eems to be shared by Hercules
and Julius Caesar. In the popular mind of the Sevillians, as well as
through an unbroken chain of mediaeval historians and ballad-makers,
Hercules is called its father. Monuments throughout the city bear
witness to its founders. On one of the gates recently demolished the
inscription ran,--

Condidit Alcides, Renovavit Julius urbem.
Restituit Christo Fernandus tertius heros.

The Latin verses were later paraphrased in the Castilian tongue over the
Gate of Zeres:--

Hercules me edifico,
Julio Cesar me cerco,
de meno y torres altes
y el rey santo me gano,
Con Garci Perez de Vargas.

"Hercules built me, Julius Caesar surrounded me with walls and high
towers, the Holy King conquered me by Garcia Perez de Vargas." Statues
of the founder and protector still stand in various parts of the city.

In the second century B. C., the shipping of Seville made it one of the
most important trade centres of the Mediterranean. Phoenicians and
Greeks stopped here to barter. In 45 B. C., Rome stretched forth her
greedy hand, and Caesar entered the town at the head of his victorious
legion. Eighty-two years later the Romans formed the whole of southern
Spain into the "Provincia Baetica." With its formation into a Roman
colony, Seville's historical background begins to stand out clearly and
its riches are sung by the ancients. "Fair art thou, Baetis," says
Martial, "with thine olive crown and thy limpid waters, with the fleece
stains of a brilliant gold." The whole province contained what later
became Sevilla, Huelva, Cadiz, Cordova, Jaen, Granada and Almeria.
Seville, or Hispalis, became the capital and was accordingly fortified
with walls and towers, garrisoned and supplied with water from aqueducts
and adorned with Roman works of art. After the spread of Christianity
during the later Emperors, Seville was important enough to be made the
seat of a bishop.

With the fall of Rome, Hispalis was overrun by hordes of Goths and
Vandals. They held possession of the country until they were conquered
in 711 by the Moors, who, after crossing the strait between Africa and
Europe, gradually spread northward through the Iberian peninsula. The
Goths made Hispalis out of the Roman Hispalia, and the Arabians in their
turn, unable to pronounce the p, formed the name into Ixbella, of which
the Castilians made Seville.

To the Moors, Andalusia was the Promised Land flowing with milk and
hon