Quaestor
In the Roman Empire, the position initially remained as assistants to the magistrates with financial duties in the provinces, but over time, it faded away in the face of the expanding imperial bureaucracy.
Quaestor derives from the Latin verb quaero, quaerere,[2] meaning "to inquire"[3] (probably ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root of interrogative pronouns *kʷo-).
[7] Ancient authors disagree on the exact manner of selection for this office as well as on its chronology, with some dating it to the mythical reign of Romulus.
[11] After Sulla's reforms, the cursus honorum was cemented, with the added requirement that to stand for the quaestorship, one first needed to have been one of the vigintiviri and have held the military tribunate.
[15] Very rarely were quaestors directly assigned to a specific task without lot (i.e., extra sortem), likely with the approval of the senate to a magistrate's request.
[22] This close cooperation led these provincial quaestors to take a more active role in assisting their superiors with military – even assuming command at times – and administrative tasks.
This involved control and management of the gold and coins stored there, safekeeping of the keys to the treasury, supervision of all public expenses and tax receipts, validation of official documents, and archival of the same.
[35] The quaestors were aided by assistants called apparitores, who likely served multi-year terms to familiarise themselves with the job; their number multiplied during the later Republic to meet administrative needs.
[36] As part of administering the treasury, they also handled the receipt and auditing of war reparations and tribute from polities defeated by Rome.
[42] They were also responsible for public auction of property seized from citizens who had debts or fines owed to the state if they were unable to pay.
[43] Returning magistrates and governors also had to produce detailed account books for their handling of public money, which would then be deposited in the treasury, where the urban quaestors and their staff would audit them.
[46] The scribes checked the account books, looking for transactional documentation and arithmetic errors, the results were then approved or disapproved by the quaestors.
[50] Because consuls, praetors, and their promagisterial counterparts were "practically... plenipotentiary agent[s] upon [which all] aspect[s] of government associated with that provincia depended", the quaestor's responsibilities could vary widely, including not only financial and administrative matters but also sometimes encompassing military command and judicial functions.
[51] When quaestors were sometimes assigned to a province alone (without attachment to a superior) in the late republic, quaestorian responsibilities increased dramatically as the only Roman magistrate present.
He would oversee the transport of public money assigned by the Senate to the province, record its uses, and use it to pay soldiers' wages or purchase supplies.
[55] This remit also extended to minting coinage – usually to pay soldiers serving in the provinces – from precious metal stocks on hand.
[57] Other assets acquired by conquest or otherwise classed as war spoils – from gold to grain, arms, and ships – also had to be inventoried, recorded, and deposited in the public treasury at Rome.
[63] These great responsibilities with little immediate oversight gave both provincial quaestors and their governors many opportunities for corruption by misappropriating funds, demanding exorbitant taxes, getting involved in various business schemes, or taking bribes outright.
[65] On campaign, provincial quaestors acted as subordinate military officers to their attached superior, taking a role "analogous to... that [of] other members of the governor's entourage, such as his legates".
[68] Some quaestors were delegated significant open-ended responsibilities far exceeding administrative tasks: Lucullus, for example, during the First Mithridatic War as Sulla's proquaestor, led troops, assembled fleets, travelled the eastern Mediterranean as a diplomat, intervened to overthrow governments, commanded naval battles, captured prisoners, and levied taxes and indemnities.
The office functioned as a spokesman for the emperor and was charged with the creation of laws and management of legal petitions,[80] serving as de facto minister of justice.
[81] The formal judicial powers of the office were slim, but, as chief legal advisor to the emperor, holders gained substantial influence.
The quaestor sacri palatii survived long into the Byzantine Empire, although its duties were altered to match the quaesitor by the 9th century AD, who was a judicial officer in charge of resolving various disputes.
