Roman Lighthouses

The first crude beacons to serve as lighthouses, in what is now Italy, were probably constructed during the heyday of ancient Greece. Before the rise of the Roman Empire the Greeks traded heavily with the colonies of the southern Italian peninsula and Sicily. However, we only have documentation of lighthouses in Italy from Roman times. Evidence comes from the writings of the Roman historian Pliny, bas reliefs, coins, decorations on vases, mosaics and even sarcophagi. The lighthouse at Messina, guarding the dangerous whirlpool of Charybdis, as depicted on a coin produced by Sextus Pompeius (75-35 BC) is considered to be the oldest of the Roman Lighthouses in Italy.