THE ARAB CONQUEST 157composed in Toledo, and known from its approximate date of com-
position as the Chronicle of 754.^27
This text records that in 711 Roderic was made king by a section
of the Visigothic nobility, but this was resisted by others and civil war
broke out. In the same year, and following on from a series of raids,
an Arab and Berber army sent by Miisa and led by Tariq (Tarik Abu
Zara') crossed into the peninsula from Africa. In the same year an-
other Arab army led by Miisa in person landed near Cadiz and took
Toledo, where a number of nobles were executed. In one of the most
difficult passages in the Chronicle of 754 it seems that they were asso-
ciated with Oppa, son of the former Visigothic king Egica, and thus
a brother of Wittiza. He seems to have succeeded in escaping from
the city, but there is no further reference to him in this work. Accord-
ing to the chronicler it was not until the following year of 712 that
Roderic was defeated and killed in battle against Tariq at a location
described as being 'in the Transductine promontories'. Responsibil-
ity for this fatal defeat is assigned the premature flight of the Visigothic
army, occasioned by factional conflict within its ranks. In the mean-
while Miisa is reported to have been ravaging the north-east of the
peninsula as far as Zaragoza. At the end of 712 he was recalled to
Syria by Walid I and very nearly executed. He WaS forced to pay the
caliph a substantial fine, reported here as totalling two million gold
coins, and died very soon after. No mention is made of Tariq in this
work after his victory over Roderic. Miisa's son 'Abd al-Aiz succeeded
him as governor and married Roderic's widow, here named as Egilona.
After three years, i.e. in 715, he was murdered by his own men on
suspicion of plotting to set up an independent kingdom for himself
in Spain.28
In comparing and contrasting this near contemporary Christian
Latin source with the later Arab versions of the events of the con-
quest, certain similarities and certain differences stand out clearly.
The significance of internal conflict within the Visigothic monarchy
is made much more obvious in the former, and is confirmed by other
contemporary evidence. No coins of Roderic are known from the
mints of the north-east of the peninsula or from Septimania, whereas
coins assignable to this period have been found bearing the name of
a king Achila and coming from the mints of Narbonne, Gerona,
Tarragona and Zaragoza.^29 Some regnal lists that omit the name of
Roderic include a king Achila, whose reign can be assigned to the
years 710-713.^30 A successor called Ardo is similarly recorded as