The quaesitor (Greek, Modern (1453-);: κοιαισίτωρ, κυαισίτωρ) was a Late Roman/Byzantine police official of Constantinople, specifically a magistrate, responsible for controlling the flow of legal and illegal immigration into the capital city of Byzantium.[1] The office of the quaesitor was first established in 539 through the Novella 80 of Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565), designed to deal with the arrival of unemployed people to Constantinople living as criminals or beggars.[1] One of his functions was to investigate people passing through Constantinople by determining their names, origins, and reasons for being in the city.[1] Furthermore, the quaesitor had the authority to deal with unemployed persons by forcing the physically fit among the unemployed to work in a public industry such as a bakery (if an unemployed person refused to work, he would be expelled from Constantinople).[1] The quaesitor was also granted judicial functions whereby his court dealt with certain types of crimes such as forgery.[2]
. J. B. Bury. History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian, Volume 2. Mineola, NY. Dover Publications, Inc.. 1958. 0-486-20399-9.