Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Praetor

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PRAETOR (στρατηγός ἑξαπέλεκευς, Polyb. iii. 106.). A praetor; the title of one of the civil magistrates of Rome, who ranked next to the consuls; first created A.U.C. 388. to administer justice in the city, under the pretence that the constant wars obliged both the consuls to absent themselves at the head of an army, but, in reality, to recompense the patrician families, to which the praetorship was at first confined, for the concession which had been extorted from them, of sharing the consulate with men of plebeian extraction. He wore the toga praetexta, had the privilege of a sella curulis, and was attended by six lictors. At first only one praetor was appointed, but the number was subsequently increased to four by Sulla, eight by Julius, and to sixteen by Augustus Caesar.

2. (στρατηγός). As the word in its literal sense means simply a person who takes the precedence of others, it was at first employed in a more general sense to designate a person who acted as chief, or had a command over subordinates; thus, in early times, the military consul was styled praetor (Liv. iii. 55. vii. 3.); and the same title was also frequently used to distinguish the commander or general-in-chief of a foreign army. Cic. Div. i. 54. Inv. i. 33.