praetor, ōris, m. [for praeitor, from praeeo].
I Prop., a leader , head , chief , president : regio imperio duo sunto: iique praeeundo, judicando, consulendo, praetores, judices, consules appellantor, Cic. Leg. 3, 3, 8.—So, in gen., of the chief magistrates in colonies, as in Capua: cum in ceteris coloniis duoviri appellentur, hi se praetores appellari volebant, Cic. Agr. 2, 34, 93; cf. the context.—Of the Roman consul as chief judge, Liv. 3, 55.—Of the dictator : praetor maximus, Liv. 7, 3: aerarii, president of the treasury , an office created by Augustus, Tac. A. 1, 75; id. H. 4, 9.—Of the suffetes in Carthage, Nep. Hann. 7, 4.—Of generals , commanders of foreign nations, Cic. Div. 1, 54, 123; id. Inv. 1, 33, 55; Nep. Milt. 4, 4 et saep.—
II In partic., a praetor , a Roman magistrate charged with the administration of justice; the office was first made distinct from the consulship A. U. C. 387. After the first Punic war, A. U. C. 490, there were two, praetor urbanus for Roman citizens , and praetor peregrinus for strangers , Cic. Lael. 25, 96; id. Mur. 20, 41: praetor primus centuriis cunctis renunciatus, i. e. appointed first , id. Imp. Pomp. 1, 2; id. Pis. 1, 2; Gai. Inst. 1, 6; 1, 78. The praetor had a tribunal where he sat on the sella curulis, with the judges on subsellia beside him. But he used to decide less important controversies wherever the parties found him: e plano, Suet. Tib. 33: in aequo quidem et plano loco, Cic. Caecin. 17, 50: Quid vis in jus me ire? tu's praetor mihi, Plaut. Truc. 4, 3, 66.—
2 Transf.
α For propraetor, a propraetor , an officer who , after the administration of the praetorship , was sent as governor to a province , Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 12, § 27; 2, 4, 25, § 56 al.—
β For proconsul, q. v., Cic. Fam. 2, 17, 6; id. Verr. 2, 3, 54, § 125.