reports sent to the censor in Rome.[245] This duty was performed by the
duovirs with quinquennial power, also often called censorial power.[246]
The inscriptions under consideration, then, would seem to date certainly
before 49 B.C.

Another reason for placing these inscriptions in the very early days of
the colony is derived from the use of names. In this list of
officials[247] there is a duovir by the name of P. Cornelius, and
another whose name is lost except for the cognomen, Dolabella, but he
can be no other than a Cornelius, for this cognomen belongs to that
family.[248] Early in the life of the colony, immediately after its
settlement, during the repairs and rebuilding of the city's
monuments,[249] while the soldiers from Sulla's army were the new
citizens of the town, would be the time to look for men in the city
offices whose election would have been due to Sulla, or would at least
appear to have been a compliment to him. Sulla was one of the most
famous of the family of the Cornelii, and men of the gens Cornelia might
well have expected preferment during the early years of the colony. That
such was the case is shown here by the recurrence of the name Cornelius
in the list of municipal officers in two succeeding years. Now if the
name "Cornelia" grew to be a name in great disfavor in Praeneste, the
reason would be plain enough. The destruction of the town, the loss of
its ancient liberties, and the change in its government, are more than
enough to assure hatred of the man who had been the cause of the
disasters. And there is proof too that the Praenestines did keep a
lasting dislike to the name "Cornelia." There are many inscriptions of
Praeneste which show the names (nomina) Aelia, Antonia, Aurelia,
Claudia, Flavia, Iulia, Iunia, Marcia, Petronia, Valeria, among others,
but besides the two Cornelii in this inscription under consideration,
and one other[250] mentioned in the fragment above (see note 83), there