Mommsen, Staatsrecht, II, 1, p. 74, notes 1 and 2, from other evidence there quoted, and especially from Varro, de l.l., V, 80: prætor dictus qui præiret iure et exercitu, thinks that the consuls were not necessarily called prætors at first, but that probably even in the time of the kings the leader of the army was called the præ-itor. This is a modification of the statement six years earlier in Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, I, p. 149, n. 4.
This caption I owe to Jos. H. Drake, Prof. of Roman Law at the University of Michigan.
Livy VIII, 3, 9; Dionysius III, 5, 3; 7, 3; 34, 3; V, 61.
Pauly-Wissowa under "dictator," and Mommsen, Staatsrecht, II, 171, 2.