Til 



I'K.KTOR. 



PRAYKI:. 



originally gima to consul of the preceding year; and after the pie- 

 btaia* obtained admtatlnii to thi* magistracy, it wa* given du- 

 al !* lor* time, to the patrician ana plebeian consul of the preceding 

 wr. A* the pnetor wu a kind of substitute for the consuls, there 

 wat nothtiig in the nature of the office which limited the number : and 

 accordingly in D.C. 247, another praetor, called Prator Peregrinua, 

 wu created, who administered juitice in matte between citueni and 

 fontgne, and in matters between foreigner* only. It i conjectured 

 that one pnetor wan a patrician and the other a plebeian, but thia 

 doe* not appear certain. If one of the pnctors left the city to com- 

 mand the army, the other had the authority of both within the city ; 

 and when the military Mrviee required it, the imperium of a prtctor 

 wai prolonged for another year by the aenate or the comitia. When 

 conquest* were made beyond the "limiU of Italy, and foreign count rim 

 ware reduced to the form of provinces, pncton were sent to govern 

 them. Tliui two new pncton were appointed for Sicily and Sardinia 

 (B.C. 227), and lutooquently two more when the two provinces of Spain 

 were fomu-1 B.C. 197. The provinces of the pnctors were determined 

 annually by the senate, and distributed among them by lot. AH the 

 judicial labours of the pnctora increased, they generally spent their 

 year of office at Home, and then took the charge of a province with 

 the title of proprietor. Syl!;\ increased , the number of pnctors to 

 right. The pnetor urbanus had the highest rank, and was specially 

 oiled pnctor : the duties of his office required hia constant attend- 

 ance at Rome, and he could not leave the city for more than ten days 

 at a time. He had the troublesome and expensive duty of super- 

 intending the Ludi Apollinares and giving gladiatorial shows to the 

 people. Julius drear increased the number of pnutors to ten, then 

 to twelve, fourteen, and sixteen ; Augustus reduced the number to ten, 

 then again raised it to sixteen, and finally fixed it at twelve. Under 

 Tiberim there were sixteen. A permanent pnetor for fidei cominissa 

 was subsequently appointed (' Dig.' i., tit 2, s. 3), and another for 

 matters between the Fiscus and private individuals; and a pnetor was 

 appointed by the emperor M. Antoninus (Capitol. ' M. Anton.,' c. 10) 

 solely for matters relating to guardianship (tutela). The office con- 

 tinued in Itome with varying numbers and powers till the fall of the 



m i-inpin-. At Constantinople it endured somewhat longer. 

 An ofiice like the prtctorship in some respects may be traced far- 

 ther back than the first election of a prtctor ; and the vicarious duties 

 of the otlice appear clearly in the functions of the aucient pncfectus 

 urbi [PBJJPECTUS UBBI], whose office became of less importance on the 

 appointment of the pnetor urbanus. Aa late as the time of Cicero 

 ( Kp. Fam.,' x. 12, xii. 28), we find the pnctor performing the duties 

 of the consuls in their absence. 



I'nilcr the republic the pnctor urbanus became the chief magistrate 

 for the administration of justice, and in this respect his office was the 

 roost important in the state. He was one of the magistrates who hail 

 the Jus Edicendi (Gaius, i. 2), or of publishing edicta, which were the 

 foundation of a body of law known under the names of Jus Honora- 

 rium or Pnctorium. The pnctor peregrinus had also the Jus Edi- 

 cendi : and the edicta of these two pnctors formed the largest body of 

 this edictal law. The edicta of the pnetor urbanus were published 

 generally on entering on his office, and occasionally during its con- 

 tinuance. It is difficult to describe the edicta in exact terms, but 

 they hod reference only to civil actions, and their object was generally 

 to provide for cases unprovided for by the existing laws, and mainly by 

 introducing new kinds of actions (actiones utiles) when the actions of 

 the old law (actiones directo) did not apply, and fixing the mode of 

 procedure. They often adapted a new form to an existing right, and 

 they contrived by various legal fictions to accommodate the limited 

 provision* of the old laws to the existing wants of society ; but in all 

 theee proceedings we clearly discern a rectitude of intention and 

 singleness of purpose as Uncharacteristic of the edict The pnctor 

 lao interfered in a summary way by his Interdict, particularly in 

 matter* of possession [ POSSESSION J. in the case of a man who was of 

 unsound mind and incompetent to manage his property, or a prodigal 

 who WM waiting his substance ; in which cases the pnctor appointed 

 a curator, when the laws of the Twelve Tables had not provided for 

 one. He aim gave relief in case* of fraud whenever the law had made 

 no provision ('Dig.' 4, tit 8), and generally by the doli exceptio and 

 the in integrum restitutio, in the case of minors, be set aside fraudu- 

 lent transaction*. (Savigny, ' Von dem Schutz dcr Minderjiiliri^-n, 

 ZeiUchrift x. 2'!1.) It is stated that the pnetors would sometimes 

 vary their edicta in the course of the year, till this was forbidden by a 

 decree of the senate, and finally by a lex Cornelia (n.c. 07). This gave 

 t the edict a character of greater stability. It seems that the edict* 

 of hi* predeoeason, though not absolutely binding on an actual pi-tutor, 

 were frequently adopted by him. Indeed we cannot conceive that the 

 pnctorium ju* could have acquired that stability and consistency which 

 n undoubtedly had acquired, even in the time of Cicero (' Leg.' i. 5), if 

 the chief rules that were establixbed by the pncton were not observed 

 by their nucceasora. The Roman jurists found nniplp mn! 

 comment in the pncton' edicta, and a large part of their writings had 

 for their object the exposition of the legal principles cont.-. 

 them. Under the emperor Hadrian the edicta of tin- i-r.etors were 

 collected and arranged by Salvius Julianus, a distinguished jurist, 

 under the name of Edictum Perpetuum, and from this time the pro- 

 gTMrive development of the Roman law by the proton' edict ceased. 



The constitution* and rescript* of the emperon supplied the place of 

 the edict ; the importance of the function* of the pnctors was greatly 

 diminished ; but they still presided in qunctionvs, or judicial inquiries 

 into crime-, or tliat class of offence* which were the subject of judicia 

 publics. S.'im times person* (qtmitores or quacetore*) were appointed 

 on special occasions to preside at such trials. After the number of 

 pnctora had been increased to six, the pnrt .r mKv:us and pcregrinus 

 exercised their usual jurisdiction, and the other four presided in 

 quMtione* as to repetundie, peculatus, majestas, and ambitus. These 

 [uiestione* were called perpetun (Cic., ' Brut,' 102), apparently because 

 he praton exercised the functions of quipstores during the whole 

 year of office, and not, as was the old practice, on the particular occa- 

 sion only of their appointment as qutcstores. Still extraordinai y 

 quo-stores might bo appointed. Sulla, by various leges, added t 

 number of questioned perpetuie, and at the same time made two 

 additional pnctors, and when their criminal jurisdiction was with- 

 drawn, their functions were little more than formal. 



PK.KTU1UANS was, in the time of the Roman republic, the name 

 of a select cohort which attended the person of the pnctor or com- 

 mander of a Roman army. Sallust (' Catilina,' 60) says that Petreiui, 

 finding that Catilina and his followers defended themselves more 

 stoutly than he expected, ordered, a* a last expedient, the prtetorian 

 cohort to charge the insurgents, and this decided the fate of the battle. 

 In the time of the triumvirate, Octavian and Antony greatly increased 

 the number of the prtctorians. Appianus (' Bell. Civ.') says that after 

 the battle of Philippi they dismissed all those soldiers who had served 

 their time, except 8000 men who requested to remain in the > : 

 who were distributed in praetorian cohorts attached to the person* of 

 the triumvirs. After the final overthrow of the republican party, 

 Augustus formed the prictorians into nine cohorts, ami TiU-rius fixed 

 their station in the capital as guards to his person. (Suetonius, 

 ' August.,' 49.) They became in fact, under the emperors, what the 

 regiments of guards or household troops are in the actual monarchies 

 of Europe, a select and privileged body in the army. But besides their 

 ordinary military duties, they had also the charge of state 'prisoners, 

 and often acted as executioners. The prefect of the pnctorium was 

 the commander of the whole body of praetorians. They were all picked 

 men, chosen from Old Latium, Urnbria, Etruria, and the older Homan 

 colonies, and they were proud of their origin. (Tacitus, ' Anna!.,' iv. 

 6.) Under Yitellius the praetorian cohorts were increased to sixteen. 

 (Tacitus, ' Hist.,' ii. 93.) In the frequent revolutions of the empire the 

 pnctorians acted a conspicuous part, and often determined the fate of 

 an emperor, and the choice of another; as in later times the janissaries 

 did with regard to the Turkish sultans. Diocletian reduced the 

 number of the pnctoriana, and Constantino entirely disbanded them. 



PIS AGMATU: SANCTION. [CHAHLEsVl.orCiKii.MANy, and Hoist: 

 in II MISBUBO in Bioo.Div.; and TKEATIKS, CHRONOLOGICAL TAUUSOK.] 

 PRAIRIES. [PLAINS.] 



PRAYER, a term in theology, used to designate the intercourse 

 passing between human minds and the divine. Language appears not 

 to be necessary to complete the idea which the word represents, since 

 we speak of mental prayer, which is thought directed heaven- v 

 adoration or in entreaty without the sentiment of the mind being 

 embodied in words or finding expression by the lips. Hut its far more 

 common use is to express this kind of intercourse when the sentiment 

 of the mind is embodied in language. 



t, It is a derivative of the verb to pray, which signifies to ask for 

 something, and the intercourse of which we have spoken is described 

 by a word which etymologically describes only one part or section of 

 t In- whole idea, inasmuch as in such intercourse the principal object 

 will always be the supplication of those rich communications of good 

 which God can bestow and man receive. 



Prayer springs immediately out of the persuasion that man is not 

 placed on this globe without a protecting and governing power over 

 him, which jiower in conceived to belong to the One Great, Good, and 

 Wise Being, who was the Creator at first of man himself, and of all the 

 things by which he is surrounded, or which touch in any way his con- 

 dition. Wherever this idea is fully formed, it seems that the mind 

 must, occasionally at least, fall into the disposition to entreat that the 

 Power, which can do so much for it, would In- pleaded to exert itself. 

 Whether this government and this ability be vested in some one being, 

 or bo supposed to be distributed among many, either equal in power, 

 or supreme and subordinate, the case is the same. Circumstances 

 arise m which it seems that it woidd be impossible to withhold the 

 mind from assuming the form of supplication and the lips from 

 expressing the desires which have sprung in the mind. \\ > 

 find that prayer has existed from the earliest times when we lind nun 

 raised into the rank of religious ln-ings, and in any state of religious 

 knowledge, however rude and mistaken the ideas may have 1-een ; in 

 times of danger and .calamity at least, men have thrown themselves 

 prostrate before a superior power, and intreated its mterpoiitioa. 



Sometimes the prayer may be no more than a brief ejaculation ; but 

 if arising in the sincerity of the heart, it is not the less prayer, nor tin- 

 iest regarded 1-y Him who is described in the Holy Scriptures as the 

 Qod that heareth prayer. 



I'.nt even in some of the earliest monuments of human thought and 

 feeling we have prayer that has not been mere ejaculation, or e\en the 

 mere expression of feeling excited by temporary emergencies : and 



