A great companion while reading Roman history.
rome
The Origin of the Word “Palace”
With the Second Triumvirate and Octavian’s growing domination of the political scene, a gradual change could be detected. Politics moved from the noisy open square up to a complex of houses on the fashionable Palatine Hill, where Octavian and Livia lived and worked. From “Palatine” derives the word “palace,” meaning that enclosed space where autocrats make decisions in private.
Anthony Everitt in Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor
Fascinating.