James George Frazer, Robert Seymour Conway, and Thomas Ashby

“ As extended by Sulla the sanctuary of Fortune occupied a series of live vast terraces, which, resting on gigantic substructions of masonry and connected with each other by grand staircases, rose one above the other on the hill in the form of the side of a pyramid, crowned on the highest terrace by the round temple of Fortune. This immense edifice, probably by far the largest sanctuary in Italy, must have presented a most imposing aspect, visible as it was from a great part of Latium, from Rome, and even from the sea. The ground at the foot of the lowest terrace is 1476 ft. above sea-level ”

“ Praeneste was the native town of Aelian, and in modern times of the great composer (Giovanni) Pierluigi da Palestrina.
The modern town of Palestrina, a collection of narrow and filthy alleys, stands on the terraces once occupied by the temple of Fortune. On the summit of the hill (2471 ft.) , nearly a mile from the town, stood the ancient citadel, the site of which is now occupied by a few poor houses (Castel San Pietro) and a ruined medieval castle of the Colonna. The magnificent view embraces Soracte, Rome, the Alban Hills and the Campagna as far as the sea. ”

“ PRAENESTE (mod. Palestrina) , a very ancient city of Latium, lies 23 m. E. of Rome by the Via Praenestina (see below) , on a spur of the Apennines facing the Alban Hills. To the natural strength of the place and its commanding situation Praeneste owed in large measure its historical importance. There are various legends as to its foundation. Objects in metal and ivory discovered in the earliest graves prove that as early as the 8th or 7th century B.C. Praeneste had reached a considerable degree of civilization and stood in commercial relations not only with Etruria but with the East. ”