PRIETOR, fired-tor, a curdle magistracy, in stituted when the consulship was thrown open to the Plebeians, 367 n.c., to separate the judicial from the consul's other functions, and retain the former for the Patricians ; but the Prxtorship was thrown open to the Plebeians, 337• At first there was only one Prmtor ; but from the increase of the Peregrini, another Prmtor, termed Prater POrOgrinus, was ap pointed about 244, the other being now styled Pneter Urba'nus or Urbis, and two others in 227 were added, one to govern Sicily, the other Sardinia, and two more in 197 to pro vide governors for the two Spains. The Lex Bahia, z8o, ordained that the number should be four and six in alternate years ; but it was observed only once, z79. Sulla made the number eight, and Julius Cmsar eventually six teen, and Augustus twelve ; and it afterwards varied from twelve to eighteen. On election by the Comitia Centuriata, the Prmtors determined their duties by lot. If the Prater POrigrinus was absent, his duties devolved on the Prater Urblinus, who had himself, on great emer gencies, to go out in command of the troops. The Prater Urbanus was supreme judge in the civil court, and presided over the Lidi and Pixatorli (games celebrated by fishermen), and performed the consuls' duties when they were out of the city ; and he was regarded as superior in dignity to the rest.
Under the Empire the Prmtors exercised few judicial functions, the civil and criminal juris diction being mostly transferred to the Senate and Prafectus Urbi; but new duties were assigned them—jurisdiction in suits between private persons and the imperial exchequer (Fiscus), trust-estates (Prater de Fideicam missis), affairs of minors (Prater Tfitilieris), much of the duties of the )Ediles, and (with the iEdiles and Tribunes of the Plebs) the superin tendence of the fourteen regions into which Augustus divided Rome. A Prmtor wore the Toga Pratexta (purple-edged cloak), and used the Sella CiirOlis (an ivory chair of peculiar form), and was attended by two lictors within the city and six when on foreign service. After performing his duties in the city, the govern ment of a province was often conferred on hint, with the title of Prep-114er (q.