Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/214

186 the taking of Mérida (June 713), a change appears to have set in. Possibly about that time Mūsā, who had seen for himself what the country was like, and what advantages he had gained, disclosed his intention of changing his tactics. The Muslim troops had hitherto acted as auxiliaries of Achila's party, but at this point Mūsā began to regard the victorious Muslims as fighting on behalf of the Caliph. In any case about this time the Visigoths began to offer a general resistance, which first shewed itself in the revolt of Seville. Mūsā sent his son 'Abd-al-'Azīz to suppress it, and he himself advanced as far as the Sierra de Francia, not without giving orders to Ṭāriḳ, who was at Toledo, to come and join him with an army in the wild mountainous country, which extends thence to the Estrella, passing through the Sierra de Gata and forming a means of communication with Portugal. Of one place, Egitania or Igaeditania (Idanha a Vella), we possess money coined by Roderick, possibly in 712. The king of the Visigoths had established himself there. Finally, the combined forces of the Muslims came up with him near the town of Segoyuela in the province of Salamanca. In the battle (September 713) Roderick was defeated, and probably slain. His corpse was perhaps borne by his followers to Vizeu, for if we believe the chronicle of Alfonso III, written in the ninth century by Sebastian of Salamanca, a tomb was there discovered with the inscription: "Hie requiescit Rudericus, rex Gothorum."

Thus ended the rule of the Visigoths, for Mūsā, after the battle of Segoyuela, marched to Toledo, which had revolted on the departure of Ṭāriḳ, and there proclaimed the Caliph as sovereign, dealing the death-blow to the hopes of Achila and his supporters. Achila was obliged to content himself with the recovery of his estates, which had been confiscated by Roderick, and with his residence at Toledo, where he lived in great pomp. His brother Artavasdes established himself at Cordova and assumed the title of count, which he transmitted to Abū Sa'īd, his descendant. Olmund remained in Seville, and Bishop Oppas held the metropolitan see of Toledo. As for Julian, he shortly afterwards followed Mūsā on his journey to Damascus, the capital of the Caliphate, and subsequently returned to Spain; according to Ibn 'Iyād, the Arab historian, he then established himself in Cordova, where his son, Balacayas, became an apostate, and where his descendants continued to reside. This then is Saavedra's theory.

The end of the Visigothic kingdom of Spain was the natural result of the political divisions and the internal strife which had undermined the State. Since the time of Recared, and even more since that of Chindaswinth, there had been no insuperable difficulty in the amalgamation of the Visigothic and Spanish-Roman elements. In recent times their opposition has been exaggerated; it has been supposed that the imperfect nature of the fusion effected by the kings betrayed itself in national