Note 49 — BOOK IX. CONCERNING FUGITIVES AND REFUGEES.
S. P. (Samuel Parsons) Scott translation
The gardingus was the third in rank of the Visigothic nobility, coming after the dux and comes. Unlike either of them, however, he, as a rule, exercised no public employment; and being ordinarily a person of great wealth, and descended from a long line of ancestors, materially contributed, by the richness of his appointments, and the number of his retinue, to the pomp and splendor of the royal court.—[Ed.]