Pallantium () was an ancient city near the
Tiber
The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...
river on the
Italian peninsula.
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...
, as recounted in
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'' for example, states that the city was founded in
Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...
by
Evander of Pallene
In Roman mythology, Evander (from Greek ' meaning "good man" or "strong man": an etymology used by poets to emphasize the hero's virtue) was a culture hero from Arcadia, Greece, who was said to have brought the pantheon, laws, and alphabet of ...
and other
ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically re ...
sometime previous to the
Trojan War
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...
.
['']Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
'', viii
In addition,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (,
; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style was ''atticistic'' – imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.
...
writes that Romans say that the city was founded by Greeks from
Pallantium of
Arcadia, about sixty years before the Trojan war and the leader was Evander.
Solinus writes that the Arcadians were the founders of the city.
The myth of the city's origin was significant in ancient Roman mythology because Pallantium became one of the cities that was merged later into
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
, thereby tying Rome's origins to the ancient Greek heroes. Other cities in the area were founded by various
Italic tribes.
Virgil states that Evander named the city in honor of his ancestor, Pallas, although
Pausanias as well as
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (,
; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style was ''atticistic'' – imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.
...
say that Evander's birth city was
Pallantium, and thus he named the new city after the one in Arcadia. Dionysius of Halicarnassus also mentions that some writers, including
Polybius of Megalopolis, say that the town was named after Pallas, who was the son of
Heracles
Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...
and Lavinia, the daughter of Evander, and when he died his grandfather raised a tomb to him on the hill and called the place Pallantium, after him.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 1.32.1
/ref>
The origin of Rome and the composition of its people are worthy of remark. They
explain the particular character of its policy, and the exceptional part that fell to it
from the beginning in the midst of other cities. The Roman race was strangely mixed.
The principal element was Latin, and originally from Alba
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English-language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingd ...
; but these Albans
themselves, according to traditions which no criticism authorizes us to reject, were
composed of two associated, but not confounded, populations. One was the
aboriginal race, real Latins. The other was of foreign origin, and was said to have
come from Troy
Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
with Aeneas
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas ( , ; from ) was a Troy, Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy ...
, the priest-founder; it was, to all appearance, not
numerous, but was influential from the worship and the institutions which it had
brought with it.
These Albans, a mixture of two races, founded Rome on a spot where another city
had already been built — Pallantium, founded by the Greeks. Now, the population
of Pallantium remained in the new city, and the rites of the Greek worship were
preserved there. There was also, where the Capitol afterwards stood, a city which
was said to have been founded by Hercules, the families of which remained distinct
from the rest of the Roman population during the entire continuance of the
republic.
Thus at Rome all races were associated and mingled; there were Latins, Trojans,
and Greeks; there were, a little later, Sabine
The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines divided int ...
s, and Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization ( ) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in List of ancient peoples of Italy, ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. Af ...
.
Of the several hills, the Palatine
A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times. was the Latin city, after having been the city of Evander.
The Capitoline, after having been the dwelling-place of the companions of Hercules,
became the home of the Sabines
The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines divided int ...
of Tatius. The Quirinal received its name from the
Sabine Quirites, or from the Sabine god Quirinus
In Roman mythology and Roman religion, religion, Quirinus ( , ) is an early god of the Ancient Rome, Roman state. In Augustus, Augustan Rome, ''Quirinus'' was also an epithet of Janus, Mars (mythology), Mars, and Jupiter (god), Jupiter.
Name
...
. The Coelian hill appears to
have been inhabited from the beginning by Etruscans. Rome did not seem to be a single city;
it appeared like a confederation of several cities, each one of which was attached by
its origin to another confederation. It was the centre where the Latins, Etruscans,
Sabellians, and Greeks met.
-- Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, '' The Ancient City'', 311
References
External links
The Ancient City (pdf) at the McMaster Archive for the History of Economic Thought
{{coord missing, Italy
Pre-Roman cities in Italy
Colonies of Magna Graecia
Former populated places in Italy
Greco-Roman relations in classical antiquity