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Webster 1913 Edition

Adj.

[L.

praetorians

: cf. F.

prétorien

Of or pertaining to a pretor or magistrate; judicial; exercised by, or belonging to, a pretor;

as,

pretorian

power or authority

Pretorian bands

Pretorian guards

, or

Pretorians

(Rom. Hist.)

the emperor’s bodyguards, instituted by the Emperor Augustus in nine cohorts of 1,000 men each.

–

Pretorian gate

(Rom. Antiq.)

that one of the four gates in a camp which lay next the enemy.

Brande & C.

Noun.

A soldier of the pretorian guard.

Adj.

Belonging to a pretor or judge; judicial; exercised by the pretor; as pretorian power or authority.

Pretorian bands or guards, in Roman history, were the emperor's guards. Their number was ultimately increased to ten thousand men.