Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/180

 ruled exclusively by kings or by dukes. It follows, therefore, that Athanarich's rank was inevitably borrowed from the Roman population, which was associated with, rather than subject to, the newcomers. The German word for judge, richter, comes, as is well-known, from the Roman rector and it is curious to observe that, in the Roumanian language, dirigere, the verb corresponding to regere, has survived in the verbs a drege, a direge, while one who directs and would have borne the Roman title of director, is known as a diregător, or dregător.

The judge in Roumania, as in Sardinia, where, for some reason, general conditions resembled those of Roumania very closely, had a whole district under his rule, in most cases the whole community of a valley. This district was named, and is so named to this day in Wallachia (which was formed gradually by the free combination of small judicial districts), a județ (judicium) ; the limits of the modern districts do not differ greatly from those of the old peasant communities. In Moldavia the historical process was different, the State here being formed artificially from fortresses, each with its ținut or tenutum.

A Transylvanian document, fortunately preserved, of the late 16th century, shows the customary manner of electing the judge in olden times. The peasantry assembled in the church which, as in cities in the west in mediaeval times, was used as the communal meeting-hall. A certain number of candidates were chosen after a first scrutiny; it was only after a second vote that the village leader, whose tenure of office was for life, was finally elected.

When defensive wars were undertaken, the members of these free rural microcosms were led to battle by a duke. His Latin title is lost in the mists of time, the 17th century ducă and the modern duce being only neologisms from the Italian. A Slavonic term, voevode, which has the