ed his supremacy as essential to their well-being,
the Saracen general from this period contemplated carrying his arms
into Spain.

That beautiful kingdom, after having been successively under the yoke
of the Carthaginians and the Romans, had finally become the prey of the
Barbarians. The Alains, the Suevi, and the Vandals had divided its
provinces among them; but Euric, one of the Visigoths, who entered the
country from the south of Gaul, had, towards the end of the fifth
century, gained possession of the whole of Spain, and transmitted it to
his descendants.

The softness of the climate, together with the effects of wealth and
luxury, gradually enfeebled these conquerors, creating vices from which
they had been previously free, and depriving {34} them of the warlike
qualities to which alone they had been indebted for their success. Of
the kings who succeeded Euric, some were Arians and others Catholics,
who abandoned their authority to the control of bishops, and occupied a
throne shaken to its centre by internal disturbances. Roderick, the
last of these Gothic sovereigns, polluted the throne by his vices; and
both history and tradition accuse him of the basest crimes. Indeed, in
the instance of nearly all these tyrants, their vices either directly
occasioned, or were made the pretext of their final ruin.

The fact is well established, that Count Julian and his brother Oppas,
archbishop of Toledo, both of them distinguished and influential men,
favoured the irruption of the Moors into Spain.

Tarik, one of the most renowned captains of his time,[10] was sent into
Spain by Moussa. He had at first but few troops; but he was not by
this prevented from defeating the large army that, by command of
Roderick, the last Gothic king, opposed his course.

Subsequently, having received re-enforcements {35} from Africa, Tarik
vanquished Roderick himself at the battle of Xeres, where that
unfortunate monarch perished during the general flight in which the
conflict terminated, A.D. 714, Heg. 96.

After this battle, the Mohammedan general, profiting by his victory,
penetrated into Estremadura, Andalusia, and the two Castiles, and took
possession of the city of Toledo. Being soon after joined by Moussa,
whose jealousy of the glory his lieutenant was so rapidly acquiring
prompted him to hasten to his side, these two remarkable commanders,
dividing their troops into several corps, achieved, in a few months,
the conquest of