A Quaestor was an ancient Roman magistrate. The earliest quaestors had judicial powers, but as the finances of Rome increased in complexity, two quaestors were appointed by the consuls to control the public treasury. After 447 BC the quaestors were elected annually by the legislative body known as the comitia tributa. In 421 BC the office was opened to the plebs and the number of quaestors was raised to four. As the Roman Republic gained control of Italy and more provinces were acquired, additional quaestors were elected as financial assistants to the military commanders and provincial governors. Under Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC, there were 40 quaestors. The Emperor Augustus later reduced the number to 20, which was the usual number for the duration of the Roman Empire. Research Quaestor
Decius Magnus Ausonius was a Roman poet. He was born about 310 at Burdigala (Bordeaux) and died about 392. Valentinian entrusted to him the education of his son Gratian, and appointed him afterwards quaestor and pretorian prefect. Gratian appointed him consul in Gaul, and after this emperor's death he lived upon an estate at Bordeaux, devoted to literary pursuits. He wrote epigrams, idyls, eclogues, letters in verse, etc, still extant. Research Ausonius
Consul was a name originally given to the two highest magistrates in the republic of Rome. After King Tarquinius Superbus had been expelled by the joint efforts of the patricians and plebeians in 509 BC, two consuls (consules) were placed at the head of the senate, the body in whose hands was the administration of the republic. These officers were annually elected, at first only from the patricians; at a later period , from 366 BC, also from the plebeians. In order to be eligible to the consulship, the candidate was to be forty-five years of age, and must have passed through the inferior offices of quaestor, sedile, and praetor, and he was required by law to be in Rome at the time of the election. All these laws, however, were disregarded at various junctures in Roman history.
The insignia of the consuls were a staff of ivory with an eagle at its head, a toga bordered with purple (toga praetexta), which under the emperors was embroidered; an ornamental chair (sella curulis), and twelve lictors, who, with fasces and axes, preceded them. In the beginning of the republic the authority of the consuls was almost as great as that of the preceding kings. They could declare war, conclude peace, make alliances, and even order a citizen to be put to death; but their powers were gradually curtailed, especially by the establishment of the tribunes of the people, early in the 5th century. But they still stood at the head of the whole republic: all officers were under them, the tribunes of the people only excepted: they convoked the senate, proposed what they thought fit, and executed the laws. In times of emergency they received unlimited power, and could even sentence to death without trial, levy troops, and make war without the resolve of the people first obtained. Under the emperors the consular dignity sunk to a shadow, and became merely honorary. The last consul at Rome was Theodorus Paulinus in 536.
In France the name of consul was temporarily adopted for the chief magistrates after the revolution. The directorial government (third constitution) having been abolished by the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, of the year VIII (November the 9th,1799), a provisional consular government, consisting of Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Roger Ducos, established the fourth constitution, proclaimed on December the 15th, by which France was declared a republic under a government of consuls. Three elective consuls (Bonaparte, Cambaceres, Lebrun) had almost uncontrolled executive authority, while the legislative power was in the hands of the tribunate and the legislative assembly: a conservative senate was also elected. But as early as August the 2nd, 1802, Bonaparte was proclaimed First Consul for life, and thus the constitution of France became again practically monarchical. On April the 10th,1804, he was proclaimed emperor, and even the nominal consulate ended.
At present consuls are officials appointed by the government of one country to attend to its commercial interests in another country. The duties of a consul generally speaking are to promote the trade of the country he represents; to give advice and assistance when called upon to his fellow-subjects; to uphold their lawful interests and privileges if any attempt be made to injure them; to transmit reports of trade to his own government, to authenticate certain documents, etc. They are generally of three ranks: consuls-general, consuls, and vice-consuls. Research Consul
Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Censor) was a Roman soldier. He was born in 234 BC at Tusculum and died in 149 BC. He inherited from his father, a plebeian, a small estate in the territory of the Sabines, which he cultivated with his own hands. He served his first campaign, at the age of seventeen, under Fabius Maximus, was present at the siege of Capua in 214 BC; and five years after fought under the same commander at the siege of Tarentum.
After the war was ended he returned to his farm, but by the advice of Valerius Flaccus removed to Rome, where his forensic abilities had free scope. He rose rapidly, accompanied Scipio to Sicily as quaestor in 204 BC, became an aedile in 199, and in 198 was chosen praetor, and appointed to the province of Sardinia. Three years later he gained the consulship, and in 194 for his brilliant campaign in Spain obtained the honour of a triumph. In 191 he served as military tribune against Antiochus, and then, having abundantly proved his soldierly qualities, returned to Rome.
For some years he exercised a practical censorship, scrutinizing the characters of candidates for office, and denouncing false claims, peculations, etc. His election to the censorship in 184 set an official seal to his efforts, the unsparing severity of which has made his name proverbial. From that year until his death, in 149, he held no public office, though zealously continuing his unofficial labours for the state. His hostility to Carthage, the destruction of which he advocated in every speech made by him in the forum, was the most striking feature of his closing years. His incessant Delenda est Carthago (Carthage must be destroyed) did much to further the third Punic war. Of his works his De Re Rusfcica (On Rural Economy) alone survives, though there exist in quotation fragments of his history and speeches.
Marrcus Porcius Cato (Cato of Utica) was a Roman reformer. He was born in 95 BC and died in 46 BC. He formed an intimacy with the StoicAntipater of Tyre, and ever remained true to the principles of the Stoic philosophy. He distinguished himself as a volunteer in the war against Spartacus, served as military tribune in Macedonia in 67 BC, was made quaestor in 65 BC.
His rigorous reforms won him general respect, and in 63 BC he was chosen tribune of the people. During the troubles with CatilineCato gave Marcus Cicero important aid both by his eloquence and sagacity, and at the same time set himself to thwart the ambitious projects of Pompey, Caesar, and Marcus Crassus. Such success as he had, however, was only temporary, and he failed to prevent the formation of the triumvirate. To get rid of him they sent him to take possession of Cyprus, but, having successfully accomplished his mission, he returned, opposed the Tribonian law for conferring extraordinary powers on the triumvirs, and in 54 BC enforced, as praetor, an obnoxious law against bribery.
On the breach between Pompey and Caesar he threw in his lot with Pompey, and guarded the stores at Dyrrhachium, while Pompey pushed on to Pharsalia. After receiving news of Pompey's defeat he sailed to Cyrene and effected a junction with Metellus Scipio at TJtica, in 47 BC. He took command of that city, but its defence appearing hopeless after the defeat of Scipio at Thapsus, he determined on suicide, and after spending some time in the perusal of the Phaedo of Plato, stabbed himself with his sword. His wounds were bound up by his attendants, but he tore off the bandages and died. Research Marcus Cato
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman orator, politician and writer. He was born in 106 BC at Arpinum and died in 43 BC. His family was of equestrian rank, and bis father, though living in retirement, was a friend of some of the chief public men. He received the best education available, studied philosophy and law, became familiar with Greek literature, and acquired some military knowledge from serving a campaign in the Marsic war.
At the age of twenty-five he came forward as a pleader, and having undertaken the defence of Sextus Roscius, who was accused of parricide, procured his acquittal. He visited Greece in 79 BC, conversed with the philosophers of all the schools, and profited by the instruction of the masters of oratory. Here he formed that close friendship with Atticus of which his letters furnish such interesting evidence. He also made a tour in Asia Minor and remained some time at Rhodes, where he visited the most distinguished orators and took part in their exercises.
On his return to Rome his displays of eloquence proved the value of his Grecian instruction, and he became one of the most distinguished orators in the forum. In 76 BC he was appointed quaestor of Sicily, and behaved with such justice that the Sicilians gratefully remembered him and requested that he would conduct their suit against their governor Verres. He appeared against this powerful robber, and the crimes of Verres were painted in the liveliest colours in his immortal speeches. Seven of the Verrine orations are preserved, but only two of them were delivered, and Verres went into voluntary exile.
After this suit Marcus Cicero was elected to the office of sedile, in 70 BC, became praetor in 67, and consul in 63. It was now that he succeeded in defeating the conspiracy of Catiline, after whose fall he received greater honours than had ever before been bestowed upon a Roman citizen. He was hailed as the saviour of the state and the father of his country (parens patriae), and thanksgivings in his name were voted to the gods. But Marcus Cicero's fortune had now reached the culminating point, and soon was to decline.
The Catilinarian conspirators who had been executed had not been sentenced according to law, and Marcus Cicero, as chief magistrate, was responsible for the irregularity. Publius Clodius, the tribune of the people, raised such a storm against him that he was obliged to go into exile in 58 BC.
On the fall of the Clodian faction he was recalled to Rome, but he never succeeded in regaining the influence he had once possessed. In 52 BC he became proconsul of Cilicia, a province which he administered with eminent success. As soon as his term of office had expired he returned to Rome in 49 BC, which was threatened with serious disturbances owing to the rupture between Caesar and Pompey. He espoused the cause of Pompey, but after the battle of Pharsalia he made his peace with Caesar, with whom he continued to all appearance friendly, and by whom he was kindly treated, until the assassination of the latter in 44 BC.. He now hoped to regain his political influence. The conspirators shared with him the honour of an enterprise in which no part had been assigned him; and the less he had contributed to it himself the more anxious was he to justify the deed and pursue the advantages which it offered.
Antony having taken Caesar's place, Marcus Cicero composed those admirable orations against him, delivered in 43 BC, which are known to us by the name of Philippies (after the speeches of Demosthenes against Philip of Macedon). His implacable enmity towards Antony induced him to favour young Octavianus, who professed to entertain the most friendly feelings towards him. Octavianus, however, having possessed himself of the consulate, and formed an alliance with Antony and Lepidus, Marcus Cicero was proscribed. In endeavouring to escape from Tusculum, where he was living when the news of the proscription arrived, he was overtaken and murdered by a party of soldiers; and his head and hands were publicly exhibited in the forum at Rome. He died in his sixty-fourth year, 43 BC.
Marcus Cicero's eloquence has always remained a model. After the revival of learning he was the most admired of the ancient writers; and the purity and elegance of his style will always place him in the first rank of Roman classics. His works, which are very numerous, consist of orations; philosophical, rhetorical, and moral treatises; and letters to Atticus and other friends. The life of Marcus Cicero was written by Plutarch, and there are modern lives by Middleton, Forsyth, and others. Marcus Cicero left a son of the same name by his wife Terentia. Young Marcus was born in 65 BC, was carefully educated, and distinguished himself in military service. In 30 BC Octavianus (Augustus) assumed him as his colleague in the consulship, and he was afterwards governor of Asia or Syria.
Marcus Cicero had also a daughter, Tullia, who to his great grief died in 45 BC.
Marcus Cicero's younger brother, Quintus was a man of some note both as a public character and as a writer. He was married to a sister of Atticus, and was put to death at the same time as the orator. Research Marcus Cicero
In ancient Rome, the quaestors were magistrates responsible for the management of public treasure. They received taxes and tribunes, paid the troops. At the time of Julius Caesar there were 40 quaestors. Research Quaestor
Titus Quinticus Flamininus was a Roman general. He was born about 230 BC and died about 174 BC. He was quaestor in 199, consul in 198, terminated the Macedonian war by the defeat of Philip at Cynoscephalse 197, and proclaimed at the Isthmian games in 196 the independence of Greece. Research Titus Flamininus
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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