Puedese ver esta relacion en las notas de Don Thomas Tamayo sobre Paulo
deacano. El chronicon de san Millan, que llega hasta el año 883, deze
que, hasta su tiempo, si ignora el fin del Rey Rodrigo. Pocos años
despues el Rey Don Alonzo el Magno, aviéndo ganado la ciudad de Viseo,
encontro en una iglesia el epitafio que en romance dize—aqui yaze
Rodrigo, ultimo Rey de los Godos.—Berganza, l. 1. c. 13.
THE CAVE OF HERCULES.
As the story of the necromantic tower is one of the most famous as well
as least credible points in the history of Don Roderick, it may be well
to fortify or buttress it by some account of another marvel of the city
of Toledo. This ancient city, which dates its existence almost from the
time of the flood, claiming as its founder Tubal, the son of Japhet, and
grandson of Noah[28], has been the warrior hold of many generations,
and a strange diversity of races. It bears traces of the artifices and
devices of its various occupants, and is full of mysteries and subjects
for antiquarian conjecture and perplexity. It is built upon a high rocky
promontory, with the Tagus brawling round its base, and is overlooked
by cragged and precipitous hills. These hills abound with clefts and
caverns; and the promontory itself, on which the city is built, bears
traces of vaults and subterraneous habitations, which are occasionally
discovered under the ruins of ancient houses, or beneath the churches and
convents.
These are supposed by some to have been the habitations or retreats
of the primitive inhabitants; for it was the custom of the ancients,
according to Pliny, to make caves in high and rocky places, and live in
them through fear of floods; and such a precaution, says the worthy Don
Pedro de Roxas, in his history of Toledo, was natural enough among the
first Toledans, seeing that they founded their city shortly after the
deluge, while the memory of it was still fresh in their minds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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