tio Majestatis; de vi; de
sicariis &c; de veneficiis; de parricidio; de falso; de repetundis;
peculatus; ambitus; or courts for trying cases of treason, violence,
assassination, poisoning, parricide, forgery, extortion, embezzlement,
and bribery. And there may have been more, e.g. de adulteriis and de
plagiis, for trying cases of adultery and the enslavement of freemen.
[Sidenote: Procedure in the courts.] His object in consolidating them
was to take from the Comitia the settlement of criminal cases, and to
obviate the necessity for appointing special commissions. For there
was no appeal from the quaestio, and a special commission was seldom
requisite when so many courts were available.

To preside in these courts there were six praetors; but, as there were
more courts than praetors, a senator, called judex quaestionis, was
appointed annually for each court where a president was wanting,
something after the fashion by which one of our judges sometimes in
press of business appoints a barrister as his deputy to clear off the
cases. The praetor, or judex quaestionis, presided over the judices in
each court, and the judices returned a verdict by a majority of votes,
sometimes given by ballot, sometimes openly. In choosing these judices
this was the process. The whole number available was, it is said, 300,
divided into three decuriae. In any given case the praetor named the
decuria from which the jurymen were to be taken, and then drew from an
urn containing their names the number assigned by law for the case to
be decided. Each side could then challenge a certain number, and fresh
names were drawn from the urn in place of those challenged. What Sulla
did was to supply these decuriae from the senators instead of the
equites.

One of the permanent courts found by Sulla already existing was that
of the Centumviri, who had jurisdiction over disputed inheritances.
The members of it were elected by the tribes, three by each tribe,
105 in all. Though it was directly elected by the people, Sulla could
apprehend no danger from such a court, and did not meddle with it.

[Sidenote: Other measures attributed to Sulla.] Other measures are
attributed to Sulla on evidence more or less probable, such as the
suppression of gratuitous distributions of corn; the abolition of the
right of freedmen to vote, and of the reserved seats appropriated to
the equites at public festivals; the re-establishment in Asia of fixed
taxes instead of the fa