institution
Quaestio peculatus
the embezzlement court
also: quaestio peculatus, inquiry on embezzlement
The standing criminal court at Rome that tried cases of peculatus, the embezzlement or misappropriation of public money and property. Cicero recalls it as the grim, unpopular lot that fell to Servius Sulpicius in his praetorship, contrasting it with the goodwill Murena won from the jurisdiction of civil suits.