emperor had succeeded by inheritance to all the outlying provinces,
which had even nominally belonged to his rival in the West. Among these
was some portion of Spain.

It was not till 570, the year in which Mohammed was born, that a king
came to the Gothic throne strong enough to crush the Suevi and to reduce
the imperialist garrisons in the South; and it was not till 622, the
very year of the Flight from Mecca, that a Gothic king, Swintila,
finally drove out all the Emperor's troops, and became king in reality
of all Spain.

Scarcely had this been well done, when we perceive the first indications
of the advent of a far more terrible foe, the rumours of whose
irresistible prowess had marched before them. The dread, which the Arabs
aroused even in distant Spain as early as a century after the birth of
Mohammed, may be appreciated from the despairing lines of Julian,[1]
bishop of Toledo:--

"Hei mihi! quam timeo, ne nos malus implicet error,
Demur et infandis gentibus opprobrio!
Africa plena viris bellacibus arma minatur,
Inque dies victrix gens Agarena furit."

Before giving an account of the Saracen invasion and its results, it
will be well to take a brief retrospect of the condition of Christianity
in Spain under the Gothic domination, and previous to the advent of the
Moslems.

[1] Migne's "Patrologie," vol. xcvi. p. 814.