John Calvin Commentary Philippians 1:13

"so that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout the whole praetorian guard, and to all the rest;" — Philippians 1:13 (ASV)

So that my bonds. He uses the expression—in Christ, to mean in the affairs, or in the cause of Christ, for he suggests that his bonds had become illustrious, so as to promote the honor of Christ.

The translation given by some—through Christ, seems forced. I have also used the word illustria (illustrious) in preference to manifesta, (manifest,)—as they have ennobled the gospel by their fame.

“Satan, indeed, has attempted it, and the wicked have thought that it would turn out so that the gospel would be destroyed. But God has frustrated both the attempts of the former and the expectations of the latter, and that in two ways: for while the gospel was previously obscure and unknown, it has now become well known, and not only that, but has even been rendered honorable in the Praetorium, no less than in the rest of the city.”

By the praetorium I understand the hall and palace of Nero, which Fabius and writers of that age call Augustale, (the Augustal.).

For as the name praetor was at first a general term, and referred to all magistrates who held the chief authority (thus, the dictator was called the sovereign praetor), it, consequently, became customary to use the term praetorium in war to mean the tent of either the consul or of the person who presided, while in the city it denoted the palace of Caesar from the time the Caesars took possession of the monarchy.

Besides this, the praetor's bench is also called the praetorium.