We must be careful, however, to avoid any confusion of
ideas as to the importance which it gave to the city as a municipal
unit or as a corporation. It was in no way what we could call a
municipal government, even admitting a rather loose interpretation of
the term, as the supporters of the theory of the survival of the Roman
curial system would have us believe.[22] The _judex_ may be called
"the highest municipal officer among the Lombards," and this
designation still be correct, though perhaps misleading. He was the
highest officer of the locality, and his official duties were for the
most part carried on within the city; but the leading fact we must
keep prominently before us is, that he was the head of the whole
_civitas_, and not in any sense of the city as such: and further, that
his powers over the rural portions of the _civitas_ were in no sense
added to any purely municipal powers he may have possessed; but, on
the contrary, if we are to draw any distinctions, the municipality
formed a part of the land division. That the whole _civitas_ was
commonly named after the largest town contained within its borders,
and that the seat of power was generally placed within the city walls,
are facts too evidently brought about by motives of convenience and
expediency and by the force of old association, to lead to any
confusion in appreciating the proper place of the city.
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