The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pretorian guards
Pretorian \Pre*to"ri*an\, a. [L. praetorians: cf. F. pr['e]torien.] 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.
--Brande & C.
Usage examples of "pretorian guards".
Nero killed himself lest he fall into the hands of Otho and the Pretorian guards.