When it is remembered, that, from being continually at war with the Spanish princes, Abderamus was obliged to keep numerous armies incessantly on foot, to support a naval force, frequently to hire stipendiaries from Africa, and to fortify and preserve in a state of defence the ever-endangered fortresses on his frontiers, it is hardly possible to comprehend how his revenues sufficed for the supply of such immense and varied demands. But his resources were equally immense and varied; and the sovereign of Cordova was perhaps the richest and most powerful monarch then in Europe.[14] He held possession of Portugal, Andalusia, the Kingdom of Grenada, Mercia, Valencia, and the greater part of New-Castile, the most beautiful and fertile countries of Spain. {70} These provinces were at that time extremely populous, and the Moors had attained the highest perfection in agriculture. Historians assure us, that there existed on the shores of the Guadalquiver twelve thousand villages; and that a traveller could not proceed through the country without encountering some hamlet every quarter of an hour. There existed in the dominions of the caliph eighty great cities, three hundred of the second order, and an infinite number of smaller towns. Cordova, the capital of the kingdom, enclosed within its walls two hundred thousand houses and nine hundred public baths. All this prosperity was reversed by the expulsion of the Moors from the Peninsula. The reason is apparent: the Moorish conquerors of Spain did not persecute their vanquished foes; the Spaniards, when they had subdued the Moors, oppressed and banished them.