Pălātīnus mons

, a celebrated hill, the largest of the seven hills on which Rome was built. It was upon it that Romulus laid the first foundation of the capital of Italy, in a quadrangular form, and there also he kept his court, as well as Tullus Hostilius and August us, and all the succeeding emperors, from which circumstance the word Palatium has ever since been applied to the residence of a monarch or prince. The Palatine hill received its name from the godde Pales , or from the Palatini , who originally inhabited the place, or from balare or palare , the bleatings of sheep, which were frequent there, or perhaps from the word palantes , wandering, because Evander, when he came to settle in Italy, gathered all the inhabitants, and made them all one society. There were some games celebrated in honour of August us, and called Palatine, because kept on the hill. Dio Ca ius , bk. 53 .— Silius Italic us , bk. 12 , li. 709 .— Livy , bk. 1 , chs. 7 & 33.— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 14 , li. 822 .— Juvenal , satire 9, li. 23 .— Martial , bk. 1 , ltr. 71 .— Varro , de Lingua Latina , bk. 4 , ch. 3 .— Cicero , Against Cat i line , bk. 1 .――Apollo, who was worshipped on the Palatine hill, was also called Pal at in us . His temple there had been built, or rather repaired, by August us, who had enriched it with a library, valuable for the various collections of Greek and Latin manuscripts which it contained, as also for the Sibylline books deposited there. Horace , bk. 1 , ltr. 3 , li. 17 .