Of some importance in connection with the early history of the cities are the questions which arise in relation to the fiscal duties and privileges of the _curtes regia_ and its officers. In it was centered the fiscal administration of the kingdom; and its officers, in the various grades from the _dux_ downward, received and were responsible for the revenues of the state. So prominent a part belonged to this form of the functions of the _curtes_ that it is quite common to hear the revenues themselves, by a transposition of terms, called by that name, or by that of _palatium_, a word sometimes found even for the _curtes regia_ in their proper general sense; but this, from what I have been able to gather concerning its legitimate use, should properly be applied only to the residence, or by conversion the revenues of the king himself[35]. What is of interest to us in this matter is the fact that the _curtis regia_ fell heir to the _publicum_ or communal property of the old Roman _curia_, when these were overthrown by the Lombard conquest. In considering this phase of civil administration under the Lombard system, we are again brought face to face with the old question of the survival or non-survival of corporate existence among the cities. For if it could be proved that the municipality in its corporate capacity retained the communal property and administered it, there would appear to be good grounds for the assertion of the continuance of some form of quasi-independent municipal government; but if, on the other hand, it were found that the property of the municipality passed to the new head of local administration or to the central power, it would be evident that the continuance of the municipal system as such was a logical impossibility; for, deprived at once of its property and of its revenues, it would have had no vitality to keep it from a speedy end.