To preside in these courts there were six praetors; but, as there were more courts than praetors, a senator, called judex quaestionis, was appointed annually for each court where a president was wanting, something after the fashion by which one of our judges sometimes in press of business appoints a barrister as his deputy to clear off the cases.

His powers were of a judicial character, and he shared with the dux the title of judex; but whether he enjoyed the full prerogative of a judex civitatis, or whether his judicial functions were of a more limited character and referred exclusively to matters of a fiscal nature belonging to the curtis regia or the camera of the king, is a question to which the evidence to be gathered from the law codes gives no decided answer.

Judex damnat foras, quod intus operatur.