Ample proof of
this is to be found throughout the law codes, but we need not pause to
cite such confirmation, if we remember the natural evolution of the
office of _dux_ from his position in the original Lombard military
system. As a good example of this military leadership we may refer to
the provisions of the twenty-ninth law in the sixth book of the laws
of Liutprand.[21]
What is of the greatest importance to us, however, in bringing out the
relations of the cities to the rest of the community in Lombard and
Frankish times, is the position of the _judex_ as duke and as count
within his own _judiciaria_, that is, within the _civitas_ of which he
was both lord and judge. It was through him, or perhaps I should say
chiefly through him, that the city was at this period connected with
the state; and it was principally by the exercise of the functions of
his office that the city formed a part of the state. His official
residence, in the majority of cases, and his courts, were situated
within the city's limits; thus making the official machinery of
government a part of the city life, and causing the city to become an
actual if not a legally recognized part of the constitution of the
state. As far as this investigation is concerned, this represents the
prominent feature of the power and position of the head of the
_civitas_.
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