Praetor

Praetor (Latin praeitor, one who goes before), originally a title designating the Roman Consul as leader of an army.

After 366 BC it was applied to the annually elected curule magistrate, who administered justice and was subordinate to the consuls. The office was open to the plebeians by 337. By 246 there were two praetors, urbanus and peregrinus, the first deciding lawsuits between citizens, the second those between two aliens or between an alien and a citizen. From 241 BC praetors were occasionally appointed to govern provinces; later they were regularly entrusted with this work immediately after their year of office, and were then called pro-praetors. There were 8, 16, and 12 under Sulla, Julius Caesar, and Augustus respectively; Nerva raised the number to 18. They were attended by Lictors. In later times the word came to mean mayor or chief magistrate.