CONQrEST OF AFRICA AND SPAIN. 401 



Rhone ; but the preparations of the king of the 

 Franks who had taken alarm at this irruption of the 

 barbarians, compelled them to retreat. 



During the absence of Musa in the north, his son 

 Abdolaziz was occupied in confirming or extending 

 their acquisitions in other parts of Spain. He re- 

 duced the remainder of the Mediterranean coast from 

 Malaga to Valencia ; obliged the governor, Prince 

 Theodomir, to deliver up his seven cities ; bound 

 him neither to assist nor form alliance with the ene- 

 mies of the caliph ; and to pay annually for himself 

 and each of his nobles one piece of gold, four mea- 

 sures of wheat, as many of barley, with a certain 

 proportion of honey, oil, and vinegar ; each of their 

 vassals being taxed at one moiety of the said impost. 

 On these conditions the Goth was to continue un- 

 disturbed in his principality. 



The whole peninsula, one solitary corner ex- 

 cepted, being reduced, Musa formed the bold design 

 of making himself master of all Europe. With a 

 vast armament, by sea and land, he was preparing 

 to repass the Pyrenees, to subvert the kingdom of 

 the Franks in Gaul, then distracted by the wars of 

 two contending dynasties ; to extinguish the power 

 of the Lombards in Italy, and place an Arabian imam 

 in the chair of St. Peter. Thence, after subduing 

 the barbarous hordes of Germany, he proposed to 

 follow the course of the Danube, from its source to 

 : the Euxine Sea, where he would have joined his 

 countrymen under the walls of Constantinople.* 



* The conquests of Spain and Africa are passed over silently 

 •or slightly by Abulfeda, Abulfarage, Elmacin, Tabiri, and the 

 other oriental annalists ; but the chasm is supplied by Car- 

 donne (Hist, de I'Afrique et de I'Espagne sous la Domin. des 

 Arab.), Leo Africanus and Marmol (Descrip. de I'AfriqueV 

 Chenier (Recherch. Hist, sur les Maures), Mariana (Hist, de 

 Reb. Hisp.), Casiri, who has collected many fragments of 

 Arabian literature (Bibhorth. Arabico-Hisp.), Roderick of To- 

 ledo (Hist. Arab.). 



LI 2 



