Note 253 — Chapter I · THE EARLIEST CONSTITUTION OF ROME (continued 2)

Zonaras vii. 13 (who attributes their institution to Publicola) identifies the quaestores with the quaestores parricidii, οἷ πρῶτον μὲν τὰς θανασίμους δίκας ἐδίκαζον, ὄθεν καὶ τὴν προσηγορίαν ταύτην διὰ τὰς ἀνακρίσεις ἐσχήκασι καὶ διὰ τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἐκ τῶν ἀνακρίσεων ζήτησιν. Cf. Varro L.L. v. 81. Mommsen (Staatsr. ii. pp. 523 sq.) thinks the financial quaestors as standing officials originated with the Republic; but he believes (p. 539) that they had their origin in the criminal quaestores (a word which bears the same relation to quaesitores as sartor to sarcitor or quaero to quaesivi, p. 537). Cf. Tac. Ann. xi. 22 (p. 81); Ulpian in Dig. i. 13.