The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon [1764]
[Footnote 183: The honorable relics of the Cantabrian war (Dion Cassius, l. liii p. 720) were planted in this metropolis of Lusitania, perhaps of Spain, (submittit cui tota suos Hispania fasces.) Nonius (Hispania, c. 31, p. 106 - 110) enumerates the ancient structures, but concludes with a sigh: Urbs haec olim nobilissima ad magnam incolarum infrequentiam delapsa est, et praeter priscae claritatis ruinas nihil ostendit.]
[Footnote 184: Both the interpreters of Novairi, De Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 349) and Cardonne, (Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 93, 94, 104, 135,) lead Musa into the Narbonnese Gaul. But I find no mention of this enterprise, either in Roderic of Toledo, or the Mss. of the Escurial, and the invasion of the Saracens is postponed by a French chronicle till the ixth year after the conquest of Spain, A.D. 721, (Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p. 177, 195. Historians of France, tom. iii.) I much question whether Musa ever passed the Pyrenees.]
[Footnote 185: Four hundred years after Theodemir, his territories of Murcia and Carthagena retain in the Nubian geographer Edrisi (p, 154, 161) the name of Tadmir, (D'Anville, Etats de l'Europe, p. 156. Pagi, tom. 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, lucerne, oranges, &c.]
[Footnote *: Gibbon has made eight cities: in Conde's translation Bigera does not appear. - M.]
[Footnote 186: 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.]
[Footnote 187: From the history of Sandoval, p. 87. Fleury (Hist. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 261) has given the substance of another treaty concluded A Ae. C. 782, A.D. 734, between an Arabian chief and the Goths and Romans, of the territory of Conimbra 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 must be shut, and they must respect the name of Mahomet. I have not the original before me; it would confirm or destroy a dark suspicion, that the piece has been forged to introduce the immunity of a neighboring convent.]
The exploits of Musa were performed in the evening of life, though he affected to disguise his age by coloring with a red powder the whiteness of his beard. But in the love of action and glory, his breast was still fired with the ardor of youth; and the possession of Spain was considered only as the first step to the monarchy of Europe. With a powerful armament by sea and land, he was preparing to repass the