Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/824

 800 PRAETOR PRAGMATIC SANCTION it was sold by Francesco Colonna to Carlo Barberini, brother of Urban VIII., for 775,- 000 scudi. Among the ruins of the old city many statues and other valuable remains of antiquity have been discovered, including a celebrated mosaic. PR.ETOR (Lat. praire, to lead), the title of a Roman officer whose duties were chiefly judi- cial, and also, according to Cicero, that of the consuls as leaders of the Roman armies. The office was first created in 366 B. 0., when the consulship was divided between the patricians and plebeians, and it was given to the former as an indemnification; it was not held by a plebeian till 337. It was a kind of third con- sulship, the praetor being called the colleague of the consuls, and appointed in the comitia centuriata with the same auspices. When the consuls ware absent from Rome, he exercised their functions. He was a curule magistrate, and had the imperium, although subject to the consuls, between whom and himself there was also the difference that he was attended by only six Motors. Originally the praetor was a consul of the preceding year, and after the ad- mission of plebeians to the office it was filled for some time alternately by the patrician and plebeian consul of the preceding year. In 246 another magistracy, that of praetor peregrinus, was created with the special duty of deciding disputes between foreigners and between citi- zens and foreigners; and in distinction from him who filled this office, the other praetor was called prmtor urbanm. These two, after their election, decided by lot which of the two magistracies should be filled by each; and if one of them departed from the city at the head of an army, the other discharged his du- ties. After the extension of the Roman power beyond the limits of Italy and the formation of provinces, praetors were sent to govern them. Under Sulla the number of praetors was raised to 8; under Julius Caesar succes- sively to 10, to 12, to 14, to 16; under Au- gustus it varied, but was finally fixed at 12 ; and under Tiberius it rose again to 16. By Claudius two praetors were created for mat- ters of fidei commissa, but Titus reduced the number to one ; another was created by Nerva with the duty of deciding questions between the fiscus and individuals. At all times the prcetor urbanus was the first in position, and was specially spoken of as the praetor. He was the chief magistrate for the administration of justice, and could not be away from Rome for more than ten days at a time. His duty also was to superintend the ludi Apollinares. He, along with the prcstor peregrinus, had the right of issuing edicts, and these edicts were one of the sources of Roman law, under the title of jus honorarium or prcetorium. Under Hadrian these edicts were collected and ar- ranged by Salvius Julianus, and entitled edic- tum perpetuum. After the reign of that em- peror they no longer exercised the right, but they existed long afterward. PR.ETORIANS, or Praetorian Cohorts, a Roman body guard, named in imitation of the cohort said to have been formed by Scipio Af ricanus out of his bravest troops. Their number in- creased during the civil wars, and by Augus- tus they were established as a separate force, of nine cohorts, each containing 1,000 men. Three cohorts he stationed in Rome, retaining the others in the adjacent towns. But Tibe- rius assembled them all at Rome in a perma- nent fortified camp, and Vitellius increased the number of cohorts to 1 6. They received double pay. Their term of service was at first 12 years, but at a later period 16, and at the end of the term each soldier received 20,000 ses- terces. All the praetorians were entitled to carry the same insignia of rank with the cen- , turions. They became very influential in the imperial succession, and received large dona- tions from each emperor at his accession; and in A. D. 193, having assassinated Pertinax, who attempted reforms, they even put the em- pire up for sale. Upon the accession of Sep- timius Severus in the same year, they were disbanded and banished from the city. Seve- rus afterward restored them with a new or- ganization, increasing their number fourfold, and recruiting them, not as formerly from Italy only, but from the bravest soldiers of the frontier legions. Upon the removal of the seat of the emperor from Rome they ceased to guard his person. They were increased by Maxentius, but were defeated with him in 312 by Constantine, who entirely suppressed them. PRACA, a suburb of Warsaw, Poland, on the opposite bank of the Vistula. Here in 1656 the Poles were defeated by Charles Gustavus of Sweden. In the insurrection of 1794, Kos- ciuszko having been defeated and made pris- oner in the battle of Maciejowice, the dispirit- ed and disorganized remnants of the Polish army defended the ramparts of Praga against the victorious Russian forces under Suvaroff. On Nov. 3 the Russian general ordered an as- sault, and after a fierce struggle at dawn on the 4th the ramparts were carried, more than 15,000 Polish soldiers being slain, drowned in the Vistula, or taken prisoners, and an almost equal number of unarmed inhabitants of Pra- ga, of every age and sex, brutally massacred. In the evening a fire arose, which destroyed a large part of the place. The vicinity of Praga was the principal seat of the Polish war in 1831. PRAGMATIC SANCTION (Gr. 7rpay//a, a deed or act), a state ordinance decreed by the monarch or legislature. The phrase seems to have ori- ginated with the Byzantine monarchs, but was early introduced into France, and is now ap- plied to several state decrees which have be- come historical. I. The ordinance of Louis IX. (St. Louis) in 1269, by which the liberties of the Gallican church were established. lit That of Charles VII. of France, proclaimed at Bourges in 1438, confirming the decrees of the council of Basel, and thereby authorizing the election of bishops by cathedral chapters, &c.