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Information about Lusitania

This article concerns the Roman province. For the ship, see RMS Lusitania. For other uses, see Lusitania (disambiguation).
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In red is the province of Lusitania within the Roman Empire, AD 120
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Lusitania was an ancient Roman province approximately including all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river, and part of modern Spain (the present autonomous community of Extremadura and a small part of the province of Salamanca). It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people (an Indo-European people, probably Proto-Celtic or Celt). Its capital was Emerita Augusta (currently Mérida), and it was initially part of the Roman Republic province of Hispania Ulterior, before becaming a province of its own in the Roman Empire.

Pre-Roman Lusitania

Strabo in his Geography mentions that the ancient people called Lusitania to the lands north of river Douro, the land that in his own time was known as Gallaecia.[1]

Origin of the name

The etymology of Lusitania, like the origin of the Lusitani who gave the province their name, is unclear. The name may be of Celtic origin: Lus and Tanus, "tribe of Lusus".

Ancient Romans, such as Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 3.5) and Varro (cited by Pliny), speculated that the name Lusitania was of Roman origin, as when Pliny says lusum enim liberi patris aut lyssam cum eo bacchantium nomen dedisse lusitaniae et pana praefectum eius universae: that Lusitania takes its name from the lusus associated with Bacchus and the lyssa of his Bacchantes, and that Pan is its governor. Lusus is usually translated as 'game' or 'play', while lyssa is a borrowing from the Greek λυσσα, 'frenzy' or 'rage', and sometimes Rage personified; for later poets Lusus and Lyssa become flesh-and-blood companions of Bacchus. Luís de Camões' Os Lusíadas, which portrays Lusus as the founder of Lusitania, extends these ideas, which have no connection with modern etymology.

Lusitanians

Main article: Lusitanians


The Lusitani, who were Indo-Europeans and may have come from the Alps, established themselves in the region in the 6th century BC, but historians and archeologists are still undecided about their origins. Some modern authors consider them to be an indigenous people who were celticized culturally and possibly genetically through intermarriage. This hypothesis is also backed by Avienus, who wrote ORA MARITIMA, inspired by documents from 6th century BC.

The investigator Lambrino defended the position that the Lusitanians were a tribal group of Celtic origin related to the Lusones (a tribe that inhabited the east of Iberia). Possibly, both tribes came from the Swiss mountains. But some prefer to see the Lusitanians as a native Iberian tribe, resulting from intermarriage between different tribes.

The first area colonized by the Lusitani was probably the Douro valley and the region of Beira Alta (present day Portugal); in Beira they stayed until they defeated the Celts and other tribes, then they expanded to cover a territory that reached Estremadura before the arrival of the Romans.

War against Rome

Conquest of Hispania
Second Punic War - First Celtiberian War – Third Punic War – Lusitanian War - Numantine War – Sertorian War – Cantabrian Wars
Main article: Lusitanian War
The Lusitani are mentioned for the first time in Livy (218 BC) and are described as Carthaginian mercenaries; they are reported as fighting against Rome in 194 BC, sometimes allied with other Celtiberian tribes.

In 179 BC the praetor Lucius Postumius Albinus celebrated a triumph over the Lusitani, but in 155 BC, on the command of Punicus (perhaps a Carthaginian general) first and Cesarus after, the Lusitani reached Gibraltar. Here they were defeated by the praetor Lucius Mummius.

Servius Sulpicius Galba organized a false armistice, but while the Lusitani celebrated this new alliance, he massacred them, selling the survivors as slaves; this caused a new rebellion led by Viriathus, who was soon killed by traitors paid by the Romans. Romans scored other victories with proconsul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus and Gaius Marius (113 BC), but still the Lusitani resisted with a long guerilla war; they later joined Sertorius' (a renegade Roman General) troops and were finally defeated by Augustus.

152 BC - From this date onwards the Roman Republic has difficulties in recruiting soldiers for the wars in Hispania, deemed particularly brutal.

Read more at Timeline of Portuguese history (Pre-Roman).

Roman province

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Roman Hispania under Diocletian 293 BCE; Lusitania found in the extreme west
With Lusitania (and Asturia and Gallaecia), Rome had completed the conquest of the Iberian peninsula, which was then divided by Augustus (25-20 BC) into the eastern and northern Hispania Tarraconensis, the southwestern Hispania Baetica and the western Provincia Lusitana. Originally Lusitania included the territories of Asturia and Gallaecia, but these were later ceded to the jurisdiction of the new Provincia Tarraconensis and the former remained as Provincia Lusitania et Vettones. Its northern border was along the Douro, while on its eastern side its border passed through Salmantica and Caesarobriga to the Anas (Guadiana) river.
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Elaborate geometrically patterned mosaic floors survive at Conímbriga
The capital of Lusitania was Augusta Emerita (currently Mérida) in Spain. Modern Coimbra, was the Roman city of Aeminium, and near modern Condeixa-a-Nova, was the Roman city of Conímbriga. Conímbriga was not the largest city of Lusitania, but it is the best preserved. Built on a long-inhabited site, it was sacked by the Suevi in 468, and its inhabitants fled to Aeminium, which inherited its name and is nowadays known as Coimbra. Conimbriga's city walls are largely intact, and the mosaic floors (illustration, right) and foundations of many houses and public buildings remain. In the baths, visitors can view the network of stone heating ducts (the hypocaust) beneath the now-missing floors. Archaeologists estimate that, though excavations began in 1898, only 10 percent of the city has been excavated.

Under Diocletian, Lusitania kept its borders and was ruled by a praeses, later by a consularis; finally, it was united with the other provinces to form the Diocesis Hispaniarum ("Diocese of Hispania").

References

See also

External links

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Roman Imperial Provinces (AD 120)
Achaea
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Roman Empire
RMS Lusitania was a British luxury ocean liner owned by the Cunard Steamship Line Shipping Company and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. Christened and launched on Thursday, June 7 1906, Lusitania
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Lusitania is the ancient Roman province in western Hispania (or Iberia), corresponding to most of modern Portugal.

The word Lusitania may also refer to:

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Portus Cale. Cale was the name of an early settlement located at the mouth of the Douro River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean in the north of what is now Portugal.
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History of Portugal
series
  • Prehistoric Iberia
  • Roman Hispania, Lusitania and Gallaecia
  • Visigoths and Suevi
  • Moorish rule and Reconquista
  • Asturian rule
  • Leonese rule

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Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Gibraltar and a very small southern part of France). When Rome was a republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior.
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Gallaecia or Callaecia was the name of a Roman province that comprised a territory in the north-west of Hispania (approximately present-day Galicia in Spain, northern Portugal, León (province) and Asturias).
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The Visigoths (Western Goths) were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe (the Ostrogoths being the other). Together these tribes were among the loosely-termed Germanic peoples who disturbed the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period.
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Suebi or Suevi (from Proto-Germanic *swēbaz based on the Proto-Germanic root *swē- meaning "one's own" in the sense of people, relatives,[1] from an Indo-European root *swe-,[2]
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Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأندلس al-andalus) was the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims, or Moors, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492.
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Reconquista (English: Reconquest) was the seven-and-a-half century long process by which Christians conquered the Iberian peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain) from the Muslim and Moorish states of Al-Ándalus (Arabic الأندلس —
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work in progress translation of the Reino de Asturias article from Spanish to English. If you are confident enough in your fluency of Spanish and English, please feel free to assist with this translation.
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Condado de Portucale was the first county founded in Portugal. It was founded in 868, during the Reconquista (the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Muslim and Moorish domination) as a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Asturias, by count Vímara Peres.
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County of Coimbra (Portuguese: Condado de Coimbra) was a political entity instituted as a military unit of defense in the borders of the Kingdom of Galicia in the Iberian Peninsula, and in what is today central Portugal. It was established in 871.
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Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal was formed in 1065 after the County of Portugal declared independence following the death of Ferdinand I of Leon of Castile-Leon. In 1063, Ferdinand I had divided his kingdom among his sons. Galicia was allotted to Garcia II of Galicia.
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Condado Portucalense was the second county founded in Portugal. It was establish in 1095 by Count Henry of Burgundy.

See also

  • Timeline of Portuguese history
  • Timeline of Portuguese history (Second County)

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The Kingdom of Portugal was a monarchy in the Iberian Peninsula, in Europe, that existed from 1139 to 1910, being replaced by the Portuguese First Republic. The realm possessed what was known as the Portuguese Empire since 1415, traditionally referring to its vast colonies,
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First Portuguese flag
History of Portugal
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  • Prehistoric Iberia
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  • Visigoths and Suevi
  • Moorish rule and Reconquista
  • Asturian rule
  • Leonese rule

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King Denis of Portugal
History of Portugal
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Prince Henry, the Navigator
History of Portugal
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Portuguese Empire was the earliest and longest lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999.
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15th century
1415–1640  Ceuta
1458–1550  Alccer Ceguer (El Qsar es Seghir)
1471–1550  Arzila (Asilah)
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1485–1550  Mazagan (El Jadida)
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Ranuccio Farnese of Parma and his siblings (son of Maria, eldest daughter of Duarte of Portugal, the youngest son of Manuel I and the only one who had living descendants)
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    • Iberian Union is modern day term that refers to the historical political unit that governed all of the Iberian peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580-1640, as a personal union.
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    history of Portugal from the dynastic crisis in 1578 to the end of the reign of the Marquis of Pombal in 1777 is a period of transition. The Portuguese Empire was near its height at the start of this 200 year period and continued to enjoy the widespread influence in the world that
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    Ditadura Nacional (Portuguese for National Dictatorship) was the name of the Portuguese regime initiated by the 28th May 1926 coup d'état that lasted until the adoption of the new constitution in 1933, when the regime changed its name to Estado Novo (New State).
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    Estado Novo (Portuguese for "New State"; pron. IPA: [(ɨ)ʃ'tadu 'novu]) is the name of the Portuguese authoritarian regime installed in 1933, following the army-led coup d'état
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    Portuguese Third Republic is a period in the history of Portugal corresponding to the current democratic regime installed after the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, that put an end to the quasi-fascist Estado Novo
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    See: Portuguese transition to democracy


    Prime Minister Mário Soares
    History of Portugal
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