Diana Raiano

Recent finds cast new light on the urban planning of the lower town of Praeneste. By examining the new information and revising old data, this contribution concentrates especially on the topography of Praeneste’s second forum, also known as the forum of Sulla. The uncritical acceptance of earlier arguments had made the existence of a second forum in the city a confirmed theory. The re-examination of these arguments, however, draws a different picture, which contains more nuances and less certainty regarding the location, the chronology and, ultimately, the very existence of a second forum. An in-depth study of the find spots of the inscriptions has shown, for example, the wide dispersion of the inscriptions in various parts of the lower city. As a consequence, these inscriptions were not associated with a specific topographical value as published in an important place as a forum. This is also true for the fragments of the Fasti. The inscriptions are therefore no argument to identify the area of the lower town under review as a second forum. The analysis of archaeological structures of this area may give way to a different interpretation. The space around the church of Madonna dell'Aquila provides the basis to propose a planimetric reconstruction of the public baths of Praeneste. Baths used to be one of the preferred places for the display of honorary inscribed bases with statues and portraits. Such honorific monuments are often interpreted as forum-related, so this would be an argument for the existence of a second forum in the lower town of Praeneste. However, a review of the urban layout of the lower town has shown little that allows linking the theory of a second forum to the dedication of the colony after 82 BCE, and of this part of the city to the period of Sulla’s domination: More than ever we should ask if a second forum in the lower town of Praeneste ever existed.

Recent finds cast new light on the urban planning of the lower town of Praeneste. By examining the new information and revising old data, this contribution concentrates especially on the topography of Praeneste’s second forum, also known as the forum of Sulla. The uncritical acceptance of earlier arguments had made the existence of a second forum in the city a confirmed theory. The re-examination of these arguments, however, draws a different picture, which contains more nuances and less certainty regarding the location, the chronology and, ultimately, the very existence of a second forum. An in-depth study of the find spots of the inscriptions has shown, for example, the wide dispersion of the inscriptions in various parts of the lower city. As a consequence, these inscriptions were not associated with a specific topographical value as published in an important place as a forum. This is also true for the fragments of the Fasti. The inscriptions are therefore no argument to identify the area of the lower town under review as a second forum. The analysis of archaeological structures of this area may give way to a different interpretation. The space around the church of Madonna dell'Aquila provides the basis to propose a planimetric reconstruction of the public baths of Praeneste. Baths used to be one of the preferred places for the display of honorary inscribed bases with statues and portraits. Such honorific monuments are often interpreted as forum-related, so this would be an argument for the existence of a second forum in the lower town of Praeneste. However, a review of the urban layout of the lower town has shown little that allows linking the theory of a second forum to the dedication of the colony after 82 BCE, and of this part of the city to the period of Sulla’s domination: More than ever we should ask if a second forum in the lower town of Praeneste ever existed.

As part of a doctoral research on the form of the lower city of Praeneste (current Palestrina, RM), archaeological evidence that has been little known or never published has been surveyed and analyzed, allowing us to identify a complex system of supply, water supply and disposal of the waste waters of the ancient city, with attestations documented from the III century BC since the full imperial age.
As evidence of the prenestino hydraulic system, there are variuos structures related to aqueducts, cisterns, swimming pools, reservoirs, nymphaeums, tunnels, wells and sewage systems.
Regarding these last ones , essential in a city characterized by considerable differences in height and very rich in water (spring and rain), several segments have been traced and documented, including five archaeological excavations and two archival documents. The identified sewerage stretches, realized in different building techniques and pertinent both to residential complexes and to public structures, turn out to be the result of urban planning, already begun in the 2nd century BC. and continued in the following century, which covers the entire city and the plateau below.

Since 2009 the Educational Service of the National Archaeological Museum of Palestrina has been offering a series of projects involving local primary schools which have focused on the educational relationship between pupils and Museum. One of the main goals was that of fostering interest amongst pupils in the history and archaeology of the ancient city of Praeneste, developing a kind of " visual pleasure culture " in the most pleasant and accessible way. The project has proposed new, more direct ways of approaching the artifacts on display, encouraging pupils to establish a connection between life in ancient times and their own daily experience.