Not a single building erected by the Visigothic kings exists to-day. “Destroyed by man’s fury and by the vicissitudes of time,” regretfully observes Señor Amador de los Rios, “or altered till all trace of their original form has been lost, by the pious care which intended to preserve them, you may seek in vain in the city of Wamba for an intact monument of that age; not even the walls ascribed to that prince have remained entire. Fragments of friezes; isolated capitals, which have adorned later edifices, oddly out of place in the scheme of decorations, or cut and defaced; broken shafts, perhaps bearing some inscriptions; pieces of a hinge, a metope, a lintel, or an impost, perhaps some dedicatory tablet--this is all that has escaped at Toledo the devastating scythe of time.” These relics, however, are fortunately numerous. For a detailed description of the more important, the reader is referred to the “Monumentos Arquitectónicos de España.” Some we shall notice more particularly in dealing with the edifices of which they now form part. Under Wamba the Visigothic monarchy reached the apex of its greatness. Under his four successors, Erwig, Egica, Witica, and Roderic, State and people are said to have become hopelessly enervated. The old Gothic vigour blazed up now and again in some individual ruler or statesman, but failed to communicate itself to the nation. The kingdom was tottering to its fall. The taste for display and the amenities of existence grew stronger in this period of decline. Never was there such wealth and splendour in Toledo as when it fell a prey to the hosts of Islam. The rapid decay of this once great and martial race is without a parallel in history. It is difficult to assign to it a cause. Luxury was the privilege only of the nobility and clergy, and could hardly have corrupted the whole people. Modern writers lamely attribute the final catastrophe to ecclesiastical influence and domination. Perhaps when all has been said, the state of Spain under Witica and Roderic was not much worse than under subsequent rulers of other dynasties; and the downfall may have been due, not so much to the effeminacy of the vanquished, as to the extraordinary military genius of the conquerors. Historians would have said little about the degeneracy of the Visigoths if the battle of the Guadalete had had a different issue.