Villa Iovis

The Villa Iovis was one of 12 villas built on Capri during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius (14 - 37 AD). Tiberius was paranoid about sedition and assassination, and after coming to Capri in 26 AD (upon the advice of Sejanus), he never again returned to Rome, preferring the beauty and security of an isolated island villa to the uncertainites of life on the Palatine Hill.

According to the ancient historian Suetonius, Tiberius neglected his professional duties while he lived on Capri, allowing the Parthians to invade Armenia, the Germans to invade Gaul, and the province of Hispania to be without a proper governor for years. He cherished his isolation and labored vigorously to defend it -- when a lowly fisherman attempted to bring him a fish, for example, he had the man's flesh stripped off of his face with the fish's scales.