PRAEFECTUS. chosen only from the equites; but from the time of Alexander Severus the dignity of senator was always joined with their office. PRAEFECTUS VIGILUM, the commander of the city guards. To protect the state against fires at night, robbery, housebreaking, &c., Augustus formed seven cohorts of watch-soldiers (Vigiles), originally consisting of freedmen, but afterwards of others, one for each of the two regiones into which the city was divided; each cohort was commanded by a tribune, and the whole were under a praefectus vigilum, who had jurisdiction in all ordinary cases of incendiaries, thieves, &c.; but if anything extraordinary occurred, it was his duty to report it to the praefectus urbi. This praefect was chosen from the equites, and was not reckoned among the ordinary magistrates. PRAEFECTUS URBI, praefect or warden of the city, was originally called Custos Urbis. The name praefectus urbi does not seem to have been used till after the time of the decemvirs. The dignity of custos urbis, being combined with that of princeps senatus, was conferred by the king, as he had to appoint one of the decem primi as princeps senatus. The functions of the custos urbis, however, were not exercised except in the absence of the king from Rome; and then he acted as the representative of the king: he convoked the senate, held the comitia, if necessary, and on any emergency, might take such measures as he thought proper; in short, he had the imperium in the city. During the kingly period, the office of custos urbis was probably for life. Under the republic, the office, and its name of custos urbis, remained unaltered; but in B. c. 487 it was elevated into a magistracy, to be bestowed by election. The custos urbis was, in all probability, elected by the curiae. Persons of consular rank were alone eligible. In the early period of the republic the custos urbis exercised within the city all the powers of the consuls, if they were absent: he convoked the senate, held the comitia, and, in times of war, even levied civic legions, which were commanded by him. When the office of praetor urbanus was instituted, the wardenship of the city was swallowed up in it; but as the Romans were at all times averse to dropping altogether any of their old institutions, a praefectus urbi, though a mere shadow of the former office, was henceforth appointed every year, only for the time that the consuls were absent from Rome for the purpose of celebrating the Feriae Latinae. This praefectus had neither the power of convoking the senate nor the right of speaking in it; in most cases he was a person PRAETOR. 261 below the senatorial age, and was not appointed by the people, but by the consuls. An office very different from this, though bearing the same name, was instituted by Augustus on the suggestion of Maecenas. This new praefectus urbi was a regular and permanent magistrate,whom Augustus invested with all the powers necessary to maintain peace and order in the city. He had the superintendence of butchers, bankers, guardians, theatres, &c.; and to enable him to exercise his power, he had distributed throughout the city a number of milites stationarii, whom we may compare to a modern police. His jurisdiction, however, became gradually extended; and as the powers of the ancient republican praefectus urbi had been swallowed up by the office of the praetor urbanus, so now the power of the praetor urbanus was gradually absorbed by that of the praefectus urbi; and at last there was no appeal from his sentence, except to the person of the princeps himself, while anybody might appeal from the sentence of any other city magistrate, and, at a later period, even from that of a governor of a province, to the tribunal of the praefectus urbi. PRAEFECTURA. [COLONIA, p. 92.] PRAE FICAE. [FUNUS, p.163.] PRAELU ́SIO. [GLADIATORES, p. 167.] PRAENO'MEN. [NOMEN.] PRAEROGATIVA CENTURIA [CoMITIA, pp. 96, 96.] PRAES, is a surety for one who buys of the state. The goods of a Praes were called Praedia. The Praediator was a person who bought a praedium, that is, a thing given to the state as a security by a praes. PRAESES. [PROVINCIA.] PRAETOR (σтраτηуós), was originally a title which designated the consuls as the leaders of the armies of the state. The period and office of the command of the consuls might appropriately be called Praetorium. Praetor was also a title of office among the Latins. The first praetor specially so called was appointed in B. c. 366, and he was chosen only from the patricians, who had this new office created as a kind of indemnification to themselves for being compelled to share the consulship with the plebeians. No plebeian praetor was appointed till the year B. c. 337. The praetor was called collega consulibus, and was elected with the same auspices at the comitia centuriata. The praetorship was originally a kind of third consulship, and the chief functions of the praetor (jus in urbe dicere, jura reddere) 262 PRAETOR. PRAETORIANI. were a portion of the functions of the consuls. | tion of justice; and to the edicta of the sucThe praetor sometimes commanded the ar- cessive praetors the Roman law owes in a mies of the state; and while the consuls were great degree its development and improveabsent with the armies, he exercised their ment. Both the praetor urbanus and the functions within the city. He was a magis- praetor peregrinus had the jus edicendi, and tratus curulis, and he had the imperium, and their functions in this respect do not appear consequently was one of the magistratus ma-to have been limited on the establishment of jores: but he owed respect and obedience to the consuls. His insignia of office were six lictors; but at a later period he had only two lictors in Rome. The praetorship was at first given to a consul of the preceding year. In B. C. 246 another praetor was appointed, whose business was to administer justice in matters in dispute between peregrini, or peregrini and Roman citizens; and accordingly he was called praetor peregrinus. The other praetor was then called praetor urbanus, qui jus inter cives dicit, and sometimes simply praetor urbanus and praetor urbis. The two praetors determined by lot which functions they should respectively exercise. If either of them was at the head of the army, the other performed all the duties of both within the city. Sometimes the military imperium of a praetor was prolonged for a second year. When the territories of the state were extended beyond the limits of Italy, new praetors were made. Thus, two praetors were created B. C. 227, for the administration of Sicily and Sardinia, and two more were added when the two Spanish provinces were formed, B. c. 197. When there were six praetors, two stayed in the city, and the other four went abroad. The senate determined their provinces, which were distributed among them by lot. After the discharge of his judicial functions in the city, a praetor often had the administration of a province, with the title of propractor. Sulla increased the number of praetors to eight, which Julius Caesar raised successively to ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen. Augustus, after several changes, fixed the number at twelve. Under Tiberius there were sixteen. Two praetors were appointed by Claudius for matters relating to fideicommissa, when the business in this department of the law had become considerable, but Titus reduced the number to one; and Nerva added a praetor for the decision of matters between the fiscus and individuals. Thus there were eventually eighteen praetors, who administered justice in the state. The praetor urbanus was specially named praetor, and he was the first in rank. His duties confined him to Rome, as is implied by the name, and he could only leave the city for ten days at a time. It was part of his duty to superintend the Ludi Apollinares. He was also the chief magistrate for the administra the imperial power, though it must have been gradually restricted, as the practice of imperial constitutions and rescripts became com mon. [EDICTUM.] The chief judicial functions of the praetor in civil matters consisted in giving a judex. [JUDEX.] It was only in the case of interdicts that he decided in a summary way. [INTERDICTUM.] Proceedings before the praetor were technically said to be in jure. The praetors also presided at trials of crimi nal matters. These were the quaestiones perpetuae, or the trials for repetundae, ambitus, majestas, and peculatus, which, when there were six praetors, were assigned to four out of the number. Sulla added to these quaestiones those of falsum, de sicariis et veneficis, and de parricidis, and for this purpose he added two, or, according to some accounts, four praetors. On these occasions the praetor presided, but a body of judices determined by a majority of votes the condemnation or ac quittal of the accused. [JUDEX.] The praetor, when he administered justice, sat on a sella curulis in a tribunal, which was that part of the court which was appropriated to the praetor and his assessors and friends, and is opposed to the subsellia, or part occu pied by the judices, and others who were present. PRAETOʻRIA COHORS. [PRAETORI ANI.] PRAETORIA NI, sc. milites, or praetorias cohortes, a body of troops instituted by Augustus to protect his person and his power, and called by that name in imitation of the praetoria cohors, or select troops which attended the person of the praetor or general of the Roman army. They originally consisted of nine or ten cohorts, each comprising a thousand men, horse and foot. Augustus, in accordance with his general policy of avoiding the appearance of despotism, stationed only three of these cohorts in the capital, and dispersed the remainder in the adjacent towns of Italy. Tiberius, however, under pretence of introducing a stricter discipline among them, assembled them all at Rome in a permanent camp, which was strongly fortified. Their number was increased by Vitellius to sixteen cohorts, or 16,000 men. The praetorians were distinguished by double pay and especial privileges. Their PRINCIPES. term of service was originally fixed by Augustus at twelve years, but was afterwards increased to sixteen years; and when they had served their time, each soldier received 20,000 sesterces. They soon became the most powerful body in the state, and, like the janissaries at Constantinople, frequently deposed and elevated emperors according to their pleasure. Even the most powerful of the emperors were obliged to court their favour; and they always obtained a liberal donation upon the accession of each sovereign. After the death of Pertinax (A. D. 193) they even offered the empire for sale, which was purchased by Didius Julianus; but upon the accession of Severus in the same year they were disbanded, on account of the part they had taken in the death of Pertinax, and banished from the city. The emperors, however, could not dispense with guards, and accordingly the praetorians were restored on a new model by Severus, and increased to four times their ancient number. Diocletian reduced their numbers and abolished their privileges; they were still allowed to remain at Rome, but had no longer the guard of the emperor's person, as he never resided in the capital. Their numbers were again increased by Maxentius; but after his defeat by Constantine, A. D. 312, they were entirely suppressed by the latter, their fortified camp destroyed, and those who had not perished in the battle between Constantine and Maxentius were dispersed among the legions. The commander of the praetorians called PRAEFECTUS PRAETORIO. PRINCIPIA,PRINCIPALIS VIA. [CAS- PRIVILEGIUM. [LEX, p. 189.] PRO'ВOLE (πроßоλn), an accusation of a criminal nature, preferred before the people of Athens in assembly, with a view to obtain their sanction for bringing the charge before a judicial tribunal. The probolé was reserved for those cases where the public had sustained an injury, or where, from the station, power, or influence of the delinquent, the prosecutor might deem it hazardous to proceed in the ordinary way without being authorized by a vote of the sovereign assembly. In this point it differed from the ersangelia, that in the latter the people were called upon either to pronounce final judgment, or to direct some peculiar method of trial; whereas, in the probolé, after the judgment of the assembly, the parties proceeded to trial in the usual manner. The cases to which the probolé was applied were, complaints against magistrates for official misconduct or oppression; against those public informers and mischief-makers who were called sycophantae (σvкopávтaι); against those who outraged public decency at the religious festivals; and against all such as by evil practices exhibited disaffection to the state. PROBOULEUMA. [BOULE, p. 53.] PROBOULI (πрóßоvλоi), a name applicable to any persons who are appointed to conwassult or take measures for the benefit of the people. Ten probouli were appointed at Athens, after the end of the Sicilian war, to act as a committee of public safety. Their authority did not last much longer than a year; for a year and a half afterwards Pisander and his colleagues established the council of Four Hundred, by which the democracy was overthrown. PRAETOʻRIUM, the name of the general's tent in the camp, and so called because the name of the chief Roman magistrate was originally praetor, and not consul. [CASTRA.] The officers who attended on the general in the praetorium, and formed his council of war, were called by the same name. The word was also used in several other significations, which were derived from the original one. Thus the residence of a governor of a province was called the praetorium; and the same name was also given to any large house or palace. The camp of the praetorian troops at Rome, and frequently the praetorian troops themselves, were called by this name. [PRAETORIANI.] PRANDIUM. [COENA, p. 87.] PRINCEPS SENATUS. [SENATUS.] PROCONSUL (åvðúñaros), an officer who acted in the place of a consul, without holding the office of consul itself. The proconsul, however, was generally one who had held the office of consul, so that the proconsulship was a continuation, though a modified one, of the consulship. The first time when the imperium of a consul was prolonged, was in B. C. 327, in the case of Q. Publilius Philo, whose return to Rome would have been followed by the loss of most of the advantages that had been gained in his campaign. The power of proconsul was conferred by a senatusConsultum and plebiscitum, and was nearly equal to that of a regular consul, for he had the imperium and jurisdictio, but it differed inasmuch as it did not extend over the city and its immediate vicinity, and was conferred, without the auspicia, by a mere decree of the senate and people, and not in the comitia for elections. When the number of Roman provinces had become great, it was customary for the consuls, who during the latter period of the republic spent the year of their consulship at Rome, to undertake at its close the conduct of a war in a province, or its peaceful administration, with the title of proconsuls. There are some extraordinary cases on record in which a man obtained a province with the title of proconsul without having held the consulship before. The first case of this kind occurred in B. C. 211, when young P. Cornelius Scipio was created proconsul of Spain in the comitia centuriata. PROCURA TOR, a person who has the management of any business committed to him by another. Thus it is applied to a person who maintains or defends an action on behalf of another, or, as we should say, an attorney [ACTIO]: to a steward in a family [CALCULATOR]: to an officer in the provinces belonging to the Caesar, who attended to the duties discharged by the quaestor in the other provinces [PROVINCIA]: to an officer engaged in the administration of the fiscus [FISCUS]: and to various other officers under the empire. PRODIGIUM, in its widest acceptation, denotes any sign by which the gods indicated to men a future event, whether good or evil, and thus includes omens and auguries of every description. It is, however, generally employed in a more restricted sense, to signify some strange incident or wonderful appearance which was supposed to herald the approach of misfortune, and happened under such circumstances as to announce that the calamity was impending over a whole community or nation rather than over private individuals. The word may be considered synonymous with ostentum, monstrum, portentum. Since prodigies were viewed as direct manifestations of the wrath of heaven, it was believed that this wrath might be appeased by prayers and sacrifices duly offered to the of fended powers. This being a matter which deeply concerned the public welfare, the necessary rites were in ancient times regularly performed, under the direction of the pontifices, by the consuls before they left the city, the solemnities being called procuratio prodigi orum. PROEDRI. [BOULE, p. 53.] PROVINCIA. celebrated at Athens in honour of Prometheus. It was one of the five Attic festivals, which were held with a torch-race in the Ceramicus [comp. LAMPADEPHORIA], for which the gymnasiarchs had to supply the youths from the gymnasia. Prometheus himself was believed to have instituted this torch-race, whence he was called the torch-bearer. PROMULSIS. [COENA.] PRO ́NUBAE, PRO'NUBI. [MATRIMONIUM, p. 214.] PROPERTY-TAX, at Athens [EISPHORA], at Rome [TRIBUTUM]. PROPRAETOR. [PRAETOR, p 262.] PROSCE NIUM. [THEATRUM.] PROSCRIPTIO. The verb proscribere properly signifies to exhibit a thing for sale by means of a bill or advertisement. But in the time of Sulla it assumed a very different meaning, for he applied it to a measure of his own invention (B. c. 82), namely, the sale of the property of those who were put to death at his command, and who were themselves called proscripti. After this example of a proscription had once been set, it was readily adopted by those in power during the civil commotions of subsequent years, In the proscription of Antonius, Caesar, and Lepidus (B. C. 43), Cicero and some of the most distinguished Remans were put to death. PRO ́STATES (πроσтáтηç). [LIBERTUS.] PROVINCIA. This word is merely a shortened form of providentia, and was frequently used in the sense of "a duty" or "matter entrusted to a person." But it is ordinarily employed to denote a part of the Ro man dominion beyond Italy, which had a regu lar organization, and was under Roman ad ministration. Livy likewise uses the word to denote a district or enemy's country, which was assigned to a general as a field of his operations, before the establishment of any provincial governments. The Roman state in its complete development consisted of two parts with a distinct organization, Italia and the Provinciae. There were no Provinciae in this sense of the word till the Romans had extended their conquests beyond Italy; and Sicily was the first country that was made a Roman province: Sardinia was made a province B. c. 235. The Roman province of Gallia Ulterior in the time of Caesar was sometimes designated simply by the term Provincia, a name which has been perpetuated in the modern Provence. A conquered country received its provincial organization either from the Roman command PROMETHEIA (ñρoμýbɛια), a festivaler, whose acts required the approval of the The Roman provinces up to the battle of Actium are: Sicilia; Sardínia et Corsica; Hispania Citerior et Ulterior; Gallia Citerior; Gallia Narbonensis et Comata; Illyricum; Macedonia; Achaia; Asia; Cilicia; Syria; Bithynia et Pontus; Cyprus; Africa; Cyrenaica et Creta; Numidia; Mauritania. Those of a subsequent date, which were either new or arose from division, are: Rhaetia; Noricum; Panonia; Moesia; Dacia; Brittania Mauritania; Caesariensis and Tingitana; Aegyptus; Cappadocia; Galatia; Rhodus; Lycia; Commagene; Judaea; Arabia; Mesopotamia; Armenia; Assyria. senate; or the government was organized by | land, but it was subject to the payment of a the commander and a body of commissioners land-tax (vectigal). appointed by the senate out of their own number. The mode of dealing with a conquered country was not uniform. When constituted a provincia, it did not become to all purposes an integral part of the Roman state; it retained its national existence, though it lost its sovereignty. The organization of Sicily was completed by P. Rupilius with the aid of ten legates. The island was formed into two districts, with Syracuse for the chief town of the eastern and Lilybaeum of the western district: the whole island was administered by a governor annually sent from Rome. He was assisted by two quaestors, and was accompanied by a train of praecones, scribae, haruspices, At first praetors were appointed as governand other persons, who formed his cohors. ors of provinces, but afterwards they were apThe quaestors received from the Roman aera-pointed to the government of provinces upon rium the necessary sums for the administra- the expiration of their year of office at Roine, tion of the island, and they also collected the and with the title of propraetores. In the taxes, except those which were farmed by the later times of the republic, the consuls also, censors at Rome. One quaestor resided at after the expiration of their year of office, reLilybaeum, and the other with the governor ceived the government of a province with the or praetor at Syracuse. title of proconsules: such provinces were called consulares. The provinces were generally distributed by lot, but the distribution was sometimes arranged by agreement among the persons entitled to them. By a Sempronia Lex the proconsular provinces were annually determined before the election of the consuls, the object of which was to prevent all disputes. A senatus-consultum of the year 55 B. C., provided that no consuls or prae For the administration of justice, the island was divided into Fora or Conventus, which were territorial divisions. [CONVENTUS.] The island was bound to furnish and maintain soldiers and sailors for the service of Rome, and to pay tributum for the carrying on of wars. The governor could take provisions for the use of himself and his cohors on condition of paying for them. The Roman state had also the portoria which were let to farm to Rotor should have a province till after the exmans at Rome. The governor had complete jurisdictio in the island, with the imperium and potestas. He could delegate these powers to his quaestors, but there was always an appeal to him, and for this and other purposes he made circuits through the different conventus. Such was the organization of Sicilia as a province, which may be taken as a sample of the general character of Roman provincial government. The governor upon entering on his duties published an edict, which was often framed upon the Edictum Urbanum. Cicero, when proconsul of Cilicia, says, that on some matters he framed an edict of his own, and that as to others he referred to the Edicta Ur piration of five years from the time of his consulship or praetorship. A province was generally held for a year, but the time was often prolonged. When a new governor arrived in his province his predecessor was required to leave it within thirty days. The governor of a province had originally to account at Rome (ad urbem) for his administration, from his own books and those of his quaestors; but after the passing of a Lex Julia, B. c. 61, he was bound to deposit two copies of his accounts (rationes) in the two chief cities of his province, and to forward one (totdem verbis) to the aerarium. If the governor misconducted himself in the administration of the province, the provincials applied to the Roman senate, and to the powerful Romans who were their patroni. The offences of reThere was one great distinction between petundae and peculatus were the usual Italy and the provinces as to the nature of grounds of complaint by the provincials; and property in land. Provincial land could not be if a governor had betrayed the interests of the an object of Quiritarian ownership, and it was state, he was also liable to the penalties ataccordingly appropriately called Possessio. tached to majestas. Quaestiones were estabProvincial land could be transferred_with-lished for inquiries into these offences; yet it out the forms required in the case of Italian was not always an easy matter to bring a bana. Z |