tizenship 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
again from Rome, and collected money for the prosecution of the war.
This not only shows that Praeneste had lately received Roman
citizenship, but implies also that Rome thus far had not dared to assume
any control of the city, or the consul would not have felt so sure of
his reception.

WAS PRAENESTE A MUNICIPIUM?

Just what relation Praeneste bore to Rome between 90 or 89 B.C., when
she accepted Roman citizenship, and 82 B.C. when Sulla made her a
colony, is still an unsettled question. Was Praeneste made a municipium
by Rome, did Praeneste call herself a municipium, or, because the rights
which she enjoyed and guarded as an ally (civitas foederata) had been
so restricted and curtailed, was she called and considered a municipium
by Rome, but allowed to keep the empty substance of the name of an
allied state?

During the development which followed the gradual extension of Roman
citizenship to the inhabitants of Italy, because of the increase of the
rights of autonomy in the colonies, and the limitation of the rights
formerly enjoyed by the cities which had belonged to the old
confederation or league (foederati), there came to be small difference
between a colonia and a municipium. While the nominal difference seems
to have still held in legal parlance, in the literature the two names
are often interchanged.[214] Mommsen-Marquardt say[215] that in 90 B.C.
under the conditions of the lex Iulia Praeneste became a municipium of
the type which kept its own citizenship (ut municipes essent suae
cuiusque civitatis).[216] But if this were true, then Praeneste would
have come under the jurisdiction of the city praetor (praetor urbanus)
in Rome, and there would be praefects to look after cases for him.
Praeneste has a very large body of inscriptions which extend from the
earliest to the latest times, and which are wider in range than those of
any other town in Latium outside Rome. But no inscription mentions a
praefect and here under the circumstances the argumentum ex silentio is
of real constructive value, and constitutes circumstantial evidence of
great weight.[217] Praeneste had lost her ancient rights one after