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.