Questor of parricide, a special magistrate that the people named, and to whom they gave the authority to judge parricide and other crimes that were committed in Rome, because before, the consuls were forbidden to judge any Roman citizen on their own initiative; however, as declining morals increased daily the number of crimes, the people saw for themselves the necessity to resolve the problem, by giving this authority to a magistrate. The same thing was done for the provinces, calling the praetors who were in charge of this task quaesitores , questors. We learn the origin of this commissioner, called questor of parricide in the first law, § . 23. of the origin of law. But it must be noted that this questor named a judge to the case, that is, of the crime, who drew lots for other judges, formed the tribunal, and presided under him at the judgment.

It is wise to note here the part that the senate took in the nomination of this questor of parricide , in order to see how the powers were balanced in this matter. Sometimes the senate called for the election of a dictator to fulfill the function of questor , sometimes they ordered that the people be called together by a tribunal to name a questor ; finally, sometimes the people named a magistrate to make his report to the senator on a given crime, and to ask that he name the questor , as seen in the judgment of Lucius Scipio, in Livy. Book VIII.