Scanned text contains errors.
982 QUANTI MINORIS.
the senate and only announced to the emperor. (Becker, Ha?idb. der Rom. Altertli. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 332, &c. ; Walter, Gesch. des R’6?n. Redds, p. 371.)
The proconsul or praetor, who had the adminis tration of a province, was attended by a quaestor. This quaestor had undoubtedly to perform the same functions as those who accompanied the armies into the field ; they were in fact the same officers, with the exception that the former were stationary in their province during the time of their office, and had consequently rights and duties which those who accompanied the armies could not have. In Sicily, the earliest Roman province, there were two quaestors answering to the two former divi sions of the island into the Carthaginian and Greek .territory. The one resided at Lilybaeum, the other at Syracuse. Besides the duties which they had in common with the pay-masters of the armies, they had to levy those parts of the public revenue in the province which were not farmed by the publicani, to control the publicani, and to for ward the sums raised, together with the accounts of them, to the aerarium. (Pseudo-Ascon. in Verrin. p. 167, Orelli.) In the provinces the quaestors had the same jurisdiction as the curule aediles at Rome. (Gains, i. 6.) The relation ex isting between a praetor or proconsul of a province and his quaestor was according to ancient custom regarded as resembling that between a father and his son. (Cic. Divin. 19, c." Verr. ii. 1. 15, pro Plane. 11, ad Fam. iii. 10.) When a quaestor died in his province, the praetors had the right to appoint a proquaestor in his stead (Cic. c. Verr. I. c.), and when the praetor was absent, the quaestor supplied his’ place, and was then attended by lie- tors. (Cic. ad Fam. ii. 15′, pro Plane. 41.) In what manner the provinces were assigned to the quaestors after their election at Rome, is not men tioned, though it was probably by lot, as in the case of the quaestor ostiensis. But in the consulship of Decimus Drusus and Porcina it was decreed that the provinces should be distributed among the quaestors by lot ex senatus consulto. (Dig. 1. tit. 13. § 2; Cic. c. Verr. ii. 1. 13.) During the time of the empire this practice continued, and if the number of quaestors elected was not sufficient for the number of provinces, those quaestors of the preceding year, who had had no province, might be sent out. This was, however, the case only in the provinces of the Roman people, for in those of the emperors there were no quaestors at all. In the time of Constantine the title of quaestor sacripalatii was given to a minister of great importance, whose office probably originated in that of the candidati principis. Respecting his power and influence see Walter, Gesch. d. Rom, R. p. 365. [L.S.]
QUAESTORII LUDI. [Luoi quaestorii.]
QUAESTORIUM. [castra, pp. 249, a, .253, b.]
QUALES–QUALES. [servus.] . QUALUS. [calathus. ]
QUANTI MINORIS is an actio which a buyer had against the seller of a thing, in respect of any non-apparent faults or imperfections, at the time of the sale, even if the seller was not aware of them, or for any defects in the qualities of the thing which the seller had warranted: the object of the actio was to obtain an abatement in the purchase-money. This action was to be brought within a year or within six months, according as was a Cautio or not. The actio quanti minoris
QUINQUATRUS.
might be brought as often as a new defect was dis covered ; but the purchaser could not recover the value of the same thing twice. [emtio et venditio.] (Dig. 21. tit. 1 ; 44. tit. 2. s. 25, §1.) [G.L.]
QUARTARIUS, a Roman measure of capacity, one fourth of the sextarius., and consequently a little less than a quarter of a pint imperial. It is also found in the Greek system of liquid measures under the name of Teraprov. [P. S.J
QUASILLARIAE. [calathus.]
QUASILLUM. [calathus.]
QUATUORVIRI JUKI DICUNDO. [Co-lonia, p. 318, b.]
QUATUORVIRI VIARUM CURANDA-RUM. [ViAE.]
QUERELA INOFFICIOSI TESTAMENT TI. [testament lim.]
QUINARIUS. [denarius.]
QUINCUNX. [As, p. 140, b.]
QUINDECIMVIRI. [decemviri, p. 387, a.]
QUINQUAGESIMA, the fiftieth or a tax of two per cent, upon the value of. all slaves that were sold, was instituted by Augustus according to Dion Cassius (Iv. 31). Tacitus (xiii. 31), however, mentions the twenty-fifth or a tax of four per cent, upon the sale of slaves in the time of Nero: if both passages are correct, this tax must have been increased after the time of Augustus, probably by Caligula, who, we are told by Suetonius (in vita, c. 40), introduced many new taxes. (Burmann, de Vectig. p. 69, &c.)
We are also told by Tacitus (Ann. xiii. 51) that Nero abolished the Quinquagesima; this must have been a different tax from the above-mentioned one, and may have been similar to the Quinquagesima mentioned by Cicero (c. Verr. iii. 49) in connection with the Aratores of Sicily.
A duty of two per cent, was levied at Athens upon exports and imports. [pentecoste.]
QUINQUATRUS or QUINQUA’TRIA, a festival sacred to Minerva, which was celebrated on the 19th of March (a. d. xiv. Kal Apr.), and was so called according to Varro (de Ling. Lat. vi. 14, ed. Mtiller), because it was the fifth day after the Ides, in the same way as the Tusculans called a festival on the sixth day after the Ides Sexatms, and one on the seventh Septimatrus. Gellius (ii. 21) and Festus (s. v.~) also give the same etymology, and^ the latter states that the Faliscans too called a festival on the tenth day after the Idea Decimatrus. (Comp. Muller,jEftrMsfer, vol. ii. p. 49.) Both Varro and Festus state that the Quinquatrus was celebrated for only^one day, but Ovid (Fast. iii. 809, &c.) says that it was celebrated for five days, and was for this reason called by this name: that on the first day no blood was shed, but that on the last four there were contests of gladiators. It would ^ appear however from the above-mentioned-authorities that the first day was only the festival properly so called, and that the last four were merely an addition made perhaps in the time of Caesar to gratify the people, who became so passionately fond of gladiatorial combats. The ancient Calendars too assign only one day to the festival.
Ovid (L c.) says that this festival was celebrated in commemoration of the birth-day of Minerva ; but according to Festus it was sacred to Minerva because her temple on the Aventine was consecrated on that day. On the fifth day of the festival, according to Ovid (iii. 849), the trumpets
