Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/497

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 475 madaii, of the ninety-first year of the Hegira, to the month of July, seven hundred and forty-eight years from the Spanish aera of Caesar/^^ seven hundred and ten after the birth of Christ. From their first station, they marched eighteen miles through an hilly country to the castle and town of Julian ; ^*^^ on which (it is still called Algezire) they bestowed the name of the Green Island, from a verdant cape that advances into the sea. Their hospitable entertainment, the Christians who joined their stan- dard, their inroad into a fertile and unguarded province, the richness of their spoil and the safety of their return, announced to their brethren the most favourable omens of victory. In the ensuing spring, five thousand veterans and volunteers were em- barked under the command of Tarik, a dauntless and skilful [Tank ibn soldier, who surpassed the expectation of his chief; and the necessary transports were provided by the industry of their too faithful ally. The Saracens landed ^^"^ at the pillar or point of xheir second Europe ; the corrupt and familiar appellation of Gibraltar {Gebel A^D^ni, al Tarik) describes the mountain of Tarik ; and the intrench- *"" ments of his camp were the first outline of those fortifications which, in the hands of our countrymen, have resisted the art and power of the house of Bourbon. The adjacent governors informed the court of Toledo of the descent and progress of the Arabs ; and the defeat of his lieutenant Edeco, who had been commanded to seize and bind the presumptuous strangers, ad- monished Roderic of the magnitude of the danger. At the royal summons the dukes and counts, the bishops and nobles of the Gothic monarchy, assembled at the head of their followers ; of Spanish historians, to place the first invasion in the year 713, and the battle ot Xeres in November 714. This anachronism of three years has been detected by the more correct industry of modern chronologists, above all, of Pagi (Critica, torn, iii. p. 169, 171-174), who have restored the genuine state of the revolution. At the present time an .rabian scholar, like Cardonne, who adopts the ancient error (torn. '• P- 75)1 is inexcusably ignorant or careless. ^u-iThe .-Era of Caesar, which in Spain was in legal and popular use till the xivth century, begins thirty-eight years before the birth of Christ. I would refer the origin to the general peace by sea and land, which confirmed the power and partitio7i of the triumvirs (Dion Cassius, 1. xlviii. p. 547 [c. 28J, 553 [c. 36]. Appian de Bell. Civil. 1. v. p. 1034, edit. fol. [c. 72]). Spain was a province of Cossar Octavian ; and Tarragona, which raised the first temple to Augustus (Tacit. Annal. i. 78), might borrow from the Orientals this mode of flattery. 205 The road, the country, the old castle of count Julian, and the superstitious belief of the Spaniards of hidden treasures, &c. are described by Pere Labat (Voyages en Espagne et en Italie, tom. i. p. 207-217) with his usual pleasantry. 206 The Xubian Geographer (p. 154) explains the topography of the war ; but it is highly incredible that the lieutenant of Musa should execute the desperate and useless measure of burning his ships. [The derivation of "Gibraltar" seems doubtful, though commonly accepted.]