The Distribution of Offices
The beginning of this question comes from a passage in Cicero,231 which says that the Sullan colonists in Pompeii were preferred in the offices, and had a status of citizenship better than that of the old inhabitants of the city. Such a state of affairs might also seem natural in a colony which had just been deprived of one third of its land, and had had forced upon it as citizens a troop of soldiers who naturally would desire to keep the city offices as far as possible in their own control.232 Dessau thinks that because this unequal state of citizenship was found in Pompeii, which was a colony of Sulla’s, it must have been found also in Præneste, another of his colonies.233 Before entering into the question of whether or not this can be proved, it will be well to mention three probable reasons why Dessau is wrong in his contention. The first, an argumentum ex silentio, is that if there was trouble in Pompeii between the old inhabitants and the new colonists then the same would have been true in Præneste! As it was so close to Rome, however, the trouble would have been much better known, and certainly Cicero would not have lost a chance to bring the state of affairs at Præneste also into a comparison. Second, the great pains Sulla took to rebuild the walls of Præneste, to lay out a new forum, and especially to make such an extensive enlargement and so many repairs of the temple of Fortuna Primigenia, show that his efforts were not entirely to please his new colonists, but just as much to try to defer to the wishes and civic pride of the old settlers. Third, the fact that a great many of the old inhabitants were left, despite the great slaughter at the capture of the city, is shown by the frequent recurrence in later inscriptions of the ancient names of the city, and by the fact that within twenty years the property of the soldier colonists had been bought up,234 and the soldiers had died, or had moved to town, or reenlisted for foreign service. Had there been much trouble between the colonists and the old inhabitants, or had the colonists taken all the offices, in either case they would not have been so ready to part with their land, which was a sort of patent to citizenship.
It is possible now to push the inquiry a point further. Dessau has already seen235 that in the time of Augustus members of the old families were again in possession of many municipal offices, but he thinks the Prænestines did not have as good municipal rights as the colonists in the years following the establishment of the colony. There are six inscriptions236 which contain lists more or less fragmentary of the magistrates of Præneste, the duovirs, the ædiles, and the quæstors. Two of these inscriptions can be dated within a few years, for they show the election of Germanicus and Drusus Cæsar, and of Nero and Drusus, the sons of Germanicus, to the quinquennial duovirate.237 Two others238 are certainly pieces of the same fasti because of several peculiarities,239 and one other, a fragment, belongs to still another calendar.240 It will first be necessary to show that these last-mentioned inscriptions can be referred to some time not much later than the founding of the colony at Præneste by Sulla, before any use can be made of the names in the list to prove anything about the early distribution of officers in the colony. Two of these inscriptions238 should be placed, I think, very early in the annals of the colony. They show a list of municipal officers whose names, with a single exception, which will be accounted for later, have only prænomen and nomen, a way of writing names which was common to the earlier inhabitants of Præneste, and which seems to have made itself felt here in the names of the colonists.241 Again, from the fact that in the only place in the inscriptions where the quinquennialship is mentioned, it is the simple term, without the prefixed duoviri. In the later inscriptions from imperial times,237 both forms are found, while in the year 31 A.D. in the municipal fasti of Nola242 are found II vir(i) iter(um) q(uinquennales), and in 29 B.C. in the fasti from Venusia,243 officials with the same title, duoviri quinquennales, which show that the officers of the year in which the census was taken were given both titles. Marquardt makes this a proof that the quinquennial title shows nothing more than a function of the regular duovir.244 It is certain too that after the passage of the lex Iulia in 45 B.C., that the census was taken in the Italian towns at the same time as in Rome, and the 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 officials247 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 Præneste, 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 Prænestines did keep a lasting dislike to the name “Cornelia.” There are many inscriptions of Præneste which show the names (nomina) Ælia, Antonia, Aurelia, Claudia, Flavia, Iulia, Iunia, Marcia, Petronia, Valeria, among others, but besides the two Cornelii in this inscription under consideration, and one other250 mentioned in the fragment above (see note 83), there are practically no people of that name found in Præneste,251 and the name is frequent enough in other towns of the old Latin league. From these reasons, namely, the way in which only prænomina and nomina are used, the simple, earlier use of quinquennalis, and especially the appearance of the name Cornelius here, and never again until in the late empire, it follows that the names of the municipal officers of Præneste given in these inscriptions certainly date between 81 and 50 B.C.252