away from Rome. His successor Tiberius constructed twelve villas according to the historian Tacitus. The most famous structure Villa Jovis remains one of the best-preserved Roman villas in Italy. In AD 27 Tiberius moved permanently to Capri governing the Roman Empire from the island until his death in AD 37. Later in AD 182 Emperor Commodus exiled his sister Lucilla to Capri where she was subsequently executed.
Medieval Turmoil And Ottoman Raids
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire Capri came under the control of the Duchy of Naples. The island suffered repeated raids by pirates and Saracens during the early medieval period. In 866 Emperor Louis II granted the island to the Duchy of Amalfi. Pope John XV established the Diocese of Capri in 987 initially as a suffragan to the Archdiocese of Amalfi. King Frederick IV of Naples established administrative parity between the settlements of Capri and Anacapri in 1496. Pirate raids intensified significantly during the 16th century threatening local stability. Admirals Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha and Turgut Reis captured the island for the Ottoman Empire in 1535 and 1553 respectively. These conquests marked periods of foreign domination and instability for the local population. The French antiquarian Jean-Jacques Bouchard visited in the 17th century providing valuable insights through his diary. He is considered one of the first modern tourists to explore the island's history. Capri remained a diocese until 1818 when it was absorbed into the Archdiocese of Sorrento.