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:''This article concerns the Roman province. For the ship, see RMS Lusitania. For other uses, see Lusitania (disambiguation).''

'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.

Contents

Origin of the name

Lusitanians

War against Rome

Roman province

References

See also

External links

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 articles: 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 was 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

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

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.

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

★ An etymological lexicon of Proto-Celtic

See also

★ Lusitanians

★ Lusitanian mythology

★ Lusitanian language

★ Ophiussa

★ Portugal

★ History of Portugal

★ Timeline of Portuguese history

★
★ Pre-Roman Western Iberia (Before the 3rd Century BC)

★
★ Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia (3rd Century BC to 4th Century AC)

★ Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula

External links

★ Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)