The village, called the _vicus_ by Tacitus, was the administrative unit; but, for purposes of common defence, a neighbourhood of villages was combined into a district, or _pagus_, corresponding to what, after the English had settled in Britain, was known as the _hundred_, that is, the territory occupied by a hundred heads of families. Its chief is called by Tacitus the _princeps_, who is known in later times as the _alderman_, that is, the "older," and therefore more reverenced, man. A union of _pagi_ formed a tribe, but our forefathers had not yet advanced to the formation of a nation. In war the hosts were led by generals, called _duces_ by Tacitus, and probably elected by the _principes_ of the different districts. The confederacy had as yet no kings; kingship was the result of the conquest of the foreign country of Britain, the victorious general deriving an immense accession of authority from the vast quantities of land which fell to his disposal. Free as were their institutions, our forefathers recognised nevertheless gradations of rank. There was the _eorl_ (earl), or man of noble birth. Then came the _ceorl_, or churl, a term which has now become one of contempt, but which then signified the freeman who was entitled to his share of the common land. Lowest in the social scale came the _laet_, or landless man, who cultivated the soil for his lord. It is improbable that slavery existed to any considerable extent before the conquest of Britain, when the conquered, if not exterminated, sank into a position to which death must have been preferable. Every man above the rank of _laet_ was free in theory; but the origins of dependent relationship are seen in the institution called by Tacitus the Comitatus, and by the English the _Gefolge_ or _Gesith_. This was the bodyguard of the _princeps_, who fought round him in battle, and over whose interests he watched, probably rewarding them with grants of land whenever a permanent conquest or occupation was effected. The morality of the Germans is said by Tacitus to have been very high. "They are almost the only barbarians who are content with one wife; there being, however, a few exceptions among them who contract more than one marriage, not from motives of passion, but on account of their nobility of birth." "Good customs," he says in another place, "are of greater influence there than good laws elsewhere;" and much respect was paid to women. Justice was rude, as might be expected, every man being his own avenger; but, even in the earliest times, murder might be atoned for by the payment of a money fine called by the English the _wergild_, which was graduated according to the rank of the person slain.