Research - Ancient Rome - The City of Rome - Palatine Hill

In an earlier post, we quickly went through the history of Rome. In this next series of posts, I'd like to delve deeper into the city of Rome and its layout and special features with some links to maps. First, let's start with the infamous seven hills. In Latin, the word "Collis" means "Hill".

Rome geographically contains seven hills, just east of the Tiber River, as you can see from this image.

The city began officially in 753 BC on Palatine (Palatium or Palatino) Hill, centrally located. Upon this hill wealthy citizen and emperors build their homes and palaces, so the word palatine (or palatinus) has come to mean "palace". Augustus was the first to build his palace here and a temple to the god Apollo. The Roman Forum was built on one side and the Circus Maximus on the other. The Flavian palace overlooks the Circus Maximus. You can also find the House of Tiberius and the Hippodrome of Domitian here.

Further Reading:
World Archaeology - Information about Palatine Huts discovered in the hill.
Daily Mail - Discovery of Nero's infamous rotating dining room in the Golden Palace.
Discovery News - Findings of Augustus' birth place (be sure to check out the slide show link in the article)

References:

Muse's Realm - A map of the Seven Hills of Ancient Rome
Wikipedia - Seven Hills of Rome - more description on the seven hills
Wikipedia - Palatine Hill - detailed information about this hill

Image Credits:
Wikipedia - Seven Hills of Rome

Basic Roman City Topography - Topographical Map

Palatine Hill Terraces

Palatine Hill