The questeurs are Roman magistrates in charge of finances. Created 2 in 447 av. J. - C. they are 4 in 267 av. J. - C., 20 pennies Sylla and 40 pennies César. They are the guards of the Treasury, in charge of finances of the army and the provinces.

According to the lex Villlia annalis of 180 av. J. - C., it is necessary to have made ten years of stipendia , of military service in the infantry or six in the cavalry to aspire to quaestorship. The necessary minimum age is 28 years for the patricians and 30 years for the plebeian after the reform of Sylla. It is the first function which must be exerted in the Cursus honorum .

One distinguishes three types of questeurs:

• urban questeurs ( quæstores urbani ) known as also questeurs of the Saturn furnace bridge ( quæstores ærarii Saturni ), two, which has the load of the treasure of the State deposited with the temple of Saturn on the Forum. They are assisted secretaries, the scribes of the furnace bridge ( scribæ ærarii ).
• the questeurs of the fleet ( quæstores classici ), four, who seems is charged perception of the customs and tax in the four cities where they reside: Ostie, Holds in Campania, Ariminum and Lilybée in Sicily.
• ordinary questeurs, depend on the higher magistrates for the financial administration out of Rome, that of the armies and the provinces. Each army apart from Rome thus comprises a questeur who acts as general paymaster. The Roman expansion involves that of the ordinary questeurs, of which the double number under César because of its conquests and its intense military activity.

---- In a more contemporary way, a questeur is today a member of the office of a parliamentary Assemblée in charge of the problems of interior administration of the assembly (establishment of the budget, personnel, buildings, material).

In France, in each parliamentary assembly (National Assembly, Senate), there exists a College of three questeurs (in general, two resulting from the majority and one of the opposition) which are members of Parliament elected at the beginning of each session by their parliamentary pars. Created by the senatus consult of the 28 frimaire year XII (December 20th, 1803), this collegial organization with the upper hand, without being dependant on the decisions of the executive power, on the administration, personnel and appropriations of each Parliament.

This original institution, guarantees independence and of collegial structure in the management of the internal questions, was included in other Parliaments, in particular in Italy and Belgium, in the old French territories and with the the European Parliament.