Pre·to·ri·an a. Of or pertaining to a pretor or magistrate; judicial; exercised by, or belonging to, a pretor; as, pretorian power or authority.
Pretorian bands or Pretorian guards, or Pretorians Rom. Hist., the emperor's bodyguards, instituted by the Emperor Augustus in nine cohorts of 1,000 men each.
Pretorian gate Rom. Antiq., that one of the four gates in a camp which lay next the enemy.
Pre·to·ri·an, n. A soldier of the pretorian guard.
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pretorian
adj 1: of or relating to a Roman praetor; "praetorial powers" [syn:
praetorian, praetorial, pretorial]
2: characteristic of Praetorian soldiers in respect to
corruption or political venality; "a large praetorian
bureaucracy filled with ambitious...and often sycophantic
people makes work and makes trouble"- Arthur M.Schlesinger
Jr. [syn: praetorian]