Note 1546 — Chapter XI · THE FUNCTIONS OF THE COMITIA CENTURIATA
Reading edition
The following pre-Gracchan quaestiones extraordinariae, according to our authorities, owed their existence to a popular vote. (1) The lex de pecunia regis Antiochi of the two Q. Petilii, tribunes in 185, for the establishment of a special court to try L. Scipio Asiagenus and some others for the misappropriation of public money; Livy xxxviii. 54, p. 399 below.—(2) The plebiscite of M. Marcius Sermo and Q. Marcius Scylla, tribunes in 172, directed the senate to establish a special court for the trial of M. Popillius on the charge of having unjustly subjugated and enslaved the Ligurians; Livy xlii. 21. 5.—(3) By the lex Caecilia, 154, a special quaestio repetundarum was established for the trial of L. Lentulus, retired consul of 156; Val. Max. vi. 9. 10.—(4) Another special court for the trial of L. Hostilius Tubulus on the charge of having accepted bribes while president of a murder court (quaestio inter sicarios) was ordered by a plebiscite of P. Mucius Scaevola in 141, whereupon the accused went into exile; Cic. Fin. ii. 16. 54; iv. 28. 77; v. 22. 62; N. D. i. 23. 63; iii. 30. 74; Att. xii. 5 b; Ascon. 22; Mommsen, Röm. Strafr. 197.