PALLA´NTIUM
PALLA´NTIUM (
Παλλάντιον, more rarely
Παλάντιον: Eth.
Παλλαντιεύς), one of the most ancient towns of Arcadia, in the district Maenalia, said to have been founded by Pallas, a son of Lycaon, was situated W. of Tegea, in a small plain called the Pallantic plain (
Παλλαντικόν πέδιον, Paus. 8.44.5), which was separated from the territory of Tegea by a choma (
χῶμα) or dyke [
TEGEA].
It was from this town that Evander was said to have led colonists to the banks of the Tiber, and from it the Palatium or Palatine Mount at Rome was reputed to have derived its name. (Hes. ap.
Steph. B. sub voce Paus. 8.43.2;
Liv. 1.5;
Plin. Nat. 4.6; Justin,
43.1.) Pallantium took part in the foundation of Megalopolis, B.C. 371 (
Paus. 8.27.3); but it continued to exist as an independent state, since we find the Pallantieis mentioned along with the Tegeatae, Megalopolitae and Aseatae, as joining Epaminondas before the battle of Mantineia, B.C. 362. (
Xen. Hell. 7.5. 5) Pallantium subsequently sank into a mere village, but was restored and enlarged by the emperor Antoninus Pius, who conferred upon it freedom from taxation and other privileges, on account of its reputed connection with Rome.
The town was visited by Pausanias, who found here a shrine containing statues of Pallas and Evander, a temple of Core (Proserpine), a statue of Polybius; and on the hill above the town, which was anciently used as an acropolis, a temple of the pure (
καθαροί) gods. (
Paus. 8.43.1,
44. § § 5, 6.) Leake was unable to find the site of Pallantium, and supposed that it occupied a part of
Tripolitzá itself; though at a later time he appears to have adopted the erroneous opinion of Gell, who placed it at the village of
Thana, to the S. of
Triolitzá. (Leake,
Morea, vol. i. pp. 117, 118, vol. iii. p. 36 Gell,
Itinerary of the Morea, p. 136.)
The remains of tie town were first discovered by the French expedition at a quarter of an hour's distance from the Khan of
Makri on the road from
Tripolitzá to
Leondári. The ruins have been used so long as a quarry by the inhabitants of
Tripolitzá and of the neighbouring villages, that there are very few traces of the ancient town. Ross discovered the foundations of the temple of the pure gods on the highest point of the acropolis. (Boblaye,
Récherches, &c., p, 146; Ross,
Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 58, seq.; Curtius
Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 263, seq.)
