One of the most fascinating and perhaps lesser-known stories of Rome’s history is that of Pallantium (in ancient Greek Παλλάντιον), a legendary city that, according to various ancient sources, stood on the Palatine Hill, the same hill that centuries later would become the heart of Rome.

The legend of Pallantium is mentioned in several works of classical literature, the most famous being Virgil’s Aeneid. According to the tale, the city was founded by Evander, king of Arcadia, a region in the heart of the Greek Peloponnese. Evander is said to have arrived in the lands near the Tiber River long before the Trojan War, and settled on the Palatine Hill, where he founded a small city that he named Pallantium in honor of his ancestor Pallas.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek historian of the Roman period, provides a similar narrative but with additional details. In his writings, he mentions that the Arcadians, led by Evander, built a city near one of the seven hills of Rome, which they named Pallantion, in honor of their metropolis in Arcadia. This event, according to Dionysius, took place about sixty years before the Trojan War, placing Pallantium as one of the earliest cities in the area that would later become Rome.

And the Arcadians, as Themis advised them through inspiration, chose a hill, not far from the Tiber, which is now near the center of the city of Rome, and beside this hill, they built a small village sufficient for the complement of the two ships in which they had come from Greece. However, fate decreed that this village would surpass all other cities, Greek or barbarian, not only in size but also in the majesty of its empire and in all other forms of prosperity, and it would be celebrated above all while mortality lasted. They called the city Pallantium after their mother city in Arcadia; now, however, the Romans call it Palatium, time having obscured the correct form, and this name has given rise to many absurd etymologies.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.31
Map of Rome with the location of the Palatium and the Palatine Hill.
Map of Rome with the location of the Palatium and the Palatine Hill. Credit: Cassius Ahenobarbus / Wikimedia Commons

Strabo also echoes this theme, citing the historian Coelius, who claims that Rome is a Greek colony:

However, there is also another older and more mythical account, according to which Rome was an Arcadian colony founded by Evander. He hosted Hercules when he was driving the cattle of Geryon, and, being informed by his mother Nicostrata (who was skilled in the art of prophecy) that when Hercules had completed his labors he was destined to be enrolled among the gods, he informed him of the matter, consecrated a grove for him, and offered sacrifices in the Greek manner; a sacrifice that continues in honor of Hercules to this day. The Roman historian Coelius believes this is proof that Rome is a Greek colony, as the sacrifice to Hercules in the Greek style was brought from his homeland. The Romans also honor Evander’s mother under the name Carmentis, considering her one of the nymphs.

Strabo, Geography 5.3.3

In Aeneid, Pallantium plays a crucial role as a modest prelude to the future glory of Rome. Evander and his son Pallas welcome the Trojan hero Aeneas with honors as he seeks their help in the war against the Rutulians (a people of Latium) led by their king Turnus.

Aeneas and Turnus in a painting by Luca Giordano (1688)
Aeneas and Turnus in a painting by Luca Giordano (1688). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

The tragedy of Pallas’s death at the hands of Turnus is one of the most moving moments in the poem, and its impact is such that it leads Aeneas to make a fateful decision against his enemy, killing him.

This alliance is fundamental to Virgil’s epic narrative, as it reinforces the idea that the future Romans were linked, from their mythical origins, with the great heroes of Greek mythology.

Livy also mentions the city in his history of Rome, explaining the origin of the Lupercalia festival, an initiation rite into adulthood for adolescents who survived for a time by hunting in the forest, like human wolves. Curiously, the Arcadian Pallantium, from which Evander came, had been founded by Pallas, son of Lycaon (whom Zeus had transformed into a wolf).

It is said that the Lupercalia festival, which is still observed, was already being celebrated in those days on the Palatine Hill. This hill was originally called Pallantium, after a city of the same name in Arcadia; the name was later changed to Palatium. Evander, an Arcadian, had possessed that territory many years before and had introduced an annual Arcadian festival in which young men ran naked for sport and revelry, in honor of Pan Lycaeus, whom the Romans later called Inuus.

Livy, History of Rome 1.5
The Feast of the Lupercalia in a painting by Andrea Camassei (ca.1635)
The Feast of the Lupercalia in a painting by Andrea Camassei (ca.1635). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

The name of Pallantium, like that of many ancient cities, is shrouded in etymologies mixing legend and genealogy. Virgil claims that the city was named in honor of Pallas, Evander’s ancestor, while other authors, such as Pausanias and Dio Cassius, suggest that the name comes from Evander’s original city in Arcadia.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, following Livy, opines that this is the place that the Romans now call Palatium (i.e., the Palatine Hill) and adds an interesting variant to the myth: the city could have been named in honor of Pallas, son of Hercules and Lavinia, Evander’s daughter, who was buried on the hill that would later bear his name. However, he also expresses some skepticism about this.

But I have never seen any tomb of Pallas in Rome nor heard of libations made in his honor, nor have I been able to discover anything else of that nature, though this family has not ceased to be remembered nor to receive the honors with which divine beings are worshipped by men. For I know that the Romans annually celebrate public sacrifices to Evander and Carmenta in the same way as to other heroes and lesser deities; and I have seen two altars erected, one to Carmenta under the Capitoline Hill, near the Carmental Gate, and the other to Evander by another hill, called the Aventine, not far from the Trigemina Gate; but I know nothing of this type being done in honor of Pallas.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.32
Aeneas meets Pallas, Evander's son, in Pallantium, by Claude Lorraine (1671).
Aeneas meets Pallas, Evander’s son, in Pallantium, by Claude Lorraine (1671). Credit: Public domain / Rijksmuseum

The myth of Pallantium was more than just an ancient legend; it played a crucial role in shaping Roman mythology. By placing Evander, an Arcadian king, as one of the first founders of what would later become Rome, the Romans created a cultural bridge that elevated the greatness of Rome, showing that even in its beginnings, it had ties to the most revered traditions and heroes of the ancient world.

Moreover, the existence of Pallantium in Rome’s mythic narrative provided a coherent explanation for the similarities observed between Greek and Roman culture, allowing Rome to claim a lineage that included Greeks, Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins under the leadership of its first kings, Romulus and Numa Pompilius.

In Pallantium, the Romans believed that the Lupercal cave was located, where the shepherd Faustulus found Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf Luperca and took them to his wife, Acca Larentia, to raise.

Phaustulus bringing Romulus and Remus to Acca Larentia, painting by Sebastiano Ricci (c.1708).
Phaustulus bringing Romulus and Remus to Acca Larentia, painting by Sebastiano Ricci (c.1708). Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Over the centuries, the existence of the ancient Greek city of Pallantium was accepted as historical fact. Authors like Gaius Julius Solinus, a Latin grammarian writing between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, says that some believe it was Evander who came up with the name Rome for the new city.

There are those who claim that the name “Rome” first occurred to Evander. Finding a city already built there, which the young men called “Valentia” in Latin, he took note of the meaning of the previous name and called it “Rome” in Greek. And since he and his Arcadians lived at the highest part of the hill, the derivation was that the safest parts of cities were later called Arcadias.

Solinus, Polyhistor 1.1

In the same sense, Robert Graves imagined in his magnificent essay The White Goddess a conversation between Theophilus, a Greek historian, and Lucius Sergius Paullus, governor of Cyprus under Emperor Claudius, in which it is said that Evander had two daughters, named Romë (strength) and Dynë (power).

Even in the 19th century, authors like Fustel de Coulanges still mentioned Pallantium in their works as an unquestionable fact. However, nothing in the archaeological record can be considered evidence of an ancient Greek colony predating Rome on the Palatine Hill.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on September 18, 2024: Palanteo, la legendaria ciudad griega que los romanos pensaban que existía en el lugar donde luego se fundó Roma

SOURCES

Dionisio de Halicarnaso, Roman Antiquities

Solino, Polyhistor

Anthony Adolph, In Search of Aeneas: Classical Myth or Bronze Age Hero?

George Cornewall Lewis, An Inquiry Into the Credibility of the Early Roman History

Robert Graves, The White Goddess

Wikipedia, Palanteo

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