PRAETORIUM prē tōr’ ĭ əm. The word also is spelled “pretorium,” and is transliterated into Gr. as πραιτώριον, G4550. The word denoted originally the general’s tent or military headquarters, reflecting the original meaning of the word praetor, e.g., fit concursus in praetorium, “a crowd gathers at the general’s headquarters” (Caesar, De bello civili, 76). In the layout of a Rom. military camp, the via praetoria was the road that ran from the praetorium to the gate that faced the presumed enemy, on the flank opposite the porta decumana. The praetorium in a permanent camp (e.g., at Borovicium, or Housesteads, on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland), the headquarters building, like the rest of the cantonment, was in stone, and a residence of some consequence. The term thus found ready extension in Rom. usage to the residence of a provincial governor, e.g., imperat suis ut id in praetorium involutum quam occultissime deferrent, “he bids his men bring it to his official residence under cover as quickly as possible” (Cicero, In Verrem, 2, 4, 28). In the NT, the word signified the governor’s official residence in Jerusalem or part of it. There are six references which RSV (with Moffatt) trs., noncommittally, “praetorium” in all instances. This bypasses the difficulty involved. Does the word refer to the procurator’s headquarters (Herod’s palace, placed at the governor’s disposal? Or the Tower of Antonia, contiguous to the outer Court of the Temple?), or some special residence (John 18:28, 33; 19:9), or “barracks” (Matt 27:27)? In Acts 23:35 the word undoubtedly refers to Herod’s palace at Caesarea. It is not clear whether this palace in the garrison town was properly called a praetorium because of the fact, implied in the context, that it was at the disposal of the procurator of Judea, or because the word was already acquiring the meaning of “royal abode,” which is evident in the Lat. of both the Augustan and Silver Lat. periods. (See Lewis and Short, Latin Dictionary, s.v., p. 1436.) “Sedet ad praetoria regis,” writes Juvenal in his famous Tenth Satire (The Vanity of Human Wishes), picturing Hannibal in exile, “sitting a suppliant at the royal palace.” Hence, too, in the Fourth Georgic, of the cell of the queen bee, poetically pictured by Virgil.

A controversial passage remains (Phil 1:13), “in the whole praetorium.” The most probable meaning is, perhaps, the praetorian corps (see Praetorian). The usage is attested in Lat. (e.g., Lewis and Short, s.v., where two or three Silver Lat. instances are quoted: e.g., Tac. Hist. 4.26, in praeatorium accepti “received into the praetorians’ corps” [Pliny 7.20.19], meruit in praetoria Augusti centurio, “he served as a centurion in Augustus’ praetorian guard”). Alternative possibilities are listed by H. A. A. Kennedy in his commentary on the Philippian epistle (EGT, III, 423, 424): (1) the praetorians’ camp. Such a camp existed, built by Seianus near the Viminal Gate (Tac. Ann. 4.2), but no context survives where it is called the Praetorium; (2) the palace of Nero, a use paralleled above (Juvenal 10.61 and according to Lewis and Short, listing the Vulgate, Acts 23:35). This interpretation, as Kennedy remarks, cannot be easily dismissed; (3) the judicial authorities. Both Theodore Mommsen and W. M. Ramsay favor this. (See W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen, p. 357ff.) There would be two prefects of the Guard and their assessors. The suggestion may be true, but the word “whole” casts some doubt upon it and favors the other meanings.