The Roman assemblies from their origin to the end of the Republic - George Willis Botsford

[1538] Cic. Planc. 6. 16.

[1539] IV. 50. 6 ff.

[1540] Livy viii. 18; Val. Max. ii. 5. 3.

[1542] (1) In 186 for the trial of the Bacchanalians (Livy xxxix. 8-19); (2) in 180 two courts for the detection and trial of poisoners in Rome and Italy (Livy xl. 37). The two courts established in 186 for the trial of poisoners and for putting down the last of the Bacchanalians are mentioned by Livy xxxix. 41 without a hint as to the manner of their appointment; cf. Greenidge, Hist. of Rome, i. 135, n. 4.

[1543] Polyb. vi. 16. 2; Cic. Dom. 13. 33.

[1544] Dion. Hal. xx. 7. Though no mention is here made of a quaestio extraordinaria, we may assume one for every such instance. In actual iudicia populi the senate had no part.

[1545] Livy xxvi. 33 f.

[1546] 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.

[1547] Lange, Röm. Alt. i. 728. The formula varied with the occasion, and other magistrates were often associated with the consuls in this supreme power.