artibus vel universis nobilibus
Langobardis."[23] Although the position of the _duces_ as nobles of
the land never altered, their power relative to that of the king
suffered many modifications. The ducal power--"principes" of
Tacitus--preceding among the Lombards that of the king, we see the
dukes exercising much greater control in the earlier stages of the
monarchy: even, on the death of Clefis--576--actually establishing a
sort of aristocratic republic, under the leadership of thirty dukes,
which lasted for ten years; after which time, on the event of a
dangerous war with the Greeks and the Franks, Authari, the son of
Clefis, gained the throne by election; the dukes giving up to him,
says Paulus Diaconus,[24] the half of their estates for the support of
his dignity, retaining, however, the rest, not as servants of the
king, but as "principes" of the people, an important distinction.
Agiluf--591 to 615--originally duke of Turin, met with much opposition
from the power of the dukes; but when we come to the time of
Rhotari--636 to 652--we find their power already declining, and in the
eighth century, as for example under Liutprand--712 to 736--the laws
show them reduced to the position of the other _judices_, but still
representing a high aristocracy whose consent was, as we have seen,
necessary to all acts of the king.

The most important of the functions of the _dux_ as _judex_ was
holding the _Curtis Regia_ or _Curtis Ducalis_, in the largest city or
"urbs" of every _civitas_. Here, in conjunction with his subordinates,
he heard all cases which did not go up to the king for judgment, and
here was centered the fiscal administration of the _civitas_. To
describe in detail the composition of these _curtes_, their
jurisdiction and methods of procedure, would require a whole chapter
of no mean proportions, and however interesting in itself, would be
out of place in the present investigation. All that it is needful for
us to consider is the relation of these _curtes_ to the municipalities
in which they were located. Of their location within the city walls
the proofs to be found in numbers of the old documents are to me
conclusive. I will give a few examples, however, commencing with two
from the documents which have already been quoted from Brunetti,
relating to the dispute between the bishops of Siena and Arezzo. In
the first of these[25] we see that in the year 715, the king's
_majordomus_ Ambrosius interferes "in Curte