more nearly to the power of the _dux_ and _judex civitatis_, though
being in some way of less extent or possibly supplementary to it.
Perhaps the distinction would come out more clearly if we said that
the office was characterized by its relations to the fiscal functions
of the state, but that its duties and privileges appear not to have
been restricted to affairs of that nature. It is certainly true that
very many instances occur in which the duke and the gastald are
alluded to, whether in laws or in contracts, in precisely the same
terms and in positions which would seem to indicate an almost perfect
equality of dignity. As, for example, in a meeting between Liutprand
and Pope Zacharias, described by Anastasius Bibliotecharius,[43] where
dukes and gastalds are together reckoned among the _judices_: here the
king goes to meet the pope "cum suis judicibus," and gives him as an
escort "Agripandum ducem Clusinum, nepotem suum, seu Tacipertum
Castaldium et Remingum, Castaldum Tuscanensem." In spite of this
apparent equality, however, it seems to me nearer the truth to
consider the position of the gastald as an inferior one to that of the
_dux_, especially in Lombard times, before that official was replaced
by the _comes_ of the Carlovingians.

The important point which it is necessary to emphasize in this
connection is the fact that the gastald held his tenure, not from the
_dux_ as his subordinate, but from the king in person, and for this
reason can more fitly be compared with the later count than with the
_dux_ of the Lombards. Consequently it is in the matter of tenure that
I think is to be found the difference in power between the two
officers. In addition to his official authority, the _dux_ was
possessed of a power and an influence entirely his own, derived quite
as much from the number of his vassals and his position in the
_civitas_ as from the grant he received from the king. At home he was