Rocca di Cave, on a hill top behind Cave, is too insignificant a
location to have been the cause of the lower town, which at the best
does not itself occupy a very advantageous position in any way, except
that it is in the line of a trade route from lower Italy. It might be
maintained with some reason that Cave was a settlement of dissatisfied
merchants from Praeneste, who had gone out and established themselves on
the main road for the purpose of anticipating the trade, but there is
much against such an argument.

It has been shown that there were peaceable relations between Praeneste
and Cave in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C., but that the two towns
were on terms of equality is impossible, and that Cave was a dependency
of Praeneste, and in her domain, is most unlikely both topographically
and epigraphically. And more than this, just as an ancient feud can be
proved between Praeneste and Rome from the slurs on Praeneste which one
finds in literature from Plautus down,[23] if no other proofs were to be
had,[24] just so there is a very ancient grudge between Praeneste and
Cave, which has been perpetuated and is very noticeable even at the
present day.[25]

The topography of Praeneste as to the site of the city proper, and as to
its territorial domain is then, about as follows.

In very early times, probably as early as the ninth or tenth century
B.C., Praeneste was a town on the southern slope of Monte Glicestro,[26]
with an arx on the summit. As the town grew, it spread first to the
level ground directly below, and out along the ridge west of the Valle
di Pepe toward Marcigliano, because it was territory not only fertile
and easily defended, being directly under the very eyes of the citizens,