Note 82 — Chapter X · A.D. 622-740. THE JEWS IN THE EASTERN EMPIRE; IN SPAIN, IN FRANCE.
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The commonly received story—that Count Julian persuaded Muza to invade Spain, in order to avenge the violation of his daughter Florinda—is in all likelihood mere fiction. It is not mentioned by any historian for nearly 500 years after Roderic’s death, and then only as a legend. Considering the manners of the time and the unbounded licence of the Gothic kings, it is most unlikely that such an act, if perpetrated, would have been so furiously resented: and the invasion of Spain is to be accounted for in a more simple way, viz., the carrying out of Mahomet’s plan of progressive conquest.