[1] Cp. also Isidore, sec 36. Dunham, ii. p. 121, note,
curiously remarks: "Both Isidore and Roderic may exaggerate,
but the exaggeration proves the fact."

This is evidently mere rhapsody, of the same character as the ravings
of the British monk Gildas, though far less justified as it seems by the
actual facts. Rodrigo of Toledo, following Isidore after an interval of
500 years, improves upon him by entering into details, which being in
many particulars demonstrably false, may in others be reasonably looked
upon with suspicion as exaggerated, if not entirely imaginary. His words
are: Children are dashed on the ground, young men beheaded, their
fathers fall in battle, the old men are massacred, the women reserved
for greater misfortune; every cathedral burnt or destroyed, the national
substance plundered, oaths and treaties uniformly broken.[1]

To appreciate the mildness and generosity of the Arabs, we need only
compare their conquest of Spain with the conquest of England by the
Saxons, the Danes, and even by the Christian Normans. The comparison
will be all in favour of the Arabs. It is not impossible that, if the
invaders had been Franks instead of Moors, the country would have
suffered even more, as we can see from the actual results effected by
the invasion of Charles the Great in 777. Placed as they were between
the devil and the deep sea, the Spaniards would perhaps have preferred
(had the choice been theirs) to be subject to the Saracens rather than
to the Franks.[2]

[1] Dunham, ii. p. 121, note.

[2] Dozy, ii. p. 41, note, quotes Ermold Nigel on Barcelona: