Praetor (/ˈpriːtər/ PREE-tər, Classical Latin: [ˈprae̯tɔr]), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected magistratus (magistrate), assigned to discharge various duties.
Praetorium, as a substantive, denoted the location from which the praetor exercised his authority, either the headquarters of his castra, the courthouse (tribunal) of his judiciary, or the city hall of his provincial governorship.
[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).
[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".
This was 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".
[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".
[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.
Unlike today's executive branches, they were assigned high-level tasks directly by senatorial decree under the authority of the SPQR.
[16] There were two reasons for this: to relieve the weight of judicial business and to give the Republic a magistrate with imperium who could field an army in an emergency when both consuls were fighting a far-off war.
Although in the later Empire the office was titled praetor inter cives et peregrinos ("among citizens and foreigners", that is, having jurisdiction in disputes between citizens and noncitizens), by the time of the 3rd century BC, Rome's territorial annexations and foreign populations were unlikely to require a new office dedicated solely to this task.
In an actio, which was civil, the Praetor could either issue an interdictum (interdict) forbidding some circumstance or appoint a iudex (judge).
By the time of Diocletian, however, this two-stage process had largely disappeared, and the Praetor would either hear the whole case in person or appoint a delegate (a iudex pedaneus), taking steps for the enforcement of the decision; the formula was replaced by an informal system of pleadings.
In the reign of Hadrian, however, the terms of the Edict were made permanent and the Praetor's de facto legislative role was abolished.
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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 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).