dēfensor — Lewis & Short
dēfensor, ōris, m., rar. f.id..
I One who fends, wards, averts, or keeps off:
necis,Cic. Mil. 22, 58:
periculi,id. Mur. 2.—
II A defender, protector.
1 In gen. (for syn. cf.:
tutor, praeses, vindex, cognitor, curator, patronus, advocatus, causidicus): paterni juris,Cic. de Or. 1, 57, 244; cf. id. Mil. 15:
juris et libertatis, id. Rab. perd. 4, 12: octo tribuni plebis, illius adversarii, defensores mei,id. Mil. 15; cf. Hor. S. 2, 5, 30;
opp. petitor,Quint. 4, 2, 132:
bonus,id. 5, 13, 3 et saep.;
opp. accusator,id. 7, 2, 31; 5, 13, 3; Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 38, § 82 et saep.; cf. patronus. Once fem.:
mulier defensor alicujus,Dig. 16, 1, 2 fin.:
canes defensores,Varr. R. R. 2, 9.—
2 Esp. in plur., defensores, the garrison:
oppidum vacuum ab defensoribus,Caes. B. G. 2, 12; id. ib. 3, 25 et saep.; Sall. J. 23; Liv. 21, 11; Verg. A. 2, 521; Ov. M. 13, 274 et saep.—
3 Defensor civitatis, or plebis, or loci, in the later period of the empire (since 365 A.D.), title of a magistrate in the provincial cities, whose chief duty was to afford protection against oppression on the part of the governor;
he was likewise endowed with a subordinate civil jurisdiction,Cod. Theod. 1, 11; Cod. Just. 1, 55; Just. Inst. 1, 20, 5.—*
B Of inanimate subjects, as the guards (sublicae) of a bridge, Caes. B. G. 4, 17 fin.