Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/680

 6G4 PRAENESTE. Cincinnatus, following up his advantage, reduced eight towns which were subject to Praeneste by force of arms, and compelled the city itself to sub- mission (Liv. vi. 26 — 29). There can be little doubt that the statement of Li'y which represents this as an unqualified surrender (deditio) is one of the exaggerations so common in the early Roman history, but the inscription noticed by him, which was placed by Cincinnatus under the statue of Jupiter Imperator, certainly seems to have claimed the capture of Praeneste itself as well as its de- pendent towns. (Fest. s. v. Trientem. p. 363.) Yet the very nest year the Praenestines were again in arms, and stimulated the other Latin cities against Rome. (Liv. vi. 30.) With this exception we hear no more of them for some time; but a notice which occurs in Diodorus that they concluded a truce with Rome in B.C. 351, shows that they were still acting an independent part, and kept aloof from the other Latins. (Diod. xvi. 45.) It is, how- ever, certain that they took a prominent part in the great Latin War of b. c. 340. In the second year of that war they sent forces to the assistance of the PeJani, and, though defeated by the consul Aemilius, they continued the contest the next year together with the Tiburtines ; and it was the final defeat of their combined forces by Camillus at Pedum (b. c. 338) that eventually terminated the struggle. (Liv. viii. 12 — 14.) In the peace which ensued, the Praenestines, as well as their neighbours of Tibur, were punished by the loss of a part of their ter- ritory, but in other respects their position remained unchanged: they did not, like the other cities of Latium, receive the Roman franchise, but continued to subsist as a nominally independent state, in al- liance with the powerful republic. They furnished like the other "socii" their quota of troops on their own separate account, and the Praenestine auxili- aries are mentioned in several instances as forming a separate body. Even in the time of Polybius it ■was one of the places which retained the Jus Exilii, and could afford shelter to persons banished from Rome. (Pol. vi. 14.) On the arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy the fidelity of the Praenestines seems to have been suspected, and the Romans compelled them to deliver hostages. (Zonar. viii. 3.) Shortly afterwards Praeneste was the point from whence that monarch turned back on his advance to Rome. There is no probability that he took the town. Eutropius says merely that lie advanced to Praeneste; and the expression of Florus that he looked down upon Rome from the citadel of Praeneste is probably only a rhetorical flourish of that inaccurate writer. (Flor. ii. 18 ; Eutrop. ii. 12.) In the Second Punic War a body of Praenestine troops distinguished themselves by their gallant defence of Casilinum against Hannibal, and though ultiinately compelled to surrender, they were rewarded for their valour and fidelity by the Roman senate, while the highest honours were paid them in their native city. (Liv. xxiii. 19, 20.) It is remarkable that they refused to accept the offer of the Roman franchise; and the Praenestines in general retained their independent position till the period of the Social War, when they received the Roman franchise together with the other allies. (Appian, B. C. i. 65.) In the civil wars of Marius and Sulla, Praeneste bore an important part. It was occupied by Cinna when he was driven from Rome in b. c. 87 (Appian, £. C. i. 65) and appears to hae continued in the PRAENESTE hands of the Marian party till b. c. 82, when it afforded a shelter to the younger Marius with tlio remains of his army, after his defeat by Sulla at Sacriportus. The natural strength of the city had been greatly increased by new fortifications, so that Sulla abandoned all idea of reducing it by force of arms, and was content to draw lines of circum- vallation round it, and trust to the slower process of a blockade, the command of which he entrusted to Lucretius Ofella, while he himself carried on opera- tions in the field against the other leaders of the Marian party. Repeated attempts were made by these generals to relieve Praeneste, but without effect; and at length, after the great battle at the Colline Gate and the defeat of the Samnite general Pontius Telesinus, the inhabitants opened their gates to Ofella. Marias, despairing of safety, after a vain attempt to escape by a subterranean passage, put an end to his own life. (Appian, B. C. i. 87 — 94 ; Plut. Mar. 46, Sull. 28, 29, 32 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 26, 27 ; Liv. Epit. Ixxxvii., Ixxxviii.) The city itself was sever«ly punished ; all the citizens without distinction were put to the sword, and the town given up to plunder; its fortifications were dis- mantled, and a military colony settled by Sulla in possession of its territory. (Appian, I. c. ; Lucan, ii. 194; Strab. v. p. 239; Flor. iii. 21.) The town seems to have been at this time transferred from the hill to the plain beneath, and the temple of Fortune with its appurtenances so extended and enlarged as to occupy a great part of the site of the ancient city. (Nibby, Dintorni, vol. ii. p. 481 ; but see Bormann, Alt. Lat. Charogr. p. 207, note 429.) But the citadel .still remained, and the natural strength of the position rendered Praeneste always a place of importance as a stronghold. Hence, we find it luentioned as one of the points which Catiline was desirous to occupy, but which had been stu- diously guarded by Cicero (Cic. in Cat. i. 3); and at a later period L. Antonius retired thither in a. c. 41, on the first outbreak of his dispute with Octa- vian, and from thence endeavoured to dictate terms to his rival at Rome. F^ulvia, the wife of M. Anto- nius took refuge there at the same time. (Appian, 5. C. v. 21, 23, 29.) From this time we hear but little of Praeneste in history ; it is probable from the terms in which it is spoken of both by Strabo and Appian, that it never recovered the blow in- flicted on its prosperity by Sulla (Strab. I. c. ; Appian, B. C. i. 94); but the new colony established at that time rose again into a flourishing and con- siderable town. Its proximity to Rome and its ele- vated and healthy situation made it a favourite resort of the Romans during the sunmier, and the poets of the first century of the Empire abound in allusions to it as a cool and pleasant place of .sub- urban retirement. (Juv. iii. 190, xiv. 88 ; Martial, x. 30. 7; Stat. Silv. iv. 2. 15; Plin. Ep. v. 6. § 45 ; Hor. i. 11.) Among others it was much frequented by Augustus himself, and was a favourite place of retirement of Horace. (Suet. Aug. 72 ; Hor. Carm. iii. 4. 23, Ep. i. 2. 1.) Tiberius also recovered there from a dangerous attack of illness (Gell. N. A. xvi. 13); and Hadrian built a villa there, which, though not comparable to his celebrated villa at Tibur, was apparently on an extensive scale. It was there that the emperor JI. Aurelius was residing when he lost his son Annius Veiais, a child of seven years old. (Jul. Capit. M. Ant. 21.) Praeneste appears to have always retained its