As Capua was a part of the Roman state, it may be comprised in the internal history. Wardens (praefecti) had been sent thither from the year 431 (436), and the pretor L. Furius composed laws for the city. Livy, who relates this, adds, that the Campanians had requested both, as a remedy for the internal disturbances, which had worn out their state. But the commentators have been justly surprised, how a magistrate under the Oscan name of Meddix tuticus could have afterwards been at the head of the Campanian republic: and we may remark in addition, that the dignity and estimation, which Capua enjoyed down to the war with Hannibal, exclude every thought of this city having been degraded to the most complete state of subjection. But since brief statements of this kind can least of all be rejected as fictitious, it remains for us to endeavour to understand them. That a magistrate of a city which was most friendly to it, should have been called to legislate, would have been something quite common: when confusion prevailed in their domestic affairs, the nations of antiquity thought least of all of expecting relief from the collective deliberation of legislative assemblies, nay the idea would have appeared to them senseless: and that Capua was suffering from unfortunate dissensions, is rendered probable by the division between the nobility and commonalty in the Latin war.