Praeneste: A Study for its Restoration. 241
Soon after this the Colonnas once more reconciled themselves to
the Church, and Pope Nicholas V. (1447-1455 a.d.) gave permission to
rebuild the city. This was. done by Stefano Colonna, who also restored
the fortress on the site of the ancient acropolis (Fig. 2). His son
Francesco restored the palace.
From this time the city took on its modern aspect. The Colonnas
remained its feudal lords, though with limited rights, until 1630 a.d.,
when it passed by purchase to the Barberini family, who still keep the
title of Princes of Palestrina. The last event of historical importance
which may be said to concern the town is the defeat in the plain below
of the Bourbon troops from Naples by Garibaldi and his soldiers in 1840.1
The modern town is a dirty, picturesque place with winding streets
that break at intervals into flights of steps (Fig. 3). Built into the
walls of the many mediaeval houses that remain can be seen pieces of
cornices, friezes and architraves, while broken column drums and other
fragments are to be found in most of the gardens.
II.
The literary notices of the Temple of Fortune at Praeneste and its
oracle are very scanty. The passage in Cicero, De Divinatione, ii. 41,2
1 G. M. Trevelyan, Garibaldi’s Defence of the Roman Republic, pp. 138 ff.
2 Cicero, De Divinatione, ii. 41, 85—86: ‘ Numerium Suffustium Praenfestinorum
monumenta declarant honestum hdminem et nobilem, somnis crebris ad extremum etiam
minacibus cum iuberetur certo in loco silicem caedere, perterritum visis irridentibus suis
civibus id agere coepisse; itaque perfracto saxo sortis erupisse in robore insculptas
priscarum litterarum notis. Is est hodie locus saeptus religiose propter Jovis pueri qui
lactens cum Junone Fortunae in gremio sedens mammam appetens castissime colitur a
matribus. Eodemque tempore in eo loco ubi Fortunae nunc est aedes mel ex olea fluxisse
dicunt, haruspicesque dixisse summa nobilitate illas sortis futuras, eorumque iussu ex
ilia olea arcam esse factam eoque co'nditas sortis quae hodie Fortunae monitu tolluntur.
Quid igitur in his potest esse certi quae Fortunae monitu pueri manu miscentur atque
ducuntur ? . . . Quis robur illud cecidit, dolavit, inscripsit ? ’
' From the records of Praeneste we learn that Numerius Suffustius, a man of rank and
consideration, was ordered by frequent dreams, which at the last became threatening, to
break open the flint rock at a certain spot. Terrified by his visions he began to do this,
though his fellow-citizens laughed at him, and when the rock was shattered lots leapt
out carved in oak with the marks of ancient letters. This is the place which is now
religiously enclosed near the shrine of Jupiter Puer, who as a suckling child sits with Juno
'in the lap of Fortune seeking her breast, and is worshipped by mothers with the purest
rights. They say that at the same time honey flowed from an olive tree at the spot where
now is the Temple of Fortune, and that the haruspices declared that the lots would be
held in the greatest honour, and that at their command a chest was made of the olive