1. 'headquarters' in a Roman camp, the tent of the commander-in-chief.

2. the palace in which the governor or procurator of a province resided, to which use the Romans were accustomed to appropriate the palaces already existing, and formerly dwelt in by the kings or princes (at Syracuse illa domus praetoria, quae regis Hieronis fuit, Cicero, Verr. 2:5, 12, 30); at Jerusalem it was that magnificent palace which Herod the Great had built for himself, and which the Roman procurators seem to have occupied whenever they came from Caesarea to Jerusalem to transact public business: Matthew 27:27; Mark 15:16; John 18:28, 33; John 19:9; cf. Philo, leg. ad Gaium, § 38; Josephus, b. j. 2, 14, 8; also the one at Caesarea, Acts 23:35. Cf. Keim, iii, p. 359f. (English translation, vi., p. 79; B. D. under the word ).

3. the camp of praetorian soldiers established by Tiberius (Suetonius 37): Philippians 1:13. Cf. Winers RWB, under the word Richthaus; (Lightfoots Commentary on Philippians, pp. 99ff) rejects, as destitute of evidence, the various attempts to give a local sense to the word in Philippians, the passage cited, and vindicates the meaning praetorian guard (so R. V.)).