5] This reservoir, like the one in
the Barberini garden, served the double purpose of a storage for water,
and of a foundation for the terrace, which, being thus widened, offered
more space for street and buildings above. It lies west of the basilica,
but has no connection with the temple. From its position it seems rather
to have been one of the secret public water supplies.[96]

Praeneste had in early times only one spring within the city walls,
just inside the gate leading into the arx. There were other springs on
the mountain to the east and northeast, but too far away to be included
within the walls. Because of their height above the valley, they were to
a certain extent available even in times of warfare and siege. As the
upper spring dried up early, and the others were a little precarious, an
elaborate system of reservoirs was developed, a plan which the natural
terraces of the mountain slope invited, and a plan which gave more space
to the town itself with the work of leveling necessary for the
reservoirs. These reservoirs were all public property. They were at
first dependent upon collection from rains or from spring water carried
in from outside the city walls. Later, however, aqueducts were made and
connected with the reservoirs.

With the expansion of the town to the plain below, this system gave
great opportunity for the development of baths, fountains, and
waterworks,[97] for Praeneste wished to vie with Tibur and Rome, where
the Anio river and the many aqueducts had made possible great things for
public use and municipal adornment.

THE TEMPLE OF FORTUNA PRIMIGENIA.

Nusquam se fortunatiorem quam Praeneste vidisse Fortunam.[98] In this
way Cicero reports a popular saying which makes clear the fame of the
goddess Fortuna Primigenia and her temple at Praeneste.[99]

The excavations at Praeneste in the eighteenth century brought the city
again into prominence, and from that time to the present, Praeneste has
offered much material for archaeologists and historians.

But the temple of Fortuna has constituted the principal interest and
engaged the particular attention of everyone who has worked upon the
history of the town, because the early enthusiastic view was that the
temple occupied the whole slope of the mountain,[100] and that the
present city was built on the terraces and in the ruins of the temple.
Every successive study, however, of the city from a topographical point
of view has lessened more