The quaestors had charge of the public money.

The curule officers were the consuls, the praetors, the aediles, the quaestors, the tribunes; so that an able senator was sure of a great office in the course of his life.

The centumvirs constituted a permanent tribunal composed of members annually elected, in equal numbers, from each tribe; and this tribunal was presided over by the praetor, and divided into four chambers, which under the republic was placed under the ancient quaestors.

As it was inconvenient, when Rome had become a very great city, to convene the comitia for the trial of offenders, the expedient was adopted of delegating the jurisdiction of the people to persons invested with temporary authority, called quaestors.

They were all experienced in affairs of State,most of them had been quaestors, aediles, praetors, censors, tribunes, consuls, and governors.

The four quaestors who had been since 487 distributed throughout Italy did not, formally at least, restrict the consular authority, for in Italy, just as in Rome, they were regarded simply as auxiliary magistrates dependent on the consuls.

This mode of administration appears to have been at first extended also to the territories taken from Carthage, and Sicily and Sardinia to have been governed for some years by quaestors under the superintendence of the consuls; but the Romans must very soon have become practically convinced that it was indispensable to have superior magistrates specially appointed for the transmarine regions.

[Footnote 50: "Quaestors," this is the first mention of these officers in Livy; in early times it appears to have been part of their duty to prosecute those who were guilty of treason, and to carry out the punishment.]

and all were attached to the staff of the army, which consisted of the general and certain officers, such as the legati, or generals of division, and the quaestors, or managers of the commissariat.

[Sidenote: fills it up from the quaestors;] Hitherto a man had become a senator either at the censor's summons (of which he was practically certain if he had been tribune or quaestor), or, if he had been consul, praetor or aedile.

[Sidenote: increases the number of the quaestors;] Sulla made the quaestorship instead of the aedileship the regular stepping-stone, and increased the number of the quaestors to twenty.

[Sidenote: increases the number of the quaestors;] Sulla made the quaestorship instead of the aedileship the regular stepping-stone, and increased the number of the quaestors to twenty.

'Once a senator, always a senator,' was therefore now the rule; and as the quaestors, who were the main source of supply, were nominated by the Comitia Tributa, the Senate became a more representative as well as a more permanent body than before, and independent of the magistrates.

Certain men who had been quaestors the previous year were sent out to the provinces, since those who were quaestors at the time proved too few for them.

Certain men who had been quaestors the previous year were sent out to the provinces, since those who were quaestors at the time proved too few for them.

They gave them great sums of money and to Laco the honors of ex-quaestors, while to Macro they extended the honors of ex-prætors.

The number of quaestors increased to eight.

He next chose those who had been aediles, plebeian tribunes, or quaestors; then of those who had never filled the office of magistrate, he selected such as had spoils taken from an enemy fixed up at their homes, or had received a civic crown.

There launching his ships of war, and putting the soldiers he had brought with him on board, he sailed to Rome, reported to the fathers the total subjugation of Sardinia, and handed over the contribution of money to the quaestors, of corn to the aediles, and the prisoners to the praetor Fulvius.

And the senate decrees that Quintus Hortensius, proconsul, shall occupy the province of Macedonia with his quaestors, or proquaestors and lieutenants, until he shall have a successor regularly appointed by resolution of the senate.

Milo had indicted him but did not succeed in bringing him to court, for the quaestors, by whom the allotment of jurors had to be made, had not been elected, and Nepos forbade the praetor to allow any case before their allotment.

Now it was proper for the aediles to be chosen before the quaestors, and this proved the principal cause of delay.

As for number, all were the same as before, except that thirteen praetors and forty quaestors were appointed.

The business of administration, changed from that time for the reasons I have mentioned, was no longer invariably laid upon the quaestors, but was finally assigned to ex-praetors.

For the first year, as previously, forty quaestors were elected, and then for the first time two patrician aediles and four from the people.