City
Preneste
Palestrina
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Praeneste, today's Palestrina about thirty-six kilometres from Rome, climbed a high, steep rock, which is why the poets Virgil and Horace called it lofty or cool. The Roman writer Pliny adds that it was once called Stephane. The town was famous for its sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, with an oracle that answered by drawing lots, and the modern town is built in rising terraces on the temple's remains. Its apsed hall yielded the celebrated Nile mosaic. Marius died here, and emperors and Rome's high society came up for the summer.