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There are fragments left of several municipal fasti; the one which gives the longest unbroken list is that from Venusia, which gives the full list of the city officials of the years 34-29 B.C., and the aediles of 35, and both the duovirs and praetors of the first half of 28 B.C. In 29 B.C., L. Oppius and L. Livius were duoviri quinquennales.
There is no positive proof in any of the fasti that any quinquennalis was elected from one of the lower magistrates. There is proof that duovirs were elected, who had been aediles or quaestors.
We know that whether the officials of the municipal governments were praetors, aediles, duovirs, or quattuorvirs, at intervals of five years their titles either were quinquennales, or had that added to them, and that this title implied censorial duties.
In the same way, the duovirs of the next year, C. Messienus and P. Cornelius, belong, the one to Praeneste, the other to the colonists, and just such an arrangement is also found in the aediles, Sex. Caesius being a Praenestine , L. Nassius a colonist.
There are several unanswered questions which arise at this point. What was the distribution of offices in the colony after its foundation; what regulation, if any, was there as to the proportion of officials to the new make up of the population; and what and who were the quinquennial duovirs?
The fasti of Nola give the duovirs and aediles for four years, 29-32 A.D., but none of the aediles mentioned rose to the duovirate within the years given. Nor do we get any help from the fasti of Interamna Lirenatis or Ostia, so the only other calendar we have to deal with is the one from Praeneste, the fragments of which have been partially discussed above.
There are six inscriptions which contain lists more or less fragmentary of the magistrates of Praeneste, the duovirs, the aediles, and the quaestors. Two of these inscriptions can be dated within a few years, for they show the election of Germanicus and Drusus Caesar, and of Nero and Drusus, the sons of Germanicus, to the quinquennial duovirate.
C. Salvius and T. Lucretius, duovirs for the next year, the recurrence of Salvius in another inscription, L. Curtius and C. Vibius, the aediles, Statiolenus and C. Cassius, the quaestors, show the same phenomenon, for it seems quite possible from other inscriptional evidence to claim Salvius, Vibius, and Statiolenus as men from the old families of Praeneste.
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. This duty was performed by the duovirs with quinquennial power, also often called censorial power. The inscriptions under consideration, then, would seem to date certainly before 49 B.C.
But although there seems to be a large list of such inscriptions, they narrow down a great deal, and in comparison with the number of duovirs, they are considerably under the proportion one would expect, for instead of being as 1 to 4, they are really only as 1 to 19.
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