Palatine Hill
The Palatine is one of Rome's seven hills, rising about 51 metres between the Velabrum depression and the Roman Forum, with wide views down to the Forum and the Colosseum. Romans traced the city's very origins here: legend has it that Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf on these slopes, and that Romulus later chose this summit for his first settlement — the so-called Roma Quadrata. In the Republic it was the city's most fashionable address; Augustus transformed it permanently, having been born here and choosing to stay. Emperor after emperor — Tiberius, Nero, the Flavians, the Severans — piled palace upon palace until the hill became a single vast complex of courts and gardens. That Latin word Palatium is ultimately why so many European languages use a version of 'palace.' Walk in among the ruins and what you find is not just broken walls but layers of myth, power, and Roman history pressed one on top of the other.
Italy · 17 The overlooked corners inside
The overlooked corners inside
Scalae Anulariae (Ring-Makers' Steps)
The Scalae Anulariae were a flight of steps on the Palatine's flank — no longer visible — that took their name from the row of ring-makers' stalls below them (anularius being Latin for a craftsman who made finger-rings). The steps appear in the entire written record of Roman history in exactly one place: the historian Suetonius, in chapter 72 of his Life of Augustus, notes that before moving to his permanent Palatine home, Augustus briefly lodged in a house above the ring-makers' steps (supra scalas anularias) that had belonged to the orator Licinius Calvus. The steps are thought to have been partway up the slope from the Forum side, not yet within the hilltop district proper — which fits Suetonius's implication that the house was not quite in the prestige 'Palatine' zone.
Sources: penelope.uchicago.edu · en.northleg.com
Palatine Museum
This compact two-storey museum — four rooms per floor — sits on the ruins of an older building, a house put up in 1868 for the Sisters of the Visitation, which in turn sits above the ancient palace structures connecting the Flavian Palace to the Domus Augustana. Everything on display was found on the hill itself: flint tools, fresco fragments, and finds from every period, arranged in chronological order. The ground floor covers the Palatine from its origins through the Republic; the upper floor is devoted to the imperial period. The whole sequence folds the hill's timeline into two storeys. The collection has been moved off-site twice and fought back to the hilltop both times — a contentious history in its own right.
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
Cermalus
The Palatine is not a single summit but two high points separated by a shallow saddle: the higher central peak called the Palatium, and the one that slopes gently toward the Forum Boarium and the Tiber — the Cermalus (also spelled Germalus). The name may seem like a footnote, but in Rome's oldest sacred topography it was anything but: in the ancient Septimontium festival, which honoured the seven 'mountains' of early Rome, the hills listed were not the later canonical seven but specifically the Palatium and the Cermalus, among others. Standing on this lower slope, you are on ground that features in Rome's oldest foundation stories.
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
House of Livia
The House of Livia is one of the surviving Republican-era town houses on the western Palatine, excavated from 1869 onward. The name comes from early fieldwork: when Pietro Rosa directed the dig for Napoleon III, he found a lead water-pipe stamped 'Iulia Aug(usta)' and concluded the building had been the residence of Augustus's wife. Modern scholarship has revised that reading — the oldest parts of the house date to about 75–50 BC, predating Livia's marriage to Augustus — and the prevailing view today is that this was a self-contained suite within Augustus's larger complex rather than Livia's own former home from a previous marriage. The building is a composite of several earlier structures, set slightly lower than the nearby Temple of Magna Mater, with a mildly sloping floor.
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
House of Augustus
Augustus's private residence occupies the southwestern corner of the Palatine Hill — called the Domus Augusti in Latin, not to be confused with the later Domus Augustana built by the Flavian emperors. Augustus was born on the hill, in a spot known as 'ad Capita Bubula' (near the ox-heads). He lived out almost his entire political career on the Palatine: first in a rented house above the ring-makers' steps that had belonged to an orator, then in this modest former home of the consul and advocate Quintus Hortensius — a house without marble floors or mosaic paving, its colonnades made of Alban stone. He reportedly slept in the same bedroom for more than forty years, even though the Roman winter was hard on his health.
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
Auguratorium
The Auguratorium is a site on the Palatine closely associated with Rome's augural traditio… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: wikidata.org · madainproject.com · en.wikipedia.org
Elagabalium
The Elagabalium was built on the northeastern slope of the Palatine by the emperor Elagaba… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
Domus Augustana
The Domus Augustana was the private residential wing of Domitian's palace complex, occupyi… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
Hut of Romulus
The 'Hut of Romulus' (Casa Romuli or tugurium Romuli) is a spot on the southwestern corner… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
Domus Tiberiana
The Domus Tiberiana is an imperial palace on the western Palatine, built by Tiberius on th… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
House of the Griffins (Casa dei Grifi)
The House of the Griffins is the best-preserved Republican-era private house in Rome, seal… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: it.wikipedia.org
Baths of Septimius Severus (Terme Severiane)
The emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211 AD) built this palace bathhouse on the southeast… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · maquettes-historiques.net · en.northleg.com
Curia Saliorum (Hall of the Salian Priests)
The Curia Saliorum was the headquarters of the Salii Palatini on the Palatine — the colleg… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · wikidata.org
Area Palatina
The Area Palatina was the open esplanade in front of the Palatine palace complex, where on… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: wikidata.org · en.wikipedia.org · blogs.cuit.columbia.edu
Tomb of Giacomo Boni
In a rose garden at one end of the Farnese Gardens (Orti Farnesiani) on the Palatine stand… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · voicemap.me
Baths of Maxentius (Terme di Massenzio)
The Baths of Maxentius are among the last major building works in the Palatine palace comp… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: academia.edu · web.pinsteps.com
Shrine of Dea Viriplaca
This small shrine was dedicated to Dea Viriplaca — a name that breaks down as 'she who app… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · wikidata.org
FAQ
What overlooked corners are worth seeing inside Palatine Hill?
Scalae Anulariae (Ring-Makers' Steps), Palatine Museum, Cermalus and more — 17 spots in all, each with sources and a guide in your language to read or listen to on the spot.
Is the Palatine Hill guide free?
The first 5 spots are free to read; the other 12 unlock with a one-time purchase (not a subscription).