f Witiza, his two sons were supplanted by the
ambition of Roderic, a noble Goth, whose father, the duke or governor of
a province, had fallen a victim to the preceding tyranny. The monarchy
was still elective; but the sons of Witiza, educated on the steps of the
throne, were impatient of a private station. Their resentment was the
more dangerous, as it was varnished with the dissimulation of courts:
their followers were excited by the remembrance of favours and the
promise of a revolution: and their uncle Oppas, archbishop of Toledo
and Seville, was the first person in the church, and the second in the
state. It is probable that Julian was involved in the disgrace of the
unsuccessful faction, that he had little to hope and much to fear from
the new reign; and that the imprudent king could not forget or forgive
the injuries which Roderic and his family had sustained. The merit and
influence of the count rendered him a useful or formidable subject:
his estates were ample, his followers bold and numerous, and it was too
fatally shown that, by his Andalusian and Mauritanian commands, he held
in his hands the keys of the Spanish monarchy. Too feeble, however, to
meet his sovereign in arms, he sought the aid of a foreign power; and
his rash invitation of the Moors and Arabs produced the calamities of
eight hundred years. In his epistles, or in a personal interview, he
revealed the wealth and nakedness of his country; the weakness of an
unpopular prince; the degeneracy of an effeminate people. The Goths were
no longer the victorious Barbarians, who had humbled the pride of Rome,
despoiled the queen of nations, and penetrated from the Danube to the
Atlantic ocean. Secluded from the world by the Pyrenean mountains, the
successors of Alaric had slumbered in a long peace: the walls of the
city were mouldered into dust: the youth had abandoned the exercise of
arms; and the presumption of their ancient renown would expose them in
a field of battle to the first assault of the invaders. The ambitious
Saracen was fired by the ease and importance of the attempt; but
the execution was delayed till he had consulted the commander of the
faithful; and his messenger returned with the permission of Walid to
annex the unknown kingdoms of the West to the religion and throne of the
caliphs. In his residence of Tangier, Musa, with secrecy and caution,
continued his correspondence and hastened his preparations. But the
remorse of the conspirators wa