Ancient era The fortified
Celtiberian settlement is mentioned as
Pallantia () by
Strabo and
Ptolemy, a possible derivation of an Indo-European root
pala ("plain"). It was the chief town of the
Vaccaei, although Strabo wrongly assigns it to the
Arevaci. The city was starved into submission by the
Romans in the 2nd century BC and incorporated into the
province of
Hispania Tarraconensis, in the jurisdiction of
Colonia Clunia Sulpicia (modern Clunia). Though the little Roman garrison city was an active mint, it was insignificant compared to the
Roman villas of
Late Antiquity in the surrounding territory. Archeologists have uncovered the remains of Roman villas at
La Olmeda and at the "Quintanilla de la Cueza", where the fragments of
mosaic floors are spectacularly refined. According to the 5th-century
Galician chronicler
Idatius, the city of Palencia was all but destroyed (457) in the Visigothic wars against the
Suevi: the date falls in the reign of
Theodoric II, whose power centre still lay far to the east, in
Aquitania. When the
Visigoths conquered the territory, however, they retained the Roman rural villa system in establishing the
Campos Góticos ("Gothic Fields").
Bishopric The Catholic
bishopric of Palencia was founded in the 3rd century or earlier, assuming that its bishop was among those assembled in the 3rd century to depose Basilides, bishop of Astorga.
Priscillianism, which originated in
Roman Egypt but flourished in
Iberia was declared a heresy by the emperor
Gratian. Prisciallinists held orthodox Catholic beliefs with Gnostic/Montanist influences.
Priscillian was ordained priest and then consecrated bishop of Ávila. The 'heresy' was strongest in northwestern Spain. The declaration of heresy was a political move by the Catholic usurper emperor Maximus (383-388) to curry favor with the Catholic emperors
Valentinian II and
Theodosius I (a Spaniard). After the establishment of effective Visigothic power Catholics disputed the bishopric of Palencia with the Arian Visigoths. Maurila, an Arian bishop established in Palencia by
Leovigild, followed King
Reccared's conversion to Catholicism (587), and in 589 he assisted at the
Third Council of Toledo. Bishop Conantius, the biographer of Saint
Ildephonsus, assisted at synods and councils in Toledo and composed music and a book of prayers from the Psalms; he ruled the see for more than thirty years, and had for his pupil
Fructuosus of Braga. On the eve of the expulsion, the Jews protested to the Crown that local leaders blocked the sale of their communal property, permitted under the
edict. The synagogue was eventually granted to the municipality, which planned to found a hospital, though by 1495 the building was being used as a municipal abattoir. • Iñigo López de Mendoza (1472–actually) • Fray
Alonso de Burgos (1485–1499) • Bishop Fonseca (1505–1514) • La Gasca (1550–1561) • Zapata (1569–1577) • Alvaro de Mendoza == Geography ==