THE dismemberment of the Roman Empire began in
the early years of the fifth century. Spain shared the
common lot. Tribes of barbarians burst their way
over the frontiers, swarmed across the Rhine, invaded
Gaul, and swept southward over the Pyrenees. Alans,
Vandals, Suevi were the first comers. There is no
need to follow the tangled threads of their inroads,
their shifting fortunes, their struggles with the Em-
pire and each other. The upshot was that the Vandals
were pushed on across the Straits of Gibraltar into
Africa; the Alans were absorbed and disappeared;
the Suevi were crowded into the rough and rugged
northwest corner.

The next invaders, the Visigoths, occupy our stage
for nearly three hundred years; nevertheless, they
contributed little to form the Spanish nation. They
had scant statesmanship; they added nothing to the
arts of agriculture, of mining, of breeding sheep or
cattle; their ornaments were barbaric; they had no
literature, and supplied but few if any words to the
language, for such Germanic words as there are in
Spanish had already been adopted by the Romans.
The scant remains of churches built in Visigothic
times testify that builders and carvers were bred
upon Eastern traditions. The horseshoe arch came
from Syria or Asia Minor. The best that can be said

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