Quaestio perpetua

Politics of ancient Rome
Periods
Roman Kingdom 753–509 BC Roman Republic 509–27 BC Roman Empire 27 BC – AD 395 Principate 27 BC – AD 284 Dominate AD 284–641 Western AD 395–476 Eastern AD 395–1453 Timeline
Constitution
Kingdom Republic Sullan republic Empire Augustan reforms Late Empire
Political institutions
Imperium Collegiality Auctoritas Roman citizenship Cursus honorum
Assemblies
Centuriate Curiate Plebeian Tribal
Ordinary magistrates
Consul Praetor Quaestor Promagistrate Aedile Tribune Censor Governor
Extraordinary magistrates
Corrector Dictator Magister equitum Consular tribune Rex Triumviri Decemviri
Public law
Mos maiorum Ius Senatus consultum Quaestio perpetua Senatus consultum ultimum
Titles and honours
Emperor Legatus Dux Officium Praeses Praefectus Vicarius Vigintisexviri Triumvir monetalis Lictor Magister militum Imperator Princeps senatus Pontifex maximus Augustus Caesar Tetrarch
Other countries
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A quaestio perpetua (also judicia publica) was a permanent jury court in the Roman Republic. The first was established by the lex Calpurnia de repetundis in 149 BC to try cases on corruption and extortion. More were established in following years to hear cases on various crimes, such as maiestas (treason), ambitus (electoral corruption), peculatus (theft of public funds), and vis (public violence). Unlike the older trials before a popular assembly, which had to be convoked for that purpose by a sitting magistrate, the courts were always open and any citizen could bring charges.

From the formation of the quaestiones through to the lex Aurelia in 70 BC, the composition of the juries was a topic of constant political struggle. Initially, the juries were made up of senators; after the reforms of Gaius Sempronius Gracchus in 122 BC they were made up of equestrians; after the Sullan reforms they were returned entirely to the senate before the lex Aurelia split the juries into three groups of senators, equites, and tribuni aerarii.^[1]

The quaestiones were a core part of Roman public law from their introduction through the late republic. During the imperial period, they gradually fell out of use, with many of their public functions transferred to the senate or other imperial magistrates. By the third century AD, they were obsolete.