The territory of modern-day Portugal was Romanized following the events of the Second Punic War (3rd century BCE), through the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Romans founded cities and Romanized some previously existing settlements. Generally, cities with names ending in -briga are believed to have predated the Romanization of the territory, although there are exceptions. For instance, Augustobriga, near Cáceres, Spain, is named after Augustus, suggesting that some -briga names might have been given to cities during Roman rule. [1]
Out of the 32 mansiones in Lusitania mentioned in ancient Itinerarium sources, only about half have been identified. [2]
During the era of Augustus, the Iberian Peninsula was divided into the provinces of Lusitania, Baetica, and Tarraconensis. [3] These provinces were further subdivided into conventūs . [4] The province of Lusitania was divided into the conventūs of Augusta Emerita (modern-day Mérida, in Spain), Pax Julia (Beja, Portugal), and Scalabis (Santarém, Portugal). [4] However, Roman cities held more significance than conventūs in the Peninsula. [3]
The primary types of Roman cities were the coloniae (Roman settlements established by order of the Roman government) and the municipia (settlements that typically existed before Romanization). [3] In the Iberian Peninsula, the terms municipia and civitātes are used interchangeably. [3]
In 73/74 CE, the lex Flavia municipalis enacted by Vespasian granted all urban centres in modern-day Portugal Latin rights, and over time, the distinction between urban centres (including municipia and coloniae) lessened following this law. [3] Everyday administration was carried out by aediles, qaestores and duumviri , who communicated with the imperial government. [3]
Villae were settlements engaged in producing agricultural goods for local markets, encompassing multiple buildings such as residential houses, barns, and gardens. [4] In Lusitania, most villae were situated around a few cities (Olisipo, Ebora Liberalitas Julia, and Augusta Emerita) or dispersed along the southern coast. [4]
Lusitania was an ancient Iberian Roman province comprising part of modern Portugal and a large portion of western Spain. It was named after the Lusitanians, an Indo-European tribe that lived in the region prior to the arrival of the Romans.
Mérida is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Province of Badajoz, and capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura. Located in the western-central part of the Iberian Peninsula at 217 metres above sea level, the city is crossed by the Guadiana and Albarregas rivers. The population was 60,119 in 2017.
Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the northern, eastern and central territories of modern Spain along with modern northern Portugal. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia, was the province of Hispania Baetica. On the Atlantic west lay the province of Lusitania, partially coincident with modern-day Portugal.
The Lusitanians were a people living in the far west of the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding roughly to Central Portugal and some areas of modern-day Extremadura and Castilla y Leon, in Spain. After its conquest by the Roman Republic the land was subsequently incorporated as a Roman province named after them (Lusitania).
Hispania Baetica, often abbreviated Baetica, was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis. Baetica remained one of the basic divisions of Hispania under the Visigoths down to 711. Baetica was part of Al-Andalus under the Arabs in the 8th century and approximately corresponds to modern Andalusia.
Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon and the later Kingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities included the port Cale (Porto), the governing centers Bracara Augusta (Braga), Lucus Augusti (Lugo) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and their administrative areas Conventus bracarensis, Conventus lucensis and Conventus asturicensis.
The Cynetes or Conii were one of the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, living in today's Algarve and Lower Alentejo regions of southern Portugal, and the southern part of Badajoz and the northwestern portions of Córdoba and Ciudad Real provinces in Spain before the 6th century BCE. According to Justin's epitome, the mythical Gargoris and Habis were their founding kings.
This is a historical timeline of Portugal.
Hispania Ulterior was a Roman province located in Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly located in Baetica and in the Guadalquivir valley of modern Spain and extending to all of Lusitania and Gallaecia. Its capital was Corduba.
The Via Augusta was the longest and busiest of the major roads built by the Romans in ancient Hispania. According to historian Pierre Sillières, who has supervised excavation of Roman sites in Spain to identify the exact route followed by the Via Augusta, it was more a system of roads than a single road. Approximately 1,500 km (930 mi) long, the Via Augusta was built to link Spain with Italy, running from the southwestern coastal city of Gades (Cádiz) to the Pyrenees Mountains along inland valleys parallel to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. As the main axis of the road network in Roman Hispania, it appears in ancient sources such as the itinerary inscribed on the Vicarello Cups as well in as the Antonine Itinerary.
Municipium Cives Romanorum Felicitas Julia Olisipo was the ancient name of modern-day Lisbon while it was part of the Roman Empire.
Portus Cale was an ancient town and port in present-day northern Portugal, in the area of today's Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. The name of the town eventually influenced the name of the subsequent country of Portugal, from the 9th century onwards.
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, initially as Hispania Nova, which was later renamed "Callaecia". From Diocletian's Tetrarchy onwards, the south of the remainder of Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis, and all of the mainland Hispanic provinces, along with the Balearic Islands and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana, were later grouped into a civil diocese headed by a vicarius. The name Hispania was also used in the period of Visigothic rule.
The Romanization of Hispania is the process by which Roman or Latin culture was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula during the period of Roman rule.
Pax Iulia was a city in the Roman province of Lusitania.
The Battle of the Nervasos Mountains occurred in the year 419 and was fought between a coalition of Suebi, led by King Hermeric together with allied Roman Imperial forces stationed in the Province of Hispania, against the combined forces of the Vandals and Alans who were led by their King Gunderic. This battle occurred in the context of a contemporary Germanic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The battle took place in what is today the Province of León, Spain, and resulted in a Roman/Suebian Victory.
This article covers the history of ancient Portugal, the period between Prehistoric Iberia and County of Portugal.
Ebora Liberalitas Julia is the name of a Roman municipium that gave rise to the Portuguese district capital Évora in the Alentejo region. While the name "Ebora" indicates a Celtiberian hill top fortification in the area of the later municipia or in its vicinity the first archaeological evidence of a settlement is from the Early Roman Empire. Early Roman activities on the Iberian peninsula were limited to the areas previously partially populated by Greeks and Punic areas along the south and east coast. The area of today's Alentejo probably did not come under Roman control until the middle of the 2nd century BC. The name addition "Iulia" in the Roman name Évoras infers the emergence of the municipium under the Julians and their representative Gaius Iulius Caesar. But since clear traces of extensive infrastructures from this time and in the surrounding area are missing, it is considered more probable that Évora only came into being as a municipium after the Pax Romana under Octavian in 30 BC. The suffix "Liberalitas Iulia" should be interpreted in this context as an indication of peace. The first reference to Évora as a municipium is found in a list of cities in Hispania in the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder to the year 77 A.D.
The Diocese of Hispania was a late antique administrative unit (Dioecesis) of the Roman Empire on the Iberian Peninsula. It existed from 314 to about 409 AD. Its capital was Augusta Emerita. The diocese was governed by a vicarius responsible to the praetorian prefect of Gaul.