Ventotene - A History Lesson

Ventotene is a volcanic island off the western coast of Italy.  (About 2/3 down down the peninsula, before the instep of Italy's geographical 'boot'.)  The satellite imagery from Google Earth is uncharacteristically of very poor quality, but Bing has some nice imagery.  The island does look like a weathered-down ancient volcano.  Some of the coastline has sheer rocky cliffs, and other regions like, well, a platform of rock.  It is scenic and gorgeous, but Florida is it not.

Wiki tells that ancient Rome used the island to banish nobles, notably females.  It was here the emperor Augustus banished his daughter Julia for her adultery.  Tiberius banished a grand-niece similarly, and several other caesars also practiced sending relatives who they disfavored to the island.  Most of the women perished from starvation.  Looking at the satellite imagery, you can understand why - there is not much vegetation on this small island, although it now has 700 permanent residents.  During World War II, Mussolini established a prison on the island and later, a garrison of German soldiers operated a radar station on the island. 

Archaeology tells that Roman shipwrecks have been recently discovered off the coast of Ventotene.  Ancient Roman shipwrecks found off Italy coast provides some some pictures of the cargo carried by five shipwrecks ranging from first century BC to fourth century AD.  Archaeologists find graveyard of sunken Roman ships speculates that the ships had been attempting to find safe anchorage during stormy weather, and did not quite make the island's natural harbor. 

Aurora provides details of the five individual sites.  The first four sites are from first century BC and exhibit cargos of Rome-produced goods such as wine.  Site 5 from 4th century AD shows that Rome has begun importing goods that it once exported.  The Reuters' article also discusses the pattern of trade exhibited by the wrecks - first producing and then importing.

What is old is new again.  Perhaps the recent trade pattern developed by western countries over the past 20-50 years is the same phenomena that Rome developed in the latter years of the empire.