Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/503

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIKE 481 found, but it is improbable that he left, seven equestrian statues of massy silver ; and from his ierm or column of Narbonne he returned on his footsteps to the Gallician and Lusitanian shores of the ocean. During the absence of the father, his son Ab- delaziz chastised the insurgents of Seville, and reduced, from Malaga to Valentia, the sea- coast of the Mediterranean : his original treaty with the discreet and valiant Theodemir -i'^ will represent the manners and policy of the times. " The condiliojis of peace agreed and sworn between Abdelaziz, the son of Musa, the son of Nassir, and llieodemir prince of the Goths. In the name of the most merciful God, Abdelaziz makes peace on these condi- tions : That Theodemir shall not be disturbed in his principality ; nor any injury be offered to the life or property, the wives and children, the religion and temples, of the Christians : That Theo- demir shall freely deliver his seven cities, Orihuela, Valentola, Alicant, Mola, Vacasora, Bigerra (now Bejar), Ora (or Opta), and Lorca : That he shall not assist or entertain the enemies of the caliph, but shall faithfully communicate his knowledge of their hostile designs : That himself, and each of the Gothic nobles, shall annually pay one piece of gold, four measures of wheat, as many of barley, with a certain proportion of honey, oil, and vinegar ; and that each of their vassals shall be taxed at one moiety of the said imposition. Given the fourth of Regeb, in the year of the Hegira ninety-four, and subscribed with the names of four Musulman witnesses." ^is Theodemir and his subjects were treated with uncommon lenity ; but the rate of tribute appears to have fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth, accord- ing to the submission or obstinacy of the Christians.-^-' In this 721 (Pagi, Critica, torn. iii. p. 177, 195. Historians of France, torn. iii. ). I much question whether Musa ever passed the Pyrenees. 21' Four hundred years after Theodemir, his territories of Murcia and Cartha- gena retain in the Nubian Geographer Edrisi (p. 154, 161) the name of Tadmir D'Anville, Etats de I'Europe, p. 156 ; Pagi, torn. iii. p. 174). In the present decay) of Spanish agriculture, Mr. Swinburne (Travels into Spain, p. 119) surveyed with pleasure the delicious valley from Murcia to Orihuela, four leagues and a half of the finest corn, pulse, lucern, oranges, &c. 218 See the treaty in Arabic and Latin, in the Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 105, 106. It is signed the 4th of the month of Regeb, a.h. 94, the 5th of April A.D. 713, a date which seems to prolong the resistance of Theodemir and the government of Musa. [As Milman remarks, eight cities, not seven, are named in the te.xt ; Bigerra is omitted in Conde's translation.] has given the substance of another treaty concluded A.^.c. 782, A.D. 734, between an Arabian chief and the Goths and Romans, of the territory of Coimbra in Portugal. The tax of the churches is fixed at twenty-five pounds of gold ; of the monasteries, fifty ; of the cathedrals, one hundred : the Christians are judged by their count, but in capital cases he must consult the alcaide. The church doors VOL. V. 31
 * i9From the history of Sandoval, p. 87, Fleury (Hist. Eccl6s. tom. ix. p. 261)