bill was offered and passed in 90 B.C. This was
the famous law (lex Iulia) which applied to all Italian states that had
not revolted, or had stopped their revolt, and it offered Roman
citizenship (civitas) to all such states, with, however, the remarkable
provision, IF THEY DESIRED IT.[204] At all events, this law either did
not meet the needs of the occasion, or some of the allied states showed
no eagerness to accept Rome's offer. Within a few months after the lex
Iulia had gone into effect, which was late in the year 90, the lex
Plautia Papiria was passed, which offered Roman citizenship to the
citizens (cives et incolae) of the federated cities, provided they
handed in their names within sixty days to the city praetor in
Rome.[205]

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 ci