Editing Quaestor (section)

==== On campaign ====

On campaign, provincial quaestors acted as subordinate military officers to their attached superior, taking a role "analogous to... that [of] other members of the governor's entourage, such as his legates".{{sfn|Pina|Díaz|2019|p=181}} At times, the quaestor could get into tension with the governor's legates over respective spheres of responsibility or accountability; officially, however, the quaestor was "higher up the chain of command... [as], besides the governor, he was the only magistrate [and] representative of the Senate and the Roman people", giving him "greater authority than legates in all areas of provincial command".<ref>{{harvnb|Pina|Díaz|2019|pp=181–82|ps=, also noting that a quaestor's tent received three guards when those of legates received only two.}}</ref>

Quaestors are documented at various times leading and raising troops and fleets under the command of their governors.{{sfn|Pina|Díaz|2019|pp=182–83}} Some quaestors were delegated significant open-ended responsibilities far exceeding administrative tasks: [[Lucullus]], for example, during the [[First Mithridatic War]] as [[Sulla]]'s proquaestor, led troops, assembled fleets, travelled the eastern Mediterranean as a diplomat, intervened to overthrow governments, commanded naval battles, captured prisoners, and levied taxes and indemnities.{{sfn|Pina|Díaz|2019|pp=183–84}}

When a governor left the province, he normally left it to his quaestor's command (though this was at times given instead to one of his high-ranking legates).{{sfn|Pina|Díaz|2019|p=186}} If a governor died, however, the quaestor generally assumed command of the forces until replacement, possibly with ''imperium pro praetore''.{{sfn|Pina|Díaz|2019|p=187–88}} The specifics of how this ''imperium'' was delegated after the death of its actual possessor are unclear: some scholars believe that this was automatic, whereas others believed that a proconsul had to first endow his quaestor with propraetorian ''imperium''.{{sfn|Pina|Díaz|2019|p=190 (n.&nbsp;295)}}

A provincial quaestor also could be sent as a diplomatic representative. Two famous examples thereof are those of [[Tiberius Gracchus]] and [[Sulla]]: Gracchus negotiated a peace treaty on behalf of his proconsul allowing some twenty thousand soldiers to leave with their lives (though the treaty was later invalidated by the Senate) and Sulla negotiated the capture of [[Jugurtha]] at the end of the [[Jugurthine War]].{{sfn|Pina|Díaz|2019|p=192}}