Where there
were to be found buildings suitable for the residence of the _dux_,
and where was located the largest collection of individuals, was
manifestly the most appropriate place for holding the courts and
settling the disputes of the inhabitants of the whole _civitas_, and
this formed a natural centre for the machinery of government. But
every inhabitant of the _civitas_ had equal rights with the townsman
proper, and, as in the old Greek [Greek: polis], the most remote
countryman dwelling on the borders of the _civitas_, if he possessed
the franchise, was as much a citizen of Padua, Siena or Milan, as if
he dwelt within the walls of the city which gave its name to the whole
_civitas_.
A consideration of these facts brings out two important points, which
I will briefly indicate before passing on to a little more detailed
treatment of the powers and the duties of the _judex_. In the first
place it has been made clear that at the time under discussion nothing
that could correctly be called a "municipal system" existed in
Lombardy, and the city, _as such_, had no independent existence or
independent relations with the state. And secondly, it cannot but be
manifest that the position that the city did occupy as actual, if not
necessarily as legal, centre from which issued all the administrative
functions of the district, the residence of the chief authority and
the seat of his courts, would have a marked tendency to increase
slowly, perhaps imperceptibly at first, the importance of its position
at once in the _civitas_ and in the state, and at the same time to
improve the character of its inhabitants and in time increase their
wealth.
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