From the earliest times, when the overland trade between Upper Etruria, Magna Græcia, and Lower Etruria came up the Liris valley, and touching Præneste and Tibur crossed the river Tiber miles above Rome, that energetic little settlement looked with longing on the city that commanded the splendid valley between the Sabine and Volscian mountains. Rome turned her conquests in the direction of her longings, but could get no further than Gabii. Præneste and Tibur were too strongly situated, and too closely connected with the fierce mountaineers of the interior,[[158]] and Rome was glad to make treaties with them on equal terms.
Rome, however, made the most of her opportunities. Her trade up and down the river increased, and at the same time brought her in touch with other nations more and more. Her political importance grew rapidly, and it was not long before she began to assume the primacy among the towns of the Latin league. This assumption of a leadership practically hers already was disputed by only one city. This was Præneste, and there can be no doubt but that if Præneste had possessed anything approaching the same commercial facilities in way of communication by water she would have been Rome's greatest rival. As late as 374 B.C. Præneste was alone an opponent worthy of Rome.[[159]]
As head of a league of nine cities,[[160]] and allied with Tibur, which also headed a small confederacy,[[161]] Præneste felt herself strong enough to defy the other cities of the league,[[162]] and in fact even to play fast and loose with Rome, as Rome kept or transgressed the stipulations of their agreements. Rome, however, took advantage of Præneste at every opportunity. She assumed control of some of her land in 338 B.C., on the ground that Præneste helped the Gauls in 390;[[163]] she showed her jealousy of Præneste by refusing to allow Quintus Lutatius Cerco to consult the lots there during the first Punic war.[[164]] This jealousy manifested itself again in the way the leader of a contingent from Præneste was treated by a Roman dictator[[165]] in 319 B.C. But while these isolated outbursts of jealousy showed the ill feeling of Rome toward Præneste, there is yet a stronger evidence of the fact that Præneste had been in early times more than Rome's equal, for through the entire subsequent history of the aggrandizement of Rome at the expense of every other town in the Latin League, there runs a bitterness which finds expression in the slurs cast upon Præneste, an ever-recurring reminder of the centuries of ancient grudge. Often in Roman literature Præneste is mentioned as the typical country town. Her inhabitants are laughed at because of their bad pronunciation, despised and pitied because of their characteristic combination of pride and rusticity. Yet despite the dwindling fortunes of the town she was able to keep a treaty with Rome on nearly equal terms until 90 B.C., the year in which the Julian law was passed.[[166]] Præneste scornfully refused Roman citizenship in 216 B.C., when it was offered.[[167]] This refusal Rome never forgot nor forgave. No Prænestine families seem to have been taken into the Roman patriciate, as were some from Alba Longa,[[168]] nor did Præneste ever send any citizens of note to Rome, who were honored as was Cato from Tusculum,[[169]] although one branch of the gens Anicia[[170]] did gain some reputation in imperial times. Rome and Præneste seemed destined to be ever at cross purposes, and their ancient rivalry grew to be a traditional dislike which remained mutual and lasting.
The continuance of the commercial and military rivalry because of Præneste's strategic position as key of Rome, and the religious rivalry due to the great fame of Fortuna Primigenia at Præneste, are continuous and striking historical facts even down into the middle ages. Once in 1297 and again in 1437 the forces of the Pope destroyed the town to crush the great Colonna family which had made Præneste a stronghold against the power of Rome.
There are a great many reasons why Præneste offers the best opportunity for a study of the municipal officers of a town of the Latin league. She kept a practical autonomy longer than any other of the league towns with the exception of Tibur, but she has a much more varied history than Tibur. The inscriptions of Præneste offer especial advantages, because they are numerous and cover a wide range. The great number of the old pigne inscriptions gives a better list of names of the citizens of the second century B.C. and earlier than can be found in any other Latin town.[[171]] Præneste also has more municipal fasti preserved than any other city, and this fact alone is sufficient reason for a study of municipal officers. In fact, the position which Præneste held during the rise and fall of the Latin League has distinct differences from that of any other town in the confederation, and these differences are to be seen in every stage of her history, whether as an ally, a municipium, or a colonia.
As an ally of Rome, Præneste did not have a curtailed treaty as did Alba Longa,[[172]] but one on equal terms (foedus æquum), such as was accorded to a sovereign state. This is proved by the right of exile which both Præneste and Tibur still retained until as late as 90 B.C.[[173]]
As a municipium, the rights of Præneste were shared by only one other city in the league. She was not a municipium which, like Lanuvium and Tusculum,[[174]] kept a separate state, but whose citizens, although called Roman citizens, were without right to vote, nor, on the other hand, was she in the class of municipia of which Aricia is a type, towns which had no vote in Rome, but were governed from there like a city ward.[[175]] Præneste, on the contrary, belonged to yet a third class. This was the most favored class of all; in fact, equality was implicit in the agreement with Rome, which was to the effect that when these cities joined the Roman state, the inhabitants were to be, first of all, citizens of their own states.[[176]] Præneste shared this extraordinary agreement with Rome with but one other Latin city, Tibur. The question whether or not Præneste was ever a municipium in the technical and constitutional sense of the word is apart from the present discussion, and will be taken up later.[[177]]
As a colony, Præneste has a different history from that of any other of the colonies founded by Sulla. Because of her stubborn defence, and her partisanship for Marius, her walls were razed and her citizens murdered in numbers almost beyond belief. Yet at a later time, Sulla with a revulsion of kindness quite characteristic of him, rebuilt the town, enlarged it, and was most generous in every way. The sentiment which attached to the famous antiquity and renown of Præneste was too strong to allow it to lie in ruins. Further, in colonies the most characteristic officers were the quattuorviri. Præneste, again different, shows no trace of such officers.
Indeed, at all times during the history of Latium, Præneste clearly had a city government different from that of any other in the old Latin League. For example, before the Social War[[178]] both Præneste and Tibur had ædiles and quæstors, but Tibur also had censors,[[179]] Præneste did not. Lavinium[[180]] and Præneste were alike in that they both had prætors. There were dictators in Aricia,[[181]] Lanuvium,[[182]] Nomentum,[[183]] and Tusculum,[[184]] but no trace of a dictator in Præneste.
The first mention of a magistrate from Præneste, a prætor, in 319 B.C, is due to a joke of the Roman dictator Papirius Cursor.[[185]] The prætor was in camp as leader of the contingent of allies from Præneste,[[186]] and the fact that a prætor was in command of the troops sent from allied towns[[187]] implies that another prætor was at the head of affairs at home. Another and stronger proof of the government by two prætors is afforded by the later duoviral magistracy, and the lack of friction under such an arrangement.