Palæphătus, an ancient Greek philosopher, whose age is unknown, though it can be ascertained that he flourished between the times of Aristotle and Augustus. He wrote five books de incredibilibus, of which only the first remains, and in it he endeavours to explain fabulous and mythological traditions by historical facts. The best edition of Palæphatus is that of Johann Friedrich Fischer, in 8vo, Lipscomb, 1773.——An heroic poet of Athens, who wrote a poem on the creation of the world.——A disciple of Aristotle, born at Abydos.——An historian of Egypt.
Palepŏlis, a town of Campania, built by a Greek colony, where Naples afterwards was erected. Livy, bk. 8, ch. 22.
Palæste, a village of Epirus near Oricus, where Cæsar first landed with his fleet. Lucan, bk. 5, li. 460.
Palæstīna, a province of Syria, &c. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 105.—Silius Italicus, bk. 3, li. 606.—Strabo, bk. 16.
Palæstīnus, an ancient name of the river Strymon.
Palætyrus, the ancient town of Tyre on the continent. Strabo, bk. 16.
Pălămēdes, a Grecian chief, son of Nauplius king of Eubœa by Clymene. He was sent by the Greek princes, who were going to the Trojan war, to bring Ulysses to the camp, who, to withdraw himself from the expedition, pretended insanity, and, the better to impose upon his friends, used to harness different animals to a plough, and to sow salt instead of barley into the furrows. The deceit was soon perceived by Palamedes; he knew that the regret to part from his wife Penelope, whom he had lately married, was the only reason of the pretended insanity of Ulysses; and to demonstrate this, Palamedes took Telemachus, whom Penelope had lately brought into the world, and put him before the plough of his father. Ulysses showed that he was not insane, by turning the plough a different way not to hurt his child. This having been discovered, Ulysses was obliged to attend the Greek princes to the war, but an immortal enmity arose between Ulysses and Palamedes. The king of Ithaca resolved to take every opportunity to distress him: and when all his expectations were frustrated, he had the meanness to bribe one of his servants, and to make him dig a hole in his master’s tent, and there conceal a large sum of money. After this Ulysses forged a letter in Phrygian characters, which king Priam was supposed to have sent to Palamedes. In the letter the Trojan king seemed to entreat Palamedes to deliver into his hands the Grecian army, according to the conditions which had been previously agreed upon, when he received the money. This forged letter was carried, by means of Ulysses, before the princes of the Grecian army. Palamedes was summoned, and he made the most solemn protestations of innocence. But all was in vain; the money that was discovered in his tent served only to corroborate the accusation, and he was found guilty by all the army, and stoned to death. Homer is silent about the miserable fate of Palamedes, and Pausanias mentions that it had been reported by some, that Ulysses and Diomedes had drowned him in the sea as he was fishing on the coast. Philostratus, who mentions the tragical story above related, adds that Achilles and Ajax buried his body with great pomp on the sea-shore, and that they raised upon it a small chapel, where sacrifices were regularly offered by the inhabitants of Troas. Palamedes was a learned man as well as a soldier, and, according to some, he completed the alphabet of Cadmus by the addition of the four letters θ, ξ, χ, φ, during the Trojan war. To him, also, is attributed the invention of dice and backgammon; and it is said he was the first who regularly ranged an army in a line of battle, and who placed sentinels round a camp, and excited their vigilance and attention by giving them a watchword. Hyginus, fables 95, 105, &c.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, &c.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 2, ch. 15.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, lis. 56 & 308.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 31.—Marcus Manilius, bk. 4, li. 205.—Philostratus, bk. 10, ch. 6.—Euripides, Phœnician Women.—Martial, bk. 13, ltr. 75.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56.
Palantia, a town of Spain. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.
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 Augustus, 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 goddess 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 Augustus, and called Palatine, because kept on the hill. Dio Cassius, bk. 53.—Silius Italicus, 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 Catiline, bk. 1.——Apollo, who was worshipped on the Palatine hill, was also called Palatinus. His temple there had been built, or rather repaired, by Augustus, 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.
Palantium, a town of Arcadia.