the gastald, the sculdahis, and later the scabinus, represent offices which formed an integral part of the constitution of the government, and appointment to which, whether made by the dux or by the central power, involved a necessary duty of a determinate character.  An accurate determination of the relative positions of these various minor officials, of the extent of their jurisdiction and of its limitations, presents one of the most difficult problems which the student of these dark ages of history is called upon to solve.  The peculiar character of the sources from which we have to derive all our information makes it quite possible for all writers on the subject to disagree with regard to details, and leaves a wide margin for discussion even on the important characteristics of the various offices.  Avoiding as much as possible the points of controversy, I will endeavor to give the general features of the more important of these offices, the conclusions given in each case resulting from an examination of the different theories held and of the sources on which these are based.

The officer who seems to have ranked next in importance to the dux within the limits of the civitas is the gastald, who goes indifferently by the name of gastaldus, castaldius, or gastaldio.  His powers were of a judicial character, and he shared with the dux the title of judex; but whether he enjoyed the full prerogative of a judex civitatis, or whether his judicial functions were of a more limited character and referred exclusively to matters of a fiscal nature belonging to the curtis regia or the camera of the king, is a question to which the evidence to be gathered from the law codes gives no decided answer.[42] It seems probable, however, from the importance seemingly attached to the holders of this title in the many cases in which they are mentioned in the old laws and documents, that their jurisdiction was of a broader character than would be implied by a restriction to purely fiscal functions; in fact, that it approached 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.