A Study of the Topography and Municipal History of PraenesteMagoffin, Ralph Van Deman
History
A Study of the Topography and Municipal History of Praeneste
Magoffin, Ralph Van Deman
Palestrina (Italy)
The question now arises whether the new colonists had better rights
legally than the old citizens, and whether they had the majority of
votes and elected city officers from their own number. The inscriptions
with which we have to deal are both fragments of lists of city officers,
and in the longer of the two, one gives the officers for four years, the
corresponding column for two years and part of a third. A Dolabella,
who belongs to the gens Cornelia, as we have seen, heads the list as
duovir. The aedile for the same year is a certain Rotanius.[253] This
name is not found in the sepulchral inscriptions of the city of Rome,
nor in the inscriptions of Praeneste except in this one instance. This
man is certainly one of the new colonists, and probably a soldier from
North Italy.[254] Both the quaestors of the same year are given. They
are M. Samiarius and Q. Flavius. Samiarius is one of the famous old
names of Praeneste.[255] In the same way, the duovirs of the next year,
C. Messienus and P. Cornelius, belong, the one to Praeneste, the other
to the colonists,[256] and just such an arrangement is also found in
the aediles, Sex. Caesius being a Praenestine[257], L. Nassius a
colonist. Q. Caleius and C. Sertorius, the quaestors of the same year,
do not appear in the inscriptions of Praeneste except here, and it is
impossible to say more than that Sertorius is a good Roman name, and
Caleius a good north Italian one.[258] C. Salvius and T. Lucretius,
duovirs for the next year, the recurrence of Salvius in another
inscription,[259] L. Curtius and C. Vibius, the aediles,--Statiolenus
and C. Cassius, the quaestors, show the same phenomenon, for it seems
quite possible from other inscriptional evidence to claim Salvius,
Vibius,[260] and Statiolenus[261] as men from the old families of
Praeneste. The quinquennalis for the next year, M. Petronius, has a name
too widely prevalent to allow any certainty as to his native place, but
the nomen Petronia and Ptronia is an old name in Praeneste.[262] In the
second column of the inscription, although the majority of the names
there seem to belong to the new colonists, as those in the first column
do to the old settlers, there are two names, Q. Arrasidius and T.
Apponius, which do not make for the argument either way.[263] In the
smaller fragment there are but six names: M. Decumius and L.
Ferlidius, C. Paccius and C. Ninn(ius), C. Albinius and Sex. Capivas,
but from these one gets only good probabilities. The nomen Decumia is
well attested in Praeneste before the time of Sulla.[264] In fact the
same name, M. Decumius, is among the old pigne inscriptions.[265] Paccia
has been found this past year in Praenestine territory, and may well be
an old Praenestine name, for the inscriptions of a family of the name
Paccia have come to light at Gallicano.[266] Capivas is at least not a
Roman name,[267] but from its scarcity in other places can as well be
one of the names that are so frequent in Praeneste, which show Etruscan
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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