her cities of the league,[162] and in fact even to
play fast and loose with Rome, as Rome kept or transgressed the
stipulations of their agreements. Rome, however, took advantage of
Praeneste at every opportunity. She assumed control of some of her land
in 338 B.C., on the ground that Praeneste helped the Gauls in 390;[163]
she showed her jealousy of Praeneste by refusing to allow Quintus
Lutatius Cerco to consult the lots there during the first Punic
war.[164] This jealousy manifested itself again in the way the leader of
a contingent from Praeneste was treated by a Roman dictator[165] in 319
B.C. But while these isolated outbursts of jealousy showed the ill
feeling of Rome toward Praeneste, there is yet a stronger evidence of
the fact that Praeneste had been in early times more than Rome's equal,
for through the entire subsequent history of the aggrandizement of Rome
at the expense of every other town in the Latin League, there runs a
bitterness which finds expression in the slurs cast upon Praeneste, an
ever-recurring reminder of the centuries of ancient grudge. Often in
Roman literature Praeneste is mentioned as the typical country town. Her
inhabitants are laughed at because of their bad pronunciation, despised
and pitied because of their characteristic combination of pride and
rusticity. Yet despite the dwindling fortunes of the town she was able
to keep a treaty with Rome on nearly equal terms until 90 B.C., the year
in which the Julian law was passed.[166] Praeneste scornfully refused
Roman citizenship in 216 B.C., when it was offered.[167] This refusal
Rome never forgot nor forgave. No Praenestine families seem to have been
taken into the Roman patriciate, as were some from Alba Longa,[168] nor
did Praeneste ever send any citizens of note to Rome, who were honored
as was Cato from Tusculum,[169] although one branch of the gens
Anicia[170] did gain some reputation in imperial times. Rome and
Praeneste seemed destined to be ever at cross purposes, and their
ancient rivalry grew to be a traditional dislike which remained mutual
and lasting.

The continuance of the commercial and military rivalry because of
Praeneste's strategic position as key of Rome, and the religious rivalry
due to the great fame of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, are continuous
and striking historical facts even down into the middle ages. Once in
1297 and again in 1437 the forces of the Pope destroyed the town to
crush the great Colonna famil