EVANDER, a king of Arcadia, said to be son, sometimes of Mercury and sometimes of Echemus, king of Arcadia, had as his mother the nymph Nicostrate or Carmenta, according to the Latins. Various reasons are given to account for his emigration to Italy. According to Servius (Virg. Æn. viii. 51, 130), he had killed his father by accident; but Ovid says that he was compelled by civil broils to abandon his kingdom to his brother Ladocus. This event is supposed to have taken place about fifty years before the taking of Troy. Faunus, who then reigned in Italy, received Evander and his companions with great kindness, granting to him as much land as was necessary to build a city. Its foundations were laid on the Palatine hill; and it was called Pallatium or Pallanteum, either in honour of his son Pallas, or in remembrance of a village of the same name in Arcadia. Evander was greatly annoyed by the thefts of a giant named Cacus, who dwelt on the Aventine hill; but Hercules, whom he
received with much hospitality, freed him from this formidable enemy. At a later period Virgil introduces him to us, as forming an alliance with Æneas, and furnishing him with a body of troops commanded by his son Pallas. (Æn. viii. 154.) He gave laws to his people, taught the aborigines of Italy agriculture, invented music, and introduced into his new country the knowledge of letters. After his death he was by the gratitude of his subjects ranked among the gods.