31 A.D. in the municipal fasti of Nola[242] are found II vir(i) iter(um) q(uinquennales), and in 29 B.C. in the fasti from Venusia,[243] officials with the same title, duoviri quinquennales, which show that the officers of the year in which the census was taken were given both titles.  Marquardt makes this a proof that the quinquennial title shows nothing more than a function of the regular duovir.[244] It is certain too that after the passage of the lex Iulia in 45 B.C., that the census was taken in the Italian towns at the same time as in Rome, and the reports sent to the censor in Rome.[245] This duty was performed by the duovirs with quinquennial power, also often called censorial power.[246] The inscriptions under consideration, then, would seem to date certainly before 49 B.C.

Another reason for placing these inscriptions in the very early days of the colony is derived from the use of names.  In this list of officials[247] there is a duovir by the name of P. Cornelius, and another whose name is lost except for the cognomen, Dolabella, but he can be no other than a Cornelius, for this cognomen belongs to that family.[248] Early in the life of the colony, immediately after its settlement, during the repairs and rebuilding of the city’s monuments,[249] while the soldiers from Sulla’s army were the new citizens of the town, would be the time to look for men in the city offices whose election would have been due to Sulla, or would at least appear to have been a compliment to him.  Sulla was one of the most famous of the family of the Cornelii, and men of the gens Cornelia might well have expected preferment during the early years of the colony.  That such was the case is shown here by the recurrence of the name Cornelius in the list of municipal officers in two succeeding years.  Now if the name “Cornelia” grew to be a name in great disfavor in Praeneste, the reason would be plain enough.  The destruction of the town, the loss of its ancient liberties, and the change in its government, are more than enough to assure hatred of the man who had been the cause of the disasters.  And there is proof too that the Praenestines did keep a lasting dislike to the name “Cornelia.”  There are many inscriptions of Praeneste which show the names (nomina) Aelia, Antonia, Aurelia, Claudia, Flavia, Iulia, Iunia, Marcia, Petronia, Valeria, among others, but besides the two Cornelii in this inscription under consideration, and one other[250] mentioned in the fragment above (see note 83), there are practically no people of that name found in Praeneste,[251] and the name is frequent enough in other towns of the old Latin league.  From these reasons, namely, the way in which only praenomina and nomina are used, the simple, earlier use of quinquennalis, and especially the appearance of the name Cornelius here, and never again until in the late empire, it follows that the names of the municipal officers of Praeneste given in these inscriptions certainly date between 81 and 50 B.C.[252]