FRETORIUM
404
PRETORIUM
rumour, in which case it is held as sufficient proof.
Finally, it is denominated (c) rash, oi teinerarious, if it
rests on insufficient conjectures or scarcely probable
arguments. Such presumption is to be entirely re-
jected as a proof.
The foundation of these legal presumptions is to be sought in the natural conclusions drawn from the ordinary happenings of common life and the con- sideration of the motives that usually sway men in given circumstances. The general rules are thus formulated: "\Miat is natural is presumed to be in the person or case in question"; "Change is not to be presumed"; "Presumption is to be formed from the favourable side". As to effects, when there is ques- tion of presumption Jwns, it abstracts from the neces- sity of proof; not so presumption hominis. A judge can follow the first in civil cases even when doubt remains, not so the second. The former places the burden of proof on the adversary, but the latter does not. Finally, the first is considered of itself equiva- lent to proof, while the second needs corroboration from something extraneous to itself.
TiCNTOX, The Laic of the Church (.New York. 1906). s. v. Presumption; Ferraris, Bibliotheca canonica, VI (Rome, 1890). s. V. PrcEsumptio.
WiLU.\M H. W. Fanning.
Pretorium. — This name is derived from the Latin prcrtorihrn, in later Greek t6 vpaiTiipiov. Originally, prcBlorium signified the general's or praetor's tent in Roman camps; then it was applied to the military council sitting there in judgment, and later to the official residence of the provincial governor, a palace or castle. In the Go.spel (v. g., ^latt., xx\-ii. 27) it denotes the building Pilate occupied at the time of Christ's Passion. There were two castles of this kind, both built by Herod. The first rose on the site of the tower of Birah, or tower of the House (II Esd., ii, 8; cf. I Mach., xiii. .53). called Baris bv Josephus (".\nt. Jud.", XV, xi, -1; "Bell. Jud.", I, 'iii, 3). The tower of Baris stood on a rocky mass about 350 feet long and 130 feet wide, cut perpendicularlj- to a height of 30 feet on the south side, at a distance of a hundred yards from the north-west corner of the Temple en- closure, and to a height of 15 feet on the north, where it was separated from Mount Bezetha bj' a ditch nearly 200 feet wide. On this rock, now occupied by the Turkish barracks, Herod built a new fortress. Be- tween the rock and the Temple enclosure he made two wide courts surrounded with porticoes. The castle, called Antonia in honour of Mark .\ntony, is described by Josephus in glowing terms (Bell. .lud., V, v, 8). Some years later, Herod built a second palace, on the northern brow of Mount Sion, at the western extrem- ity of the town.
That Pilate resided in one of these two castles when Jesus was brought before him can scarcely be doubted; and the early tradition which locates the pretorium in the fortress of Antonia is well supported by history and archaeology. During the Paschal solemnities, riots and sedition often broke out amongst the Jews in the precincts of the Temple; the Roman soldiers were therefore held under arms at the different por- ticoes, watching the populace, to suppress any at- tempted insurrection, the Temple being the watch- tower of the city, as the Antonia was of the Temple (Bell. Jud., V, V, 8). In case of sedition the Tem- ple was accessible only from the .\ntonia (cf. Bell. Jud., II, x^', 5, 6; VI, i-iii). Pilate came from Ca-sarea to Jerusalem solely to look after the Jews assembled around the sanctuarj', and in such circumstances he would naturally have resided in the Antonia. St. John (xix, 13) tells us that the paved court, in Greek Lilhnstrolos, where our Lord was .sentenced to death, bore the significant name of Gabbatha, in Syro-Chaldean (from Heb. qaphiphta,\. e. the raised). So interesting a place could not have been forgotten by the first Cliristians. In the year 340, St. CjtII
of Jerusalem reminded his flock, as a well-known fact,
that the house of Caiphas and the pretorium of Pilate
had remained "unto that day a heap of ruins by the
might of Him who hung upon the Cross" (Catech.,
xiii, xxxviii, xxxix). Now, the western palace of Herod
was spared by Titus, and served as a citadel to the
legion left to garrison the Upper City (Bell. Jud.,
VII, i, 1). During the rebeUion of the Jews under
Bar-Cocheba, JuUus Severus took it by assault; but
Hadrian rebuilt it and made of it the citadel of
^-EHa Capitolina (Eutychius of Alex., ".\nnales").
Whereas the Antonia was utterly destroyed by Titus
(Bell. Jud., VI, ii, 7), and history tells of no building
raised upon its ruins before the fifth century.
In 333 the Bordeaux pilgrim mentions Golgotha
as being on his left as he was walking from Mount Sion
towards the northern Gate: "On the right ", he says,
"we perceive, down in the valley, walls where
once stood the house or pretorium of Pilate.
There the Lord was judged before His Passion. " The
Brevarius of Jerusalem (c.436) mentions in the preto-
rium "a great ba.<ilica called St. Sophia, with a chapel,
cuhiculum, where our Lord was stripped of his garments
and scourged". Peter the Iberian (c. 454) went down
from Golgotha "to the basilica named after Pilate",
and thence to that of the Paralytic, and then to
Gethsemane. The local tradition remained constant,
showing at all times up to the present day the pre-
torium of Pilate to have been in the .-Vntonia.
Of this fortress there still remain three piers and two archivolts of the triple gateway, which gave access to the castle. The central arch, which cros.ses the street, and which from the sixteenth centurj' only has been called Arch of the Ecce Homo, measures 20 feet. The smaller one, on the north, is enclosed in the new church of the Ecce Homo (1); the small southern arch has disap- peared. The gateway extends 66 feet. To the east of the .\rch of the Ecce Homo is a court paved with rec- tangular stone blocks, over 15 inches thick. It meas- ures about 130 feet by 9.5 feet, and is bordered at the east end by foundation walls of ancient buildings.
