Ventotene: nature and archaeology

In the open sea between the Pontine islands, off the coast between Rome and Naples (Latium, Italy) and also Ischia Island, it is not uncommon to see dolphins and other large cetaceans like the sperm whale, the fin whale and few others. In other quiet, shaded parts, the rock walls of Ventotene are lined with colonies of asteroids, one of the few Mediterranean examples of madrepores, the small creatures that build coral reefs.

Octopus, moray eels, blennies, rainbow wrasse, white bream and saffled bream also find a advantageous ecosystem in the rocks and crevices created by falling rocks in the crystal blue paradise in the open sea of Latium (Italy). Ventotene was well know by the Romans and at the time of the Imperial age. Around 1st century BC they considered the island as a sort of “deportation zone”, where the ruling Emperors could send uneasy or suspicious personalities or simply their polital enemies.

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There is historical evidence of a long list of the famous exiled personalities including the well-known names of Agrippina and of her terrible son Nero, Agrippia and Livilla, two patricians sisters accused of immorality (that's for a change), and, finally, Octavia, who was repudiated by Nero and arrived in Ventotene in 62 a.C. upon kind invitation of Poppaea, who accused her of adultery, in order to get her hands on her famous husband.

The Emperor Augustus sent also his daughter Iulia in exile, because she violated the “lex Iulia” on public moralisation. Here again, it seems, the Iulia scandalized few important personalities in public with a sexual conduct not exactly cast! Remebering his duty as public figure, Augustus sent in exile her daughter, but apparently built for her a fantastic Roman villa with all the comforts for Iulia, including a swimming pool and a theatre, of which the rests can still be seen: a rich and articulated complex, developed on three levels, following the structure of the ground. For about twenty years, from 19426 to 1943, Ventotene returned to its imperial traditions and became again the seat of a colony of political confinement with prisoners sent in the near by St Stefano Island just opposite Ventotene.

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