As soon as the Merovingian monarch had made himself master of Gaul, he set himself to maintain and keep in working order the administrative machinery of the Romans, save that the administrative unit was henceforth no longer the _provincia_ but the _civitas_, which generally took the name of _pagus_, and was placed under the authority of a count, _comes_ or _grafio_ (_Graf_). Perhaps this was not entirely an innovation, for it appears that at the end of the Roman supremacy certain _civitates_ had already a _comes_. Further, several _pagi_ could be united under the authority of a _dux_. The _pagus_ seems to have generally been divided into hundreds (_centenae_). But the Roman administrative machinery was too delicate to be handled by barbarians; it could not survive for long, but underwent changes and finally disappeared. Thus the Merovingians tried to levy the same direct taxes as the Romans had done, the _capitatio terrena_ and the _capitatio humana_, but they ceased to be imposts reassessed periodically in accordance with the total sum fixed as necessary to meet the needs of the state, and became fixed annual taxes on lands or persons; finally, they disappeared as general imposts, continuing to exist only as personal or territorial dues. In the same way the Roman municipal organization, that of the _curiae_, survived for a considerable time under the Merovingians, but was used only for the registration of written deeds; under the Carolingians it disappeared, and with it the old senatorial nobility which had been that of the Empire. The administration of justice (apart from the king's tribunal) seems to have been organized on a system borrowed partly from Roman and partly from Germanic institutions; it naturally tends to assume popular forms. Justice is administered by the count (_comes_) or his deputy (_centenarius_ or _vicarius_), but on the verdict of notables called in the texts _boni homines_ or _rachimburgii_. This takes place in an assembly of all the free subjects, called _mallus_, at which every free man is bound to attend at least a certain number of times a year, and in which are promulgated the general acts emanating from the king. The latter could issue commands or prohibitions under the name of _bannus_, the violation of which entailed a fine of 60 _solidi_; the king also administered justice (_in palatio_), assisted by the officers of his household, his jurisdiction being unlimited and at the same time undefined. He could hear all causes, but was not bound to hear any, except, apparently, accusations of deliberate failure of justice and breach of trust on the part of the _rachimburgii_. Character of the Merovingian kingship.