alternatehistory.com

One of the most curious pieces of Lithuanian literature produced in the second part of the 15th century is what is nowadays referred to "The Myth of Palemon". First found in official manuscripts of the Chronicle of Lithuania dating from that era, the Myth of Palemon is the first ever known "official" theory on the origin of the Lithuanian nation, and as soon became tradition, a highly politicized one with truth bent for the sake of a goal. The goal in this particular case was to strengthen the claim that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had for being of the successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, a title that was highly contested between this nation, the Ottoman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire and other small Orthodox states. At that point, the only real claim that Lithuania had was that it was the strongest Orthodox nation around. It did not hold Constantinople, Rome or any of former Roman territory. It's rulers did not even have any blood relation to the Romans.

...Or did they?

This was what the Myth of Palemon was set out to disprove - it was a short tale, partially compiled from Lithuanian mythology, partially made up, partially created from historical information. The "main character" of the tale was named Palemonas (Palemon), a powerful Roman noble from Asia Minor, whom modern historians and mythologists usually connect to a real life Roman duke from the 2nd century, Polemon II of Pontus. This connection is even strengthened by the fact that the mythological Palemon and the real Palemon were both relatives of Emperor Nero. Alongside that, some also connect him to Publius Lentulus, one of Pompey's comrades.

The story of the legendary Palemon, the supposed first ruler of Lithuania, is as follows, mostly transcribed from later editions of the Chronicle:

Palemon was a powerful Roman duke and patrician, relative of Emperor Nero and controller of lots of lands in Anatolia, Asia and Thrace, but after a major quarrel with the reigning Emperor and a failed attempt at a civil war, he fled the Roman Empire with thousands of his followers, all of them of gentle birth, and sailed north. He eventually reached the banks of the Nemunas River, which he sailed upwards until settling down in the heart of this new land. This is where he built his capital, and named the region he settled in after his homeland Italy - "Litalia", which later transformed into Lithuania after centuries of time had passed. Palemon had many children, and his descendants, the Palemonids, were the first ruling dynasty of Lithuania, and the Roman refugees with him gave birth to all noble dynasties and families of the Lithuanians. The Chronicle provided a long family tree, which descended all the way from Palemon and Nero, and thus from Octavianus Augustus, the first Roman emperor, all the way to the Gediminids and finally to the Grand Duke of the time, Algirdas II, which confirmed the time when the story was written.

This tale was immediately popularized among the nobility of the Lithuanian nation, and many magnate families of the time, like the Radvilos, Goštautai and Kęsgailos, edited their family trees to include Palemonids as their ultimate ancestors. The myth of Palemon, and the claim that the Lithuanian nation are quite literally direct descendants of the Romans helped Algirdas II with his declaration of Vilnius and Lithuania being the Third Rome. Later writers would provide even more proof for this claim, like the discovery of Roman coins and artifacs deep in Lithuania's swamps, and Andrius Volanas (Andrey Wolan, Andreas Volanus), despite supposedly hating the Palemon theory as "the ultimate tip of noble arrogance and pride", provided proof in the similarities between Latin and Lithuanian languages.

It should be noted that the myth of Palemon declared that only the nobility descends from the Romans. In a way, it claimed that the Lithuanians were composed of two nations in total - the Roman nobles and the local Baltic peasantry. The Lithuanians called themselves the Children of Palemon for two centuries, before this theory was slowly glossed out of public view and more accurate ideas were being proposed. It is a false theory from the start, with numerous holes in logic and no known historical basis, but it remains as an important symbol of the arriving Lithuanian Renaissance - the Lithuanians quite literally declared themselves as the successors of the Romans, the closest one could ever get to reviving Antiquity culture and ideals.

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I really wanted to sometimes do special chapters detailing events and developments that wouldn't really fit in the normal updates themselves, so here you go. Expect these to sometimes happen, though not as often as regular chapters.

This is based and mostly copied from the OTL Myth of Palemon. It happened. Yes, we did indeed call ourselves Romans by blood. Check your privilege.