PRÆTOR (for praitor from præire), a title of office among the Romans. The consuls were called prætors, as leaders of the armies of the state; but the term was especially appropriated to the prætor urbanus, first appointed in the year B.C. 366. He was at first chosen from the Patricians, who created this office as a sort of indemnification for being compelled to share the consuls with the plebeians. (Liv. vi. 42; vii. 1.) The plebeians, however, soon had a hand in the office; and in B.C. 337 the patricians were left to mourn the appointment of a plebeian prætor. The prætors were called colleagues to the consuls, and were created with the same auspices.
The prætorship was originally a sort of third consulsip. The prætor occasionally commanded the armies of the state, instead of the consul; and when the consul was absent with the army he exercised his function within the city. The prætor was one of the magistratus maiores; he went attended by six lictors (latterly by two), and owed respect and obedience to the consuls. A second prætor was appointed B.C. 246, to administer justice between the peregrini, or the peregrini and the citizens; and hence he received the name of prætor peregrinus. It was determined by lot what functions these prætors should fulfil; and when the one was at the head of the army, the other performed the duties of both within the city. On the extension of the state beyond the bounds of Italy, new prætors were chosen. Sulla increased their number to eight; Julius Cæsar raised them successively to ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen; and Pomponius says of his own time, "eighteen prætors administer justice in the state."
The prætor urbanus seems to have held the first rank; and as his name implied, his duties confined him to Rome. He was the chief magistrate for the administration of justice, and to him Roman law owes much of its development and improvement. The chief judicial function of the prætor consisted in giving a judex; and cases before the prætor were said to be in jure. They presided at criminal trials (questiones perpetue); and a body of judices determined by a majority of votes the condemnation or the acquittal of the party accused.
The prætors existed till a late period in the Roman empire, and seem to have held still their original right of
jurisdiction. Prætors were usually appointed governors of provinces on the expiration of their official year, with the title of proprætor. (See Die Prætorischen Edicte der Römer, &c., von D. Ed. Schrader, Weimar, 1815.)
PRÆTORIANS was, during the Roman republic, a select cohort that attended the prætor or commander of an army. They frequently decided the fate of battles. After the overthrow of the republic, Augustus formed them into nine cohorts, and fixed their station in the capital as bodyguards. They became, in short, under the emperors, what "the guards" are to the monarchies of Europe. They, in addition to their military duties, frequently had the charge of state prisoners, and often acted the part of executioners. They were all picked men, chosen for the most part from Italy. Their power increased greatly under the empire until they frequently determined the fate of an emperor. Diocletian reduced their number, and Constantine disbanded them.