The introduction of this new feature into city government seems to have been the result of an attempt to correct certain abuses in the exercise of power by the duke or head of the courts of the _civitas_. The duke had the right, as we know, to summon all the freemen in his jurisdiction to his _placita_, and to fine them according to the law if they failed to answer his summons. The fines collected in this manner formed a substantial part of the revenues of the _judex_ imposing them, and consequently arose the abuse, which seems to have been a great cause of complaint in the eighth century, that the freemen were summoned to attend _placita_ at frequent intervals during the year, when there was no business of any importance to transact, and when the sole object of the summons was to furnish an excuse for imposing the fine. An attempt to remedy this injustice was made when the number of _placita_ which any one _judex_ could hold during the year was limited by law to three,[64] and the dates for these definitely determined. But the abuse does not seem to have been satisfactorily corrected till the time when Charlemagne formally substituted for the body of the freemen, who in theory were supposed to attend the _placita_ and assist in the judgments, a limited number of men who, as regularly constituted judges, either assisted the _judices_ or made judgments of their own, as the case might be. These officers were the _scabini_, whose position we are now investigating. All of the best authorities agree that no authentic allusion to the office in Italy is to be found prior to the establishment of Frankish rule. The word _scavinus_ or _scabinus_ sometimes occurs, but in every case the document containing it has been proved spurious on other grounds. For instance, Brunetti[65] publishes a donation of the bishop Speciosus of Florence, to the monastery of the cathedral, purporting to belong to the year 724, in which a certain "Alfuso scavino" is mentioned; but it has been proved that the monastery was only founded in the year 760, and though it may, at a later date, have received the donation, the significancy of the use of the term vanishes. The first authenticated use of the name of the new judge seems to be in a _placitum_ of Charlemagne of the year 781.[66] In this the parties to a suit are mentioned as having already appeared before the "Comitem et suos Escapinios." Eight years later, in a _Praeceptum_ of Charlemagne,[67] commission is given to the _comes_ Tentmann "superque vicarios et Scabinos, quos sub se habet, diligenter inquirat."