Palemonids

The Palemonids were a legendary dynasty of Grand Dukes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Ruthenia. The legend was born in the 15th or 16th century as proof that Lithuanians and the Grand Duchy are of Roman origins. Already Jan Długosz (1415–1480) wrote that Lithuanians are of Roman origin, but did not provide more details. The legend is first recorded in the second redaction of the Lithuanian Chronicle produced in the 1530s.^[1] At the time Grand Duchy or Lithuania was quarrelling with Kingdom of Poland rejecting the claims that Poland "nobilizied" pagan and barbaric Lithuania. Lithuanian nobility needed to show the noble origins of the ruling dynasty, as the only available chronicles at the time were written by the Teutonic Knights, a long-standing enemy, and depicted Gediminas as a hostler of Vytenis.^[2]

In the chronicle, Palemon (Could be Polemon II of Pontus, which was relative to Nero), a relative of Roman Emperor Nero, escaped Rome with 500 noble families. They traveled north, through the Baltic Sea, and reached Nemunas Delta. Then they decided to sail upstream until they reached the mouth of Dubysa. There Palemonids settled on a large hill and ruled the country for generations until the Gediminids emerged.^[1] The chronicle skipped Mindaugas and Traidenis, attested Grand Dukes of Lithuania, entirely.^[2] It incorporated the first redaction for the account of the Gediminids line. To make the story more believable, the chronicle presented a very detailed account of the travel. Because there were not enough generations to cover the gap between the 1st century when Palemon arrived and the 14th century when Gediminas died, the third redaction of the chronicle, also known as the Bychowiec Chronicle, moved up Palemon from the 1st century Rome to the 5th century, when Rome was devastated by Attila the Hun,^[1] and incorporated Mindaugas and later known dukes. But it was not enough and historians like Maciej Stryjkowski and Kazimierz Kojałowicz-Wijuk moved it further to the 10th century.^[3] Multiple contradictory versions of the legend survive to this day as historians tried to patch up some obvious mistakes and make it more historically sound.

At the end of the 19th century, there were some attempts, for example in a history written by Maironis, to tie the legend with the expansion of vikings.^[1] While many historians, up to the dawn of the 20th century, believed the legend to be true, it is now largely discarded as a fictional story that only serves to illustrate political ideology in the 16th century Lithuania.^[4]

Genealogical tree

See also

• family of Gediminas
• Gediminids

References