With the exception of the office of prætor urbanus, which was honorable and lucrative, the prætorship was a burdensome office and conferred little distinction, since the other prætors were only the presidents of the courts.

Thine, C. (URBANUS) L. (SYLVANUS)(Elia ambo).

They endured having the two proconsuls named by the praetor urbanus rather than to have the consuls elected under his direction, because now these proconsular officials would limit their activities to the elections and consequently would appear to have been invested with no powers outlasting them.

Cassius, who was praetor urbanus, had not yet finished his duties in connection with the Ludi Apollinares.

In this same year there was no aedile owing to a lack of candidates, and the praetors and the tribunes performed the aediles' duties: also no praetor urbanus was appointed for the Feriae, but some of the regular praetors discharged his functions.

[Footnote 23: Compare here Mommsen (Staatsrecht, 23, 644, 2 or 23, 663, 3), who says that since the only objection to be found with this arrangement was that since the praetor urbanus could not himself conduct the comitia, he ought not properly to have empowered others to do so.]

For, according to many reliable authorities (Plutarch, Life of Brutus, chapter 21; Appian, Civil Wars, Book Three, chapter 23; Cicero, Philippics, II, 13, 31, and X, 3, 7; id., Letters to Atticus, Book Fifteen, letters 11 and 12), it was Brutus and not Cassius who was praetor urbanus and had the games given in his absence.

Therefore the true account, though not necessarily the true reading would say that "Brutus was praetor urbanus," and (below) that he "lingered in Campania with Cassius.

Senator urbanus, with Curruca to boot for a synonime, would but faintly have done the business.

O Mr. Hood & Mr. Jerdan there, thine, C (urbanus) L (sylvanus) (ELIA ambo) Inclos'd are verses which Emma sat down to write, her first, on the eve after your departure.

They were under the jurisdiction of the Praetor Urbanus, but vicarious justice was administered among them by an official called Praefectus juri dicundo, sent yearly from Rome.

One praetor, the Praetor Urbanus, presided over civil suits between Roman citizens.

In case of need one man could do the work both of the Praetor Urbanus and the Praetor Peregrinus, leaving his colleague free for a military command.

Moreover the courts which belonged to the ædileship were to be assigned to the prætors as had been the custom, the more important to the prætor urbanus and the others to the prætor peregrinus.

Again, he himself appointed the prætor urbanus, as he often did subsequently.

[Footnote 13: Brutus was the Praetor urbanus this year, and that officer's duty confined him to the city; and he was forbidden by law to be absent more than ten days at a time during his year of office.]

The Ludi Apollinares were vowed by a praetor urbanus in 212, when the fate of Rome was hanging in the balance, and celebrated in the Circus Maximus: in 208 they were fixed to a particular day, July 13, and eventually extended to eight, viz.

He had been very prominent in carrying out Caesar's wishes, for which reason moreover he had been appointed praetor; but he became angry because he had not also been made praetor urbanus, and because his colleague Trebonius had been preferred before him for this office, not by lot as had been the custom, but by Caesar's choice.

Below, on the same wall, was a figure of a pope in his robes, with the name "S[=e][=s] Urbanus" painted at the side: and close to this figure, a large head of the Saviour, of the Byzantine type, with a glory in the form of a Greek cross.