On the supposition that the prsetorium to which St. Paul alluded is a place, two interpretations have been ottered. (1) The AV had tlie authority of the Greek commentators — e.g. Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Theodoret— for as- suming that he had in view the Imperial residence on the Palatine. It is certain, however, that the term could not properly bear such a meaning. Tlie Koman citizens would have keenly resented the use of a nomenclature suggestive of a military despot- ism, and the early Ciesars, too wise to wound their susceptibilities, were careful to maintain the ap- pearance of republican liberty even after the reality was gone. If the Emperor was absent from Kome, he was indeed technically in imperio ; and in the post-Augustan Age any spacious country villa could be called a prajtorium ; but no classical writer ever applies the word to the palace in the city. The utmost tliat can be said in favour of the exegesis in question is that St. Paul, as a pro- vincial writing to provincials, may have been guilty of a ' terminological inexactitude.' But one of St. Paul's merits is his singular accuracy in the use of technical terms, and the colonia of Philippi to which he was writing was itself a miniature Kome, where fine shades of Imperial language were sure to be appreciated and mistakes at once detected. (2) The prsetorium is often taken to denote ' the priEtorian barracks at the Porta Viminalis on the east side of the city, in which Paul lay a prisoner at Rome' (Lipsius, Hand-Com. zum NT, in loc). Bat this use of the word would be equally incorrect ; for while the barracks were called castra prwtoria (Pliny, HN iii. 9; Suet. Tib. 37) and castra prcB- torianorum (Tac. Hist. i. 31), they were never designated prcctoriuin.
On the theory that the term is not local but personal, two meanings are again possible. (1) The word may collectively denote the Imperial Guards. J. B. Lightfoot (Phllippians^'', 1894, pp. 99-104) argues strongly for this interpretation, which has been adopted in the RV. There is abundant evidence {e.g. Livy, xxvi. 15, xxx. 5 ; Tac. Bist. i. 20, iv. 46; Suet. Nero, 9; Pliny, HN XXV. 6; Jos. Ant. XIX. iii. 1; together with a number of inscriptions) that the word bore this meaning, which hurnionizes with the xai tois XoiTrois TrScrii' that follows in Ph 1'^, whereas 'the others' is extremely awkward if it is conjoined with the name of a locality. If St. Paul, while abiding ' two whole years in his own hired dwelling' (Ac 28™), was under prretorian custody, he wotild be able, owing to the frequent change of guards, to arouse an interest in his message throughout this famous body of soldiers.
(2) W. M. Ramsay, following Mommsen, holds that the prEetoriuni ' is the whole body of per-
sons connected with the sitting in judgment, the supreme Imperial Court, . . . representing the Emperor in his capacity as the fountain of justice, together with the assessors and high ollicers of the court ' (St. Paul the Traveller, 1895, p. Sfil). There does not, Itowever, appear to be any first or second century evidence for this use of the term. It is more probable that, on reaching Rome, St. Paul was handed over to the prce/ectus p?'a!toriHcaUe<i by St. Luke the a-TparoTreWpx';'). who gave him for two years a largo measure of liberty (always, of course, under the surveillance of a praetorian), and ultimately tried him, either in the castrn prcelaria at the Porta Viminalis, or more probably (see Ph 4^-) in the guard-room of the Imperial palace. Certainly from the 3rd cent, onward, and appar- ently much earlier, the prmfecti prcetoriii (usually two, sometimes three, rarely one) exercised juris- diction for tlitj Emperor. In a letter to Pliny (Ep. Plin. 65) Traj.an decides regarding a i)risoner who had appealed from the governor's sentence : ' vinc- tus niitti ad pnefectos prjetorii mei debet.' It seems probable that St. Paul was banded over to the same tribunal. Before writing Pbilippi.-ins he had been tried once, and made a favourable im- pression upon the minds of his judges. Ever since his arrival in Rome it had been recognized that he was no ordinary criminal and no political agitator. He was seen to be a prisoner for his faith in Christ (Ph 1"), and his bearing as well as his words com- mended him, and to a greater or less extent his message, to the pratfectus prwtorio (or -ii), to the whole prcetorium (Imperial Lifeguards), and to 'all the others' with whom he was brought into contact. And some (especially ol ix riji Kaiaapoi oUlas) were not only impressed but converted.
LiTEKATrRE.— T. Zahn, InUrod. to the NT, 1909, vol. i. pp. 641 f. , 651 ft. ; M. R. Vincent, ICC, ' Philippians and Philemon,' 1897, p. 16 f. ; H. A. A. Kennedy, in EGT, ' Philippians,' U)(i;!, p. 423 f.
JAME.S .STKAIIAN.
PALM (^oiw?).— The only pa.ssages in the NT containing references to the palm are Jn 12'^ and Rev 7". It flourishes in hot dry climates and is known to have been cultivated in Egjpt and Babylonia at an early date. In the (leserts of Arabia it is essential to existence, hence the Arabic saying that the palm has as many uses as there are days in a year. The palm referred to in the OT and NT is the Phoenix dactylifera, h. ; in Palestine it still flourishes in the maritime plain but seldom ripens in the hill-country. Its cultiva- tion in Palestine has been neglected for a long time past, and there can be little doubt that in ancient times it was much more common than it is to-day.