Praetor

The status of the praetor in the early republic is unclear. The traditional account from Livy claims that the praetorship was created by the Sextian-Licinian Rogations in 367 BC, but it was well known both to Livy and other Romans in the late republic that the chief magistrates were first called praetor.[2] For example, Festus "refers to 'the praetors, who are now consuls'".[2]

The form of the republic changed substantially over its history and the accounts of the republic's development in the early imperial period are marred with anachronisms projecting then-current practices into the past.[3] In the earliest periods of the republic, praetor "may not have meant anything more than leader in the most basic sense",[4] deriving from praeire (to proceed) or praeesse (to be preeminent).[5] These early praetors may have simply been clan leaders leading "military forces privately and free from state control"[6] with a multitude of private leaders leading private armies.[7]

These early military leaders were eventually institutionalised into fixed magistrate bodies elected by the people with clear state control over military activities. This was also probably assisted by "the use of recuperatores to mediate disputes and fetial priests to control the declaration of war".[8] The effect to make it more difficult for private individuals to start wars against Rome's neighbours.[8] Reforms in 449 BC also may have required "for the first time that all military commanders be confirmed by a popular assembly [representing] the Roman people".[9]

The emergence of the classical praetorship was a long process in which definitely started by 367 BC, when the Sextian-Licinian Rogations were passed,[10] giving the Roman people substantially more power over the selection of their military commanders.[10] While Livy claims that the rogations created the praetorship in 367 BC to relieve the consuls of their judicial responsibilities, "few modern historians would accept [this] account as written".[11] Beyond the ancient knowledge that a title of praetor dated to the beginning of the republic, what became the classical praetorship was initially a military office with imperium and "virtually identical in authority and capacity to the consulship".[11] Furthermore, a fully-formed praetorship without colleague, as Livy's account implies, would be a "tremendous violation of Roman practice in which all regular magistracies were created in colleges consisting of at least two".[12]

"Scholars increasingly view the [rogations] as establishing a college of three (and only three) praetors, two of whom eventually developed into the historical consuls".[13] What became the classical praetorship in its early years also was not viewed as being less than the consuls, as "it was common practice for men to hold the praetorship after a consulship... since [doing so] was simply a method of holding imperium for a second year".[14]

Livy reports that until 337 BC the praetor was chosen only from among the patricians. In that year, eligibility for the praetura was opened to the plebeians, and one of them, Quintus Publilius Philo, won the office.[15]

Only in the 125 years after the election of three military leaders did a clear distinction emerge between what became the consuls and what became the praetors due to the "normal Roman practice to reserve one commander in or near the city for purposes of defence and (eventually) for civilian administration".[16] The glory and prestige won by the praetors fighting foreign wars, then still in Italy, is what led to the higher prestige of the consulship.[17] Only in 180 BC with the passage of the lex Villia annalis was holding the praetorship after the consulship prohibited.[18] Even after the consulship emerged from the praetorship with higher prestige and desirability, praetorian imperium was still not legally distinct (or inferior to consular imperium) until the very end of the republic.[19]

Starting in 241 BC, praetors started to be prorogued, allowing former praetors to act in the place of a praetor (ie pro praetore) with power only "to conduct war in his assigned provincia [with] no other concerns or duties".[20] Prorogation, in effect, granted private individuals a legally fictitious power to act in the place of the normal magistrates, allowing them to continue to act within their assigned task (provincia).[21] Prorogation allowed a magistrate, whose imperium did not expire with his term until crossing the pomerium or being stripped by the people, to continue in his assigned task or provincia.[22]

The elected praetor was a magistratus curulis, exercised imperium, and consequently was one of the magistratus majores. He had the right to sit in the sella curulis and wear the toga praetexta.[23] He was attended by six lictors. A praetor was a magistrate with imperium within his own sphere, subject only to the veto of the consuls (who outranked him).[24]

The potestas and imperium (power and authority) of the consuls and the praetors under the Republic should not be exaggerated. They did not use independent judgment in resolving matters of state. Unlike today's executive branches, they were assigned high-level tasks directly by senatorial decree under the authority of the SPQR.

Livy describes the assignments given to either consuls or praetors in some detail. As magistrates, they had standing duties to perform, especially of a religious nature. However, a consul or praetor could be taken away from his current duties at any time to head a task force, and there were many, especially military. Livy mentions that, among other tasks, these executive officers were told to lead troops against perceived threats (domestic or foreign), investigate possible subversion, raise troops, conduct special sacrifices, distribute windfall money, appoint commissioners and even exterminate locusts. Praetors could delegate at will. The one principle that limited what could be assigned to them was that their duties must not concern them with minima, "little things". They were by definition doers of maxima. This principle of Roman law became a principle of later European law: Non curat minima praetor, that is, the details do not need to be legislated, they can be left up to the courts.

Roman court cases fell into the two broad categories of civil or criminal trials. The involvement of a Praetor in either was as follows.

When the Praetor administered justice in a tribunal, he sat on a sella curulis, which was that part of the court reserved for the Praetor and his assessors and friends, as opposed to the subsellia, the part occupied by the iudices (judges) and others who were present. In court, the Praetor was referred to as acting e tribunali or ex superiore loco (lit. from a raised platform or from a higher place) but he could also perform ministerial acts out of court, in which case he was said to be acting e plano or ex aequo loco (lit. from the flat ground or from an equal or level place). For instance, he could in certain cases give validity to the act of manumission when he was out-of-doors, such as on his way to the bath or to the theatre.

By 395 AD, the praetors' responsibilities had been reduced to a purely municipal role.[33] Their sole duty was to manage the spending of money on the exhibition of games or on public works. However, with the decline of the other traditional Roman offices such as that of tribune, the praetorship remained an important portal through which aristocrats could gain access to either the Western or Eastern Senates. The Praetorship was a costly position to hold as praetors were expected to possess a treasury from which they could draw funds for their municipal duties.

Like many other Roman institutions, the praetor (Greek: πραίτωρ, praitōr) survived in the Eastern Roman Empire.

Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) undertook a major administrative reform beginning in 535, which involved the reunification of civil and military authority in the hands of the governor in certain provinces, and the abolition of the dioceses. The Diocese of Thrace had already been abolished by the end of the 5th century by Anastasius, and its vicarius became the new praetor Justinianus of Thrace, with authority over all the former Thracian provinces except for Lower Moesia and Scythia Minor, which became part of the quaestura exercitus. Similarly, the governors of Pisidia and Lycaonia, as well as Paphlagonia (enlarged by merging it with Honorias) were upgraded to praetores Justiniani, and received the rank of vir spectabilis.[34][35] In addition, in Constantinople he replaced the praefectus vigilum, who was hitherto responsible for security, by a praetor populi (in Greek πραίτωρ [τῶν] δήμων, praitōr [tōn] dēmōn), with wide-ranging police powers.[34][36]

In the early 9th century, the praitōr was a junior administrative official in the themata, subordinate to the governing stratēgos. Gradually however, the civil functionaries assumed greater power, and by the late 10th century, the praitores (or kritai, "judges") were placed at the head of the civil administration of a thema.[37] This division of civil and military duties was often abandoned in the 12th century, when the posts of civil praitōr and military doux were frequently held in tandem. The provincial post fell out of use after the collapse of the Empire in 1204.[37]

According to Helene Ahrweiler, Emperor Nikephoros II (r. 963–969) reinstituted a praetor in Constantinople, as a high-ranking judge. He is possibly identical to the Palaiologan-era post of the praitōr tou demōu, whose holders are attested until 1355.[37] According to the Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos, compiled around the same time, the praitōr tou demōu occupied the 38th place in the imperial hierarchy, between the megas tzaousios and the logothetēs tōn oikeiakōn,[38] but held no official function.[39] His court uniform consisted of a gold-brocaded hat (skiadion), a plain silk kabbadion tunic, and a plain, smooth wooden staff (dikanikion).[40]

Classical Latin Praetor became medieval Latin Pretor; Praetura, Pretura, etc. During the interwar period the 71 counties of Romania were divided into a various numbers of plăși (singular: plasă), headed by a Pretor, appointed by the Prefect. The institution headed by the Pretor was called Pretură. Currently, this office has survived only in the Republic of Moldova, where praetors are the heads of Chişinău's five sectors.

In Italy, until 1998, Praetor was a magistrate with particular duty (especially in civil branch).

The Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino has pretori (singular: pretore) which is the chief magistrate (civil branch) of a district, heading a pretura (a court).[41] The pretori are appointed by the canton's parliament.[42]

• Praetor's Edict
• Constitution of the Roman Republic
• List of topics related to ancient Rome
• Political institutions of Rome
• List of Praetors of the Roman Republic
• Category:Roman praetors

• Brennan, T. Corey (2000). The Praetorship in the Roman Republic. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. pp. 357–972. ISBN 0-19-513867-8.
• Bury, John Bagnell (1923). History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian. London: MacMillan & Co.
• Drogula, Fred (2015). Commanders & command in the Roman Republic and Early Empire. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-2314-6. OCLC 905949529.
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
• McCullough, Colleen (1990). The First Man in Rome. Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-71081-1.
• Nicholas, Barry (1975). An Introduction to Roman Law. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-876063-9.
• Verpeaux, Jean, ed. (1966). Pseudo-Kodinos, Traité des Offices (in French). Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
• Watson, Alan (1974). Law making in the later Roman Republic. Oxford University Press.
• Wesenberg, Gerhard (1954). "Praetor". Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Band XXII, Halbband 44, Praefectura-Priscianus. cols. 1582–1606.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1875). "Praetor". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray. pp. 956–957.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Praetor".

• Peck, Harry Thurston, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Praetor
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Praetor. Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Livy, Books 1–5, English, University of Virginia searchable etext.
• Livy, Books 6–10, English, University of Virginia searchable etext.
• Livy, Books 40–45, English, University of Virginia searchable etext.
• Cicero, de legibus, Book 3, Latin. The Latin Library site.
• The Roman Law Library by Professor Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev Archived 2012-08-31 at the Wayback Machine