fig trees.
Ponza is also suspected to be the island of Aeaea in Homer's Odyssey, as the island of the Circe the sorceress, where her cave or grotto was. Today it is known as Grotta della Maga Circe on the west side of the island, between Capo Bianco and Chaia di Luna beach. She was said to have lived in this cave in the Winter months. Spending the Summer atop nearby Mount Circe on the Mainland of Italy. This is where the Circe turned Odysseus men into animals and cast her spell on and seduced him and lived with him for a over a year. On the west side of Ponza is the Grotta di Ulisse O Del Sangue, which means Cave of Ulysses of the Blood. The Grotto or cave is almost directly underneath the hill/peninsula called Il Belvedere, which has the Giardino Botanico Ponziano a botanical garden with a villa and the remains of a castle. These caves or grottos are popular destinations to visit by boat only. Archaeologists are now investigating Ponza in search of evidence of Homer's Odyssey.
During Roman times, Nero Caesar, eldest brother of Caligula, was deported to Ponza in AD 29, where in 30 AD he was put to death. Two of his sisters, Agrippina the Younger (mother of the emperor Nero) and Julia Livilla were exiled to Ponza in AD 39 for their complicity in a plot to overthrow Caligula. They were recalled to Rome in AD 41. Julia Livilla had a mansion named Palazzo Giulia (Julia's Palace) built specially for her on Ponza. The ruins are still visible there. A similar mansion with the same name was also built on nearby Ventotene for Emperor Augustus' exiled daughter, Julia the Elder.
Ponza was abandoned during the Middle Ages due to constant raids by Saracens and pirates. In 1552 the Ottoman fleet under the command of Turgut Reis (known as Dragut in the West) defeated the Spanish fleet of Emperor Charles V under the command of the famous Genoese admiral Andrea Doria near Ponza. During the 18th century, the Kingdom of Naples re-colonized the island. Today the
