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
a powerful lord, and though he, of course, owed fealty and service to
the king, he was by no means a king's servant, like his successor the
Carlovingian count. The gastald, on the other hand, was eminently a
servant of the central power; and whether or not he was engaged
exclusively in looking after the fiscal interests of the masters who
employed him, he had no power and no influence except such as he
derived from the source of his authority. He was a king's minister and
nothing more, and we can easily appreciate that the amount of power he
was enabled to exercise could never exceed the amount of influence in
local affairs possessed at any particular time by the central
government, whose representative he was.

But the very nature of the source from which the power of his office
is derived is what connects it vitally with the subject of our
enquiry. We have seen the _dux_ as head--in the earliest times almost
independent head--of the whole _civitas_, including rural and city
jurisdiction. We have seen him as an official, depending from the
king, it is true, and holding the king's _placita_ and executing the
law, but also holding _placita_ of his own; appearing as a power