Quaestor

From Open Encyclopedia

(Redirected from Quaestorship)

For other uses of "Quaestor", see Quaestor (disambiguation).

Topics in Roman government
Roman Kingdom
Roman Republic
Roman Empire
Principate	Dominate
Western Empire	Eastern Empire
Ordinary magistrates:
Consul Praetor Quaestor Promagistrate	Aedile Tribune Censor Governor
Extraordinary magistrates:
Dictator Magister Equitum	Triumviri Decemviri
Offices, titles, and honorifics:
Pontifex Maximus Legatus Dux Officium Praefectus Vicarius Vigintisexviri Lictor	Magister Militum Imperator Princeps senatus Emperor Augustus Caesar Tetrarch
Politics and law:
Roman Senate Cursus honorum Roman assemblies	Collegiality Roman law Roman citizen Imperium
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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 kings of Rome. After about 420 BC there were four Quaestors, elected each year, 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 the Roman Governors as Lieutenant Governors in the provinces. Still others were assigned to oversee military finances.

During the reforms of Sulla in 81 BC, the minimum age for a quaestorship was set at 28 for patricians and at 30 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.

The modern-day Romanian police rank of chestor, although takes its roots from the ancient Latin word, has a quite different meaning.

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