Pretorian adj. 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.
