Such an official was naturally located at the place where the district courts held their sessions, and where the fiscal duties which he especially had in charge were most easily executed. As we have seen in the case of the _dux_, convenience points to the _urbs_ of each _civitas_ as a natural centre, and consequently here again we find the office of gastald as another agent in bringing the municipal division into prominence; but doing this, we must always remember, simply from the fact of convenience or fitness, and not in any sense as a matter of constitutional necessity. Like that of the _dux_, the jurisdiction of the gastald was exercised over the remotest farm of the _civitas_ as much as over the palace in the city: _de jure_, the city gained nothing by the circumstance of its being the centre of the administration of any office; but, _de facto_, the holding of such a position can easily be seen to have been an important element in its growth and development. This fact is even of greater importance in the case of the gastald than in that of the _dux_, because, on account of the elimination of the character of local ruler, which was indissolubly attached to the office of the latter, the gastald brought local affairs into direct relation with other parts of the social system of the kingdom, especially connecting them with the king or centre of the whole. Such a connection, as may be inferred from what has just been said, while legally true, of course, of the whole _civitas_, had practically the effect of bringing the cities chiefly into relation with the rest of the Lombard constitution; and, consequently, some writers point to the office of gastald as the connecting link between municipal life and the new state life of the Teutonic system. This statement seems to me to be true except in so far as it makes the gastald the only connecting link. For we have already seen the _dux_ holding the same relation, only in a less direct manner, owing to the intrusion of other interests belonging to his position; and we shall shortly have to consider the _scabinus_, another local officer, who, under Carlovingian rule, accomplished even more in this direction than the gastald. I do not wish to fail in appreciation of the important influence of this office in the development of the slowly growing idea of individuality in the cities of Lombardy, only to point out that it was not the only "connecting link" between the municipal units and the state as a whole.