uated, but belonging rather to Valmontone, which
was better suited for neutral ground or to act as a buffer to the
southeast. We turn to mention this ridge again as territory
topographically outside Praeneste's domain, in order to say more
forcibly that one must cross still another valley and stream before
reaching the territory of Cave, and so Cave, although dependent upon
Praeneste, by reason of its size and interests, was not a dependent city
of Praeneste, nor was it a part of her domain.[30]

In short, to describe Praeneste, that famous town of Latium, and her
domain in a true if homely way, she was an ancient and proud city whose
territory was a commanding mountain and a number of ridges running out
from it, which spread out like a fan all the way from the Fosso
dell'Ospedalato (the depression shown in plate II) to the Sabine
mountains on the north.

THE CITY, ITS WALLS AND GATES.

The general supposition has been that the earliest inhabitants of
Praeneste lived only in the citadel on top of the hill. This theory is
supported by the fact that there is room enough, and, as will be shown
below, there was in early times plenty of water there; nevertheless it
is certain that this was not the whole of the site of the early city.

The earliest inhabitants of Praeneste needed first of all, safety, then
a place for pasturage, and withal, to be as close to the fertile land at
the foot of the mountain as possible. The first thing the inhabitants of
the new city did was to build a wall. There is still a little of this
oldest wall in the circuit about the citadel, and it was built at
exactly the same time as the lower part of the double walls that extend
down the southern slope of the mountain on each side of the upper part
of the modern town. It happens that by following the edges of the slope
of this southern face of the mountain down to a certain point, one
realizes that even without a wall the place would be practically
impregnable. Add to this the fact that all the stones necessary for a
wall were obtained during the scarping of the arx on the side toward the
Sabines,[31] and needed only to be rolled down, not up, to their places
in the wall, which made the task a very easy one comparatively. Now if a
place can be found which is naturally a suitable place for a lower cross
wall, we shall have what an ancient site demanded; first, safety,
because the site now proposed is just as impregnable as the citadel
itself, and