Polibio, Evandro, Pallante sul Palatino. Uno sguardo arcade sull'Arcadia laziale

The article examines a fragment of Polybius, who speaks of the death on the Palatine hill of Pallas, son of Heracles and grandson of the Arcadian king Evander. The fragment is the only evidence of the fact that the Arcadian Polybius knew the story of an ancient Arcadian presence in Lazio. Evander, ‘the adult’, and Pallas, ‘the young’, are the protagonists of an initiatory story, considered the aition of the initiatory ritual of the Lupercalia, which took place on the Palatine hill and was believed to have been established by the king Arcadian Evander.