Note 31 — Chapter I · THE POPULUS AND ITS EARLIEST POLITICAL DIVISIONS
Reading edition
Dion. Hal. iv. 15; Nissen, Ital. Landesk. ii. 9-15. Doubtless oppidum applied primarily to the enclosing wall, thence to the space enclosed; Caes. B. G. v. 21; Varro, L. L. v. 153. From the beginning it must have been the chief or central settlement of the pagus, though the organization was not urban but territorial-tribal; cf. Pöhlmann, Anfänge Roms, 40 ff.