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 Praeneste was too strong
to allow it to lie in ruins. Further, in colonies the most
characteristic officers were the quattuorviri. Praeneste, again
different, shows no trace of such officers.

Indeed, at all times during the history of Latium, Praeneste clearly had
a city government different from that of any other in the old Latin
League. For example, before the Social War[178] both Praeneste and Tibur
had aediles and quaestors, but Tibur also had censors,[179] Praeneste
did not. Lavinium[180] and Praeneste were alike in that they both had
praetors. There were dictators in Aricia,[181] Lanuvium,[182]
Nomentum,[183] and Tusculum,[184] but no trace of a dictator in
Praeneste.

The first mention of a magistrate from Praeneste, a praetor, in 319 B.C,
is due to a joke of the Roman dictator Papirius Cursor.[185] The praetor
was in camp as leader of the contingent of allies from Praeneste,[186]
and the fact that a praetor was in command of the troops sent from
allied towns[187] implies that another praetor was at the head of
affairs at home. Another and stronger proof of the government by two
praetors is afforded by the later duoviral magistracy, and the lack of
friction under such an arrangement.

There is no reason to believe that the Latin towns took as models for
their early municipal officers, the consuls at Rome, rather than to
believe that the reverse was the case. In fact, the change in Rome to