English

Noun

prætexta ‎(plural prætextæ)

1. Alternative form of praetexta
   • 1773, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émilius, Or, A Treatise on Education - Volume 2, page 248:

     Vestments according to the difference of age and condition; the toga, or the sagum, the bulla and the prætexta, the laticlaves, the curule chairs, lictors, fasces, axes, crowns of gold, of oaken boughs, or wreaths of laurel, ovations, triumphs; every thing, in short, with them, was pomp and ceremony, and made an impression as such on the minds of the citizens.

   • 1790, Conyers Middleton, The History of the Life of M. Tullius Cicero - Volume 2, page 83:

     Cæsar, in his Consulship, had granted to this King the honor of the Prætexta, or the robe of the Roman Magistrates; which was always disagreeable to the nobility, who did not care to see these petty Princes put upon the same rank with themselves; so the Cicero, calling out upon the nobles, will you, says he, who refused the Prætexta to the King of Bostra, suffer this Comagenian to strut in purple!

   • 1795, Analytical Review: Or History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign, on an Enlarged Plan - Volume 20, Issues 3-5, page 335:

     Hanging on a nail against the wall is represented something of a circular shape, which Mr. B. imagines to be a vessel of sacrifice ; but we conceive it to be the golden bulla, hung up when the prætexta was laid aside.

   • 1927, H.P. Lovecraft, The Very Old Folk:

     So here we all were in the mystic sunset of the autumn hills — old Scribonius Libo in his toga prætexta, the golden light glancing on his shiny bald head and wrinkled hawk face, Balbutius with his gleaming helmet and breastplate, blue-shaven lips compressed in conscientiously dogged opposition, young Asellius with his polished greaves and superior sneer, and the curious throng of townsfolk, legionaries, tribesmen, peasants, lictors, slaves, and attendants.