Palatine Hill
You’re on the centremost of Rome’s seven hills, the Palatine—*Palatino*—and it’s one of the city’s most ancient stages. This is the spot that’s been called “the first nucleus of the Roman Empire,” because imperial Rome literally started by building here, with imperial palaces beginning with Augustus. Before that imperial glow, the hill was mostly home to the rich. What’s especially interesting is that Palatine Hill originally had two summits: the higher *Palatium* and the lower *Germalus* (also written *Cermalus*). Measured within its perimeter, it enclosed 63 acres (25 hectares) by the *Forma Urbis*, and later, the Regionary Catalogues of the 4th century expand that to 131 acres (53 hectares). And there’s a linguistic twist you can feel in everyday words: *Palatine* is the etymological origin of “palace” and “palazzo”—all tied back to *Palatium*.
AI-generated from open data and cross-checked, with review where noted. How we write narrations
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