There is no unanimity of opinion as to the status of Praeneste in 90
B.C. The reason is twofold. It has never been shown whether Praeneste at
this time belonged technically to the Latins (Latini) or to the allies
(foederati), and it is not known under which of the two laws just
mentioned she took Roman citizenship. In 338 B.C., after the close of
the Latin war, Praeneste and Tibur made either a special treaty[206]
with Rome, as seems most likely, or one in which the old status quo was
reaffirmed. In 268 B.C. Praeneste lost one right of federated cities,
that of coinage,[207] but continued to hold the right of a sovereign
city, that of exile (ius exilii) in 171 B.C.,[208] in common with Tibur
and Naples,[209] and on down to the year 90 at any rate (see note 9). It
is to be remembered too that in the year 216 B.C., after the heroic
deeds of the Praenestine cohort at Casilinum, the inhabitants of
Praeneste were offered Roman citizenship, and that they refused it.[210]
Now if the citizens of Praeneste accepted Roman citizenship in 90 B.C.,
under the conditions of the Julian law (lex Iulia de civitate sociis
danda), then they were still called allies (socii) at that time.[211]
But that the provision in the law, namely, citizenship, if the allies
desired it, did not accomplish its purpose, is clear from the immediate
passage in 89 of the lex Plautia-Papiria.[212] Probably there was some
change of phraseology which was obnoxious in the Iulia. The traditional
touchiness and pride of the Praenestines makes it sure that they
resisted Roman citizenship as long as they could, and it seems more
likely that it was under the provision of the Plautia-Papiria than under
those of the Iulia that separate citizenship in Praeneste became a
thing of the past. Two years later, in 87 B.C., when, because of the
troubles between the two consuls Cinna and Octavius, Cinna had been
driven from Rome, he went out directly to Praeneste and Tibur, which had
lately been received into citizenship,[213] tried to get them to revolt