A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

PRAEFECTUS CASTRŌRUM, praefect of the camp, is first mentioned in the reign of Augustus. There was one to each legion.

PRAEFECTUS CLASSIS, the commander of a fleet. This title was frequently given in the times of the republic to the commander of a fleet; but Augustus appointed two permanent officers with this title, one of whom was stationed at Ravenna on the Adriatic, and the other at Misenum on the Tuscan sea, each having the command of a fleet.

PRAEFECTUS FABRUM. [[Fabri].]

PRAEFECTUS JŪRI DĪCUNDO. [[Colonia].]

PRAEFECTUS LĔGĬŌNIS. [[Exercitus].]

PRAEFECTUS PRAETŌRĬO, was the commander of the troops who guarded the emperor’s person. [[Praetoriani].] This office was instituted by Augustus, and was at first only military, and had comparatively small power attached to it; but under Tiberius, who made Sejanus commander of the praetorian troops, it became of much greater importance, till at length the power of these praefects became only second to that of the emperors. From the reign of Severus to that of Diocletian, the praefects, like the vizirs of the east, had the superintendence of all departments of the state, the palace, the army, the finances, and the law: they also had a court in which they decided cases. The office of praefect of the praetorium was not confined to military officers; it was filled by Ulpian and Papinian, and other distinguished jurists. Originally there were two praefects; afterwards sometimes one and sometimes two; from the time of Commodus sometimes three, and even four. They were, as a regular rule, chosen only from the equites; but from the time of Alexander Severus the dignity of senator was always joined with their office.

PRAEFECTUS VĬGĬLUM. [[Exercitus], [p. 171], a.]

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 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 any body 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.

PRAEFĬCAE. [[Funus].]

PRAEJŪDĬCĬUM is used both in the sense of a precedent, in which case it is rather exemplum than praejudicium (res ex paribus causis judicatae); and also in the sense of a preliminary inquiry and determination about something which belongs to the matter in dispute (judiciis ad ipsam causam pertinentibus), from whence also comes the name Praejudicium.