After the quaestorship had become an independent magistracy, its tenure continued to be annual; but the consular quaestor is so much a part of his superior that, after the prolongation of the _imperium_ had become usual, a biennial tenure, held partly in Rome, partly in a province, must have been the rule.[987] The rank of the quaestor was the lowest in the _cursus honorum_,[988] and he had none of the _insignia_ of the curule magistrates. Coins exhibit him on a straight-legged chair, with a money-bag or money-chest, and a staff the significance of which is unknown. The quaestorian _provinciae_ were determined, before these magistrates entered on their office, by a decree of the Senate,[989] and the individuals were then assigned to their several departments by lot; although, probably always by a special grace of the Senate, there are instances of commanders selecting their own assistants.[990] The departments may be grouped under the three heads of urban, military, and Italian. (i.) The general duty of assistance which the two urban quaestors (_quaestores urbani_) rendered to the consuls was curtailed of one of its attributes by the loss of their criminal jurisdiction about the middle of the second century B.C.; for they could no longer have been needed as delegates in _parricidium_ after the first _quaestio de sicariis_ had been established.[991] Their functions were henceforth, as they had for some time mainly been, financial. Their old association with the _aerarium_ gave them the custody of the keys of this treasury,[992] the guardianship of the standards that were kept there,[993] and, above all, of the great mass of state papers and archives which it held. These contained laws[994] and decrees of the Senate,[995] the list of _judices_,[996] the public accounts (_tabulae publicae_), which included the statements of moneys voted to magistrates[997] and the reckoning of provincial governors with the _aerarium_ in respect to direct tribute paid them by the provincials. Connected with this financial custody were the quaestors’ duties of collection. To them the _publicani_ usually paid the sums which they had guaranteed for the leasing of the public revenues.[998] The collection of fines imposed by the _judicia populi_, and exacted by the _quaestiones_ for peculation and extortion, was also in their hands.[999]