The lack of evidence has proved to be the greatest obstacle involved in reconstructing the
quaestorship and has probably discouraged scholars from undertaking a large-scale study of the
office. As a consequence a comprehensive study of the quaestorship has long been a
desideratum: this book aims to fill this gap in the scholarship. The book contains a study of
the quaestorship throughout the Roman Republic both in Italy (particularly at Rome) and in the
overseas provinces. It includes a history of the office an analysis of its role within the
cursus honorum and its larger importance for the Roman constitution as well as the
prosopography of all quaestors known during the Republican period based on the literary
epigraphic and numismatic evidence. The quaestorship was always an office for beginners who
aspired to follow a political career and hence served as institutional entrance to the senate.
Despite their youth quaestors were endowed with functions of great significance at Rome and
abroad such as the control and supervision of Rome's finances. As the book shows the
quaestorship was a prominent and essential part of the Roman administration.
