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A quaestio perpetua (also judicia publica) was a permanent jury court in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. 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.