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| Roman Kingdom 753 BC – 509 BC Roman Republic |
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Constitution of the Kingdom |
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A Quaestor (English pronunciation: /ˈkwiːstər/ or Latin pronunciation: [ˈkʷajstor]) was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed.
Today quaestor is used as the title of financial oversight officials, and as a senior police rank in Italy and Romania.
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Quaestors were elected officials of the Roman Republic who supervised the treasury and financial affairs of the state, its armies and its officers. The office may date back to the time of the Kingdom of Rome. By about 420 BC there were four Quaestors, elected each year by the Comitia Tributa, and after 267 BC there were ten. Some Quaestors were assigned to work in the City, while others were assigned to the staffs of generals or served as Lieutenant governors in the provinces. Still others were assigned to oversee military finances.
Quaestors were originally appointed by the consuls to investigate criminal acts and determine whether the consul needed to take public action. They eventually became elected officials and took on additional responsibilities, such as supervising the treasury (for which they are best known). The office of Quaestor was adopted as part of the cursus honorum.
During the reforms of Sulla in 81 BC, the minimum age for a quaestorship was set at 30 for patricians and at 32 for plebeians, and election to the quaestorship gave automatic membership in the Senate. Before that, the censors revised the rolls of the Senate less regularly than the annual induction of quaestors created. The number of quaestors was also raised to 20.
During Late Antiquity, the office of quaestor sacri palatii existed, created by Constantine the Great, which functioned as the Roman Empire's senior legal official. Emperor Justinian I also created the offices of quaesitor, a judicial and police official for Constantinople, and the quaestor exercitus, a short-lived joint military-administrative post covering the border of the lower Danube. The quaestor sacri palatii survived long in the Byzantine Empire, albeit with his duties altered to coincide with those of the quaesitor. The term is last attested in Byzantium in the 14th century, as a purely honorific dignity.
The Capuchin friars, in earlier centuries, would designate one or more of the members of each community as quaestor, whose duty was to go about the region collecting alms to support the friars and their works of charity.
In Italy a quaestor (Italian: questore) heads the police of his province (Polizia di Stato), and his office is called questura. Some quaestors have other assignments, however.
In Romania a quaestor (Romanian: chestor) is also a senior police rank.
The European Parliament has six Quaestors to look after the financial and administrative needs of its members.
Some ancient British universities, such as the University of St Andrews, have a Quaestor whose who is responsible for financial management.
In the United States, the Sigma Chi Fraternity and the Kappa Delta Rho Fraternity currently uses the Officer title Quaestor as their treasurer's name as he oversees the financial obligations of the Fraternity.
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