Oppas (died after 712), also spelled Oppa, [1] was a member of the Visigothic elite in the city of Toledo on the eve of the Muslim conquest of Hispania. He was a son of Egica and therefore a brother or half-brother of Wittiza. [2]
After the defeat of king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete, according to the Chronicle of 754 , the Arabs under Tariq ibn Ziyad marched as far as Toledo, but Oppa, who was staying there, fled the city before they took it. Tariq executed many nobles still in the city on the pretense that they had assisted in Oppa's flight. [3] Since the battle of Guadalete took place, according to the same chronicle, in 712 and the conquest of Toledo in 711 but after Roderic's defeat, either the battle of Guadalete must be pushed back or the conquest of Toledo pushed forward; the latter is preferred by Roger Collins. [4] Though Oppa fled Toledo, he may have been caught and executed soon after; but there is no indication that he did not survive. [5]
It is possible that the Oppa who fled Toledo and was a son of a previous king was the cause of the "internal fury" which wracked Spain at the time, as recorded in the Chronicle. [4] Perhaps Oppa had been elected, declared, or even consecrated king at Toledo by rivals of both Roderic and his opponent Achila II, either before Roderic's final defeat or between his death and the Arab capture of Toledo. [6] If so, the death of the nobles who had "ambition for the kingdom" mentioned by the chronicler may have been Oppa's supporters who were killed in Toledo by the Arabs shortly after the battle in the south. [4] Some historians, without any basis in the sources, have identified Oppa with Achila. [7]
Oppa has grown in legend. According to the Chronicle of Alfonso III written in the late ninth century, he was a son of Wittiza, though based on Wittiza's approximate birth date, this is impossible. The Rotense version of the Alfonso III makes him an Archbishop of Toledo and the Ad Sebastianum version a Bishop of Seville. [8] Oppa is said to have accompanied the Arab armies which invaded the Asturias in 718 in an attempt to put down Pelagius of Asturias. He reportedly engaged the rebel Goth in a long debate, but the Arabs were subsequently crushed in the Battle of Covadonga. This is undoubtedly a baseless legend. [8] [9] The only part of the general story presented by the Alfonso III that is otherwise backed up is the claim that he was bishop of Seville, since a late tenth-century manuscript mentions a bishop of that city named Oppa in the correct time period, but the chronicle may have been the list compiler's source. [10] The Chronicle of Albelda confirms that a bishop Oppa was captured at Covadonga. [11]
According to late sources, Oppas's older brother or half-brother was Sisebut, who later became the count of the Christians of Coimbra, as were his son Ataulf (fl. 770), his grandson Athanaric (fl. 801–802), and his great-grandson Teudo (fl. 805), who had descendants also.
In Alexandre Herculano's Eurico, o Presbítero, Oppas is portrayed as a traitor to his own country, whose troops treacherously went to the conqueror's side, and a close collaborator of the conquerors Musa and Tarik. He ends up killed in a fight against the main character, Eurico.
The Reconquista was a period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula of about 781 years between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711, the expansion of the Christian kingdoms throughout Hispania, and the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada in 1492.
Toledo is a city and municipality of Spain, capital of the province of Toledo and the de jure seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. Toledo was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive monumental and cultural heritage.
Pelagius was a Hispano-Visigoth nobleman who founded the Kingdom of Asturias in 718. Pelagius is credited with initiating the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, and establishing the Asturian monarchy, making him the forefather of all the future Iberian monarchies, including the Kings of Castile, the Kings of León, and the Kings of Portugal.
The Battle of Guadalete was the first major battle of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, fought in 711 at an unidentified location in what is now southern Spain between the Christian Visigoths under their king, Roderic, and the invading forces of the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate, composed mainly of Berbers as well as Arabs under the commander Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Berber attacks and the beginning of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. Roderic was killed in the battle, along with many members of the Visigothic nobility, opening the way for the capture of the Visigothic capital of Toledo.
Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād, also known simply as Tarik in English, was a Berber Umayyad commander who initiated the Muslim Umayyad conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711–718 AD. He led a large army and crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from the North African coast, consolidating his troops at what is today known as the Rock of Gibraltar. The name "Gibraltar" is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq, meaning "mountain of Ṭāriq", which is named after him.
Theodemir or Theudimer was a Visigothic comes (count) prominent in the southeast of Carthaginensis during the last decades of the Visigothic kingdom and for several years after the Moorish conquest. He ruled seven cities in southeastern Spain, mentioned in the Treaty of Orihuela that was preserved by the Andalusian historian Ibn Adarí in the thirteenth century: Orihuela, Valentila, Alicante, Mula, Bigastro, Eyya, and Lorca.
Roderic was the Visigothic king in Hispania between 710 and 711. He is well-known as "the last king of the Goths". He is actually an extremely obscure figure about whom little can be said with certainty. He was the last Goth to rule from Toledo, but not the last Gothic king, a distinction which belongs to Ardo.
The Umayyadconquest of Hispania, also known as the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula or the Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom, was the initial expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate over Hispania from 711 to 718. The conquest resulted in the destruction of the Visigothic Kingdom and the establishment of the Umayyad Wilayah of Al-Andalus. The conquest marks the westernmost expansion of both the Umayyad Caliphate and Muslim rule into Europe.
Achila II was the Visigothic king of Hispania from 710 or 711 until his death. The kingdom he ruled was restricted to the northeast of the old Hispanic kingdom on account of the Arabo-Berber invasions.
Wittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Egica, until 702 or 703.
Egica, Ergica, or Egicca, was the Visigoth King of Hispania and Septimania from 687 until his death. He was the son of Ariberga and the brother-in-law of Wamba.
The Asturian or Astur-Leonese dynasty, known in Arabic as the Banī Adhfūnsh, was the ruling family of the kingdom of Asturias and León from 739 until 1037. Under their rule, the Astur-Leonese kingdom went from a small mountain enclave to one of the dominant powers in Hispania.
The Eighteenth Council of Toledo was the last of the councils of Toledo held in Visigothic Spain before the Moorish conquest of 711. It was held after the Seventeenth Council in 694, probably in 703 during the reign of King Wittiza (701–710) or his co-reign with his father, Ergica, from 693. It was presided over by Gunderic, Archbishop of Toledo.
The Visigothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of the Goths, was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of Gallia Aquitania in southwest Gaul by the Roman government and then extended by conquest over all of Hispania. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, whose attempts to re-establish Roman authority in Hispania were only partially successful and short-lived.
The Chronica Prophetica is an anonymous medieval Latin chronicle written by a Christian in April 883 at or near the court of Alfonso III of Asturias in Oviedo. It uses the dating system of the Spanish Era and is essentially an interpretation of the prophecy concerning the fate of Gog found in the biblical Book of Ezekiel. To the anonymous Asturian, the destruction of the Emirate of Córdoba is closely linked with the end times. According to Kenneth Baxter Wolf in the introduction to his translation, "The fact that Asturian armies at the time were taking advantage" of the weakness of the Umayyad emirate of Córdoba and "raiding deep into Muslim territory accounts for the overly optimistic estimates of the imminent Christian domination of the peninsula" in the Chronica Prophetica.
Our Lady of Covadonga also named "La Santina" is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the name of a Marian shrine devoted to her at Covadonga, Asturias. The shrine in northwestern Spain rose to prominence following the Battle of Covadonga in about 720, which was the first defeat of the Moors during their invasion of Spain. A statue of the Virgin Mary, hidden in one of the caves, was believed to have miraculously aided the Christian victory.
Julian, Count of Ceuta (Spanish: Don Julián, Conde de Ceuta,, Arabic: يليان, was, according to some sources, a renegade governor, possibly a former comes in Byzantine service in Ceuta and Tangiers who subsequently submitted to the king of Visigothic Spain before secretly allying with the Muslims. According to Arab chroniclers, Julian had an important role in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, a key event in the history of Islam, and in the subsequent history of what were to become Spain and Portugal.
Eurico, the Presbyter is an 1844 historical novel by Alexandre Herculano. It is about the ending days of the Visigoth kingdom that existed in the Iberian Peninsula, as the Moors invaded it in the 8th century.
Toledo is the repository of more than 2000 years of history. Successively a Roman municipium, the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom, a fortress of the Emirate of Cordoba, an outpost of the Christian Kingdom, and in the 16th century, the temporary seat of supreme power under Charles V. Its many works of art and architecture are the product of three major religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Hafs ibn Albar, commonly known as al-Qūṭī or al-Qurṭubî, was a 9th–10th Century Visigothic Christian count, theologian, translator and poet, often memorialised as the 'Last of the Goths'. He was a descendant of Visigothic royalty and held a position of power over the Christians of his region. He was possibly a priest or censor, but many scholars take him to be a layman.
