Praetorium
PRAETO´RIUM There were places of this name in Gallia, Hispania, and in other countries which the Romans occupied. A Praetorium is the residence of a praetor and the seat of the supreme court. The word was also used to signify a magnificent palatial building. The Table marks a Praetorium in Gallia, on a road from Augustoritum (Limoges. ) At the Praetorium the road divides, one branch going to Augustonemetum (Clermont Ferrand in the Auvergne) and the other to Avaricum (Bourges). It is not possible to fix the site of this Praetorium.
[G.L]PRAETO´RIUM
1.A town in the territory of the Lacetani, in the NE. of Hispania Tarraconensis, and on the road from Tarraco, in Gaul, to Barcino. (Itin. Ant. p. 398.) Usually identified with La Roca, where there are still considerable Roman remains. (Marca, Hisp. 2.20.)
2.(Πετουαρία,Ptol. 2.3.17), a place in the most N. part of Britannia Romana, in the territory of the Parisi, whence there was a separate road from the Roman Wall to Eboracum (Itin. Ant. pp. 464, 466.) It is supposed by Camden (p. 871) to be Beverley in Yorkshire; by others it has been variously identified with Patrington, Hebberstow, Hornsea, Kingston, and Flamborough. Some writers distinguish the Petuaria of Ptolemy from the Praetorium of the Itinerary; and Gale (Itin. p. 24) identifies the former place with Auldby on the Derwent. [T.H.D]
PRAETO´RIUM, AD (Πραιτώριον), a place in Upper Pannonia, south of the Savus, on the road from Siscia to Sirmium. (Tab. Peuting.;Ptol. 2.15.6.) It was probably a place where a court of justice was held for the inhabitants of the surrounding district, or it contained an imperial palace where the emperors put up when travelling in that country.
[L.S]Mentioned by Tab. Peut. at ca. 11 milia passum from Arutela and 9 milia passum from Pons Vetus, an important military camp of the limes Alutanus in the Olt gorge, defended by two castra identified by excavations. The camp, preserved only on the W side, was 64 m in length and provided with buttresses on the inside. Two inscriptions were affixed to the W gate. One, dating from 138, states that the builders of the camp were the soldiers of the numerus burgariorum et veredariorum Daciae inferioris, on the order of the procurator Tit. Fl. Constans. The other mentions that the same numerus, on the order of the procurator Aquila Fidus, in A.D. 140, enlarged the camp, which it reinforced with towers and a high vallum. A deposit of ashes from a fire separates the two periods of the construction of the camp. A milliarium of Maximinus Thrax was placed near the gate. East of the camp was the civil settlement. Partial excavations have uncovered some military baths. The waters of the Olt apparently destroyed the camp ca. 220-30 and the camp of Racoviţa was built ca. 500 m farther N. It was quadrilateral (101.10 x 112.41 m), equipped with four gates, and has guard towers at the corners; inside was a horreum, a praetorium, and a schola (?). The paucity of the archaeological remains proves that it was occupied for only a short time, during the last decades before the evacuation of Dacia. The two camps were responsible for guarding the Titeşti depression and assuring the postal service and transportation in the Olt Valley.
BIBLIOGRAPHYCIL III, 13795-96 = ILS 8909, 9180; 13797, 14216, 19; 14216, 40.
D. Tudor. “Castra Daciae inferioris, III: Racovita,” BCMI 33 (1940) 35-41; id., “Castra Daciae inferioris, V-VII: Copăiceni,” BMMN 5 (1943-44) 95-99; id., Oltenia romană (3d ed., 1968) 274-77, 327-28; id., Oraşe (1968) 371-72; TIR, L.35 (1969) 35.
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