Lusitania
Lusitania was a Roman province under the deck based principate of Augustus , which covered most of the current Portugal south of the Douro and part of Len and the Extremadura Spain.
Summary |
On Indo-European pre-Celtic, the Lusitano was not really a people but rather a confederation of different peoples living in the eastern part of the Portuguese territory at the heart of desert and inhospitable regions. Live cattle and raids on their neighbors, they were quickly confronted with the Roman power guarantor of peace between peoples and cities that were attacked under his rule.
In this context, neighborhood conflicts began in the late third century BC. BC and lasted more or less violently and steadily until 151 BC. AD, when the massacre of Lusitano Governor of Hispania Ulterior , Galba, led to a radicalization of the conflict. These wars made by the Lusitanian leader Viriat will end with the assassination of the latter by his lieutenants and signed peace with the Romans in 139 BC. AD. They are widely known to us as ancient writers have talked a lot about particular Appian which is the main source of this period.
From there, the Lusitano are progressively integrated into Roman history and its internal conflicts, as in the wars that sertoriennes, 80 to 72 BC. AD, see General Marianist Sertorius find themselves at the head of the Lusitano , or the episode of Civil Wars in which the Lusitano were incorporated in the various Roman armies, especially those of Pompey and his son.
The creation of the Lusitania
It is in these conditions that the gradual integration province of Lusitania is created by Augustus in his work overall administrative reorganization of the Empire. It comes from the division of Hispania Later in Lusitania and Betic. This creation would have intervened to -27 . The capital of the imperial province was Emerita Augusta (now Mrida ) and the territory was divided into different civitates which repeated often on the boundaries of different peoples or ethnic groups that inhabited the area before the Roman conquest.
The Lusitania was placed under the control of Augustus and not in the Senate, and was therefore still considered an area not pacified. The province was then fifty cities with a population estimated at 700,000 inhabitants.
Political and administrative province
The province experienced a new administrative reorganization time of Flavian , perhaps during the reign of Vespasian , with the creation of conventi , a subdivision of the provinces and new legal entity. The governor of the Lusitania was in the capitals of these agreements deal mainly of justice.
The Lusitania was divided into three agreements:
- The conventus emeritensis with its capital in Emerita Augusta (now Mrida in Spain).
- The conventus scallabitanus with its capital Scallabis (now Santarm Portugal).
- The conventus pacensis with its capital Pax Iulia (Beja today's Portugal).
To do this administrative reorganization will complement that of Diocletian in the third century BC. BC will not change anything for the Lusitania, which will retain its borders and its divisions. It will be built by the cons Diocese of Hispania, which included all the Iberian provinces and the Mauretania Tingitana kept many African trade relations with the Iberian Peninsula.
From the political point of view and events, we know little about what happened during that period. Lusitania seems to have lived several centuries of Pax Romana , without remarkable event. His romanization was more or less deep according to the areas and levels of wealth. Interface areas and coastal or border (especially the Betic ) were richer, the archaeological remains are more abundant, more numerous villas).
Nevertheless, we know that this prosperity was offset by some disturbances during the second century BC. AD due to raids Moors from Africa that they were not direct threats dealt the development of a climate of fear with its attendant instability and formation of groups of bandits.
A flourishing economy
Still, what strikes this period, the economic wealth of the area. Seen especially through the Villae. The two strengths of the economy were Lusitanian mining of copper in particular Rio Tinto mines in Spain and Aljustrel (to a lesser extent) in Portugal under state control produced huge amounts of ore.
The second major economic activity for the Lusitania was the production and export of garum and canned fish, including many testimonies exist along the lower reaches of the rivers Sado and Tagus River and along the coast of Algarve , in the form of ponds in which it was dried fish and shellfish needed for these preparations.
All transiting to ports of the Lusitania or the Betic and was exported. It seems that the Lusitania has occupied first place in the export industry across the empire and it fed the whole western Mediterranean basin, the city of Rome and even the Orient.
Germanic invasions and the ancient heritage
The latent threat of Germanic invasions of the fourth century that leads to a systematic policy of fortification Lusitanian cities which we can still see the remains to Conimbriga becomes a reality for the Iberian Peninsula in the next century:
- In 409, a ragtag group of Germanic peoples - Vandals Hasdings and Sillinger, Swabians , and Alans - ravaged the Iberian Peninsula after crossing the Gaul in the previous year. The low resistance of Roman troops there, mired in a civil war between various aspirants to the imperial throne of the West gave way to occupation Germanic. The peninsula was thus divided between these peoples and the Alans Lusitania fell who had also taken possession of the Province of Cartaginensis.
- In 417, the Visigoths in the service of Emperor destroy the kingdoms of the West and Alain Vandal Silling. Survivors joined the Vandals in Hasdings Gallaecia (the Galician present), then left the peninsula in 429 under the aegis of King Genseric to invade North Africa where they will establish a kingdom vandal vast ephemeral.
- In 439, the Swabians were alone in the Iberian Peninsula alongside the Romans extended their domination of the Lusitania Gallaecia and Betic and capture of Augusta Emerita and Hispalis. They are rejected by the Visigoths in 456 returning the peninsula to settle there.
- In 468 the Visigoths seized the Lusitania and incorporate it into their kingdom.
One of the main legacies will be, for future people who will occupy this area, the language from Vulgar Latin give birth to Portuguese and the Spanish modern.
The name of this province has given birth to that of the horse Lusitano. He also named the Lusitania , ocean liner of Cunard Line.
The great cities of Lusitania
- Olisipo ( Lisbon ), having the status of Roman Municipality
Cities with the status of Roman colony :
Other cities:
- Salmanica ( Salamanca )
- Caesarobriga ( Talavera de la Reina )
- Augustobriga ( Talavera la Vieja )
- Conimbriga ( Condeixa-a-Velha )
- Aeminium ( Coimbra )
- Scallabis ( Santarm )
- Vipasca ( Aljustrel )
- Ebora Liberalitas Iulia ( vora )
Notes
- Dio Cassius, LIII, 12, 4-5.
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History, III, 2.
- See this attempt at etymological explanation
Bibliography
- Alarco, Jorge, The Ancient Roman Portugal, Pluvia Nocturna , Paris, 2008, 352 p., ISBN: 978-2-917735-00-8.
- Alarco, Jorge, Portugal Roman Antiquity - Sites inventory, Pluvia Nocturna , Paris, 2009, 672 p., ISBN: 978-2-917735-03-9.
- Gorges, Jean-Gerard and Martin Rodriguez, Francisco Germn (Ed.), Economics and territory in Roman Lusitania, Casa de Velzquez , Madrid, 1999.
- Jorge, Ana Maria CM's episcopate Lusitania during Late Antiquity (III - VII centuries),Instituto Portugus de Arqueologia , Lisbon, 2002, 198 p., ISBN: 972-8662-04-1.
See also
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