Capranica lay, that her later aqueducts came.  The outlet from Capranica back over the mountains was very difficult, and the only tillable soil within reach of that town lay to the north of Praeneste on the ridge running toward Gallicano, and on a smaller ridge which curved around toward Tibur and lay still closer to the mountains.  In short, Capranica, which never attained importance enough to be of any consequence, appears to have been always dependent upon Praeneste.

But as for Cave, that is another question.  Her friends were to the east, and there was easy access into the mountains to Sublaqueum (Subiaco) and beyond, through the splendid passes via either of the modern towns, Genazzano or Olevano.

[Illustration:  Plate II.  Praeneste, Monte Glicestro with citadel, as seen from Valle di Pepe.]

It is quite evident that Cave was never a large town, and it seems most probable that she realized that an amicable understanding with Praeneste was discreet.  This is rendered almost certain by the proof of a continuance of business relations between the two places.  The greater number of the big tombs of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. are of a peperino from Cave,[21] and a good deal of the tufa used in wall construction in Praeneste is from the quarries near Cave, as Fernique saw.[22]

Rocca di Cave, on a hill top behind Cave, is too insignificant a location to have been the cause of the lower town, which at the best does not itself occupy a very advantageous position in any way, except that it is in the line of a trade route from lower Italy.  It might be maintained with some reason that Cave was a settlement of dissatisfied merchants from Praeneste, who had gone out and established themselves on the main road for the purpose of anticipating the trade, but there is much against such an argument.

It has been shown that there were peaceable relations between Praeneste and Cave in the fifth and sixth centuries B.C., but that the two towns were on terms of equality is impossible, and that Cave was a dependency of Praeneste, and in her domain, is most unlikely both topographically and epigraphically.  And more than this, just as an ancient feud can be proved between Praeneste and Rome from the slurs on Praeneste which one finds in literature from Plautus down,[23] if no other proofs were to be had,[24] just so there is a very ancient grudge between Praeneste and Cave, which has been perpetuated and is very noticeable even at the present day.[25]

The topography of Praeneste as to the site of the city proper, and as to its territorial domain is then, about as follows.

In very early times, probably as early as the ninth or tenth century B.C., Praeneste was a town on the southern slope of Monte Glicestro,[26] with an arx on the summit.  As the town grew, it spread first to the level ground directly below, and out along the ridge west of the Valle di Pepe toward Marcigliano, because it was territory not only fertile and easily defended, being directly under the very eyes of the citizens, but also because it stretched out toward Velitrae, an old and trusted ally.[27]