The quaesitor ( Greek: 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]