[Footnote 56: See the Gothic history of Procopius, (l. i. c. 1,
l. ii. c. 6,) the Epistles of Cassiodorus, (passim, but
especially the vth and vith books, which contain the formulae, or
patents of offices,) and the Civil History of Giannone, (tom. i.
l. ii. iii.) The Gothic counts, which he places in every Italian
city, are annihilated, however, by Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, P.
i. l. viii. p. 227; for those of Syracuse and Naples (Var vi. 22,
23) were special and temporary commissions.]