quaestor

Reading notes

• Ad Familiares 2.18 §2 a young man, powerful and of noble family, were to be slighted by you

  Cicero is warning Thermus not to demote or humiliate the unnamed quaestor assigned to him, who outranks Thermus's legates by virtue of his elected office; the quaestor's three brothers are said to be due tribune of the plebs positions in successive years, giving him potent political backing in Rome.

• Ad Familiares 2.19 §1 you had fallen to me by lot as quaestor

  The quaestors were assigned to their provinces by lot (sortitio) each year; Cicero's warm opening signals genuine pleasure at the draw, and also a hint of anxiety, since Caldus had not yet arrived in Cilicia despite the province being active.

• Ad Familiares 13.9 §3 how much such a matter falls within a quaestor's competence

  The quaestor was the junior magistrate assigned to a provincial governor, with responsibility for the treasury and financial administration; in that capacity he had direct dealing with the publicani collecting taxes in his province.

• Ad Familiares 13.10 §1 the ancestral custom itself, which, as you well know, has held this bond of the quaestorship to be next in closeness to the tie of one's own children

  Roman tradition held that a quaestor was bound to his commanding magistrate (the person who drew him by lot, his 'patron') almost as a son to a father: the mos maiorum made this relationship quasi-filial and mutually obligatory for life.

• Ad Familiares 13.26 §1 the tie that he was my quaestor

  The quaestor–imperator relationship was one of the most binding bonds in Roman public life: a quaestor was assigned to a senior magistrate (consul, praetor, proconsul) and acted as his financial officer and right-hand man. Roman tradition (mos maiorum) treated this bond as quasi-filial and the obligation of reciprocal support was lifelong.

• Ad Quintum Fratrem 1.1 §11 whom the lot gave

  A governor's quaestor --- his financial officer --- was assigned not by choice but by sortition, so Quintus had no say in the man's character and had to manage him as he found him.

• Against Caecilius (Divinatio) §2 quaestor in Sicily

  The quaestorship was the lowest of the regular magistracies and entry to the Senate; a provincial quaestor handled the province's finances under the governor. Cicero had served as quaestor at Lilybaeum in western Sicily in 75 BC, which is why the Sicilians turn to him.

• For Publius Sulla §18 my colleague in the quaestorship

  The quaestorship was the lowest rung of the magistracies (the cursus honorum), held about age 30 and giving entry to the senate. Cicero and Autronius held it in the same year (75 BC), which is why Autronius could appeal to old comradeship.