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  3. The Lusitanian Campaigns - Part I

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Undo

    Here is the first part of my translation of a book on History of Portugal:

    The Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula began with the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), which opposed Rome and Carthage, the greatest powers of the Mediterranean at that time. In August 218 BC, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, commanding a fleet which carried two legions, landed in the Greek city of Ampurias. Then, the Romans developed a series of military operations which ended, in 206 BC, with the expulsion of the Carthaginians from Hispania, after the surrender of the city of Gadir (Cádis).

    In the end of the Second Punic War the Romans dominated all the east and south coast of the Peninsula, up to the left margin of the river Guadalquivir.

    Although the hostilities with the Carthaginians were over, Rome continued the war, but with the Peninsular people this time. This first phase of the conquest occurred outside the current Portuguese territory.

    According to literary sources, the first armed confrontation between Lusitanians and Romans occurred in 194 or perhaps 193 BC. The bad economic situation of the Lusitanians – mainly the ones who lived in the mountainous regions between the Douro and the Tagus – forced them to sack the richer regions of the Guadalquivir valley. When they were retiring loaded with the plunder, they were unexpectedly confronted with Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, praetor of Hispania Ulterior, who defeated them near Ilipa (Alcalá del Rio, Seville).

    In 191 or 190 BC, Lucius Aemilius Paulus lost 6000 soldiers in a battle against the Lusitanians, who had again attacked the southern territories, already subjected to Rome. But in 189 BC, as reported by Titus Livy, Lucius managed to defeat the Lusitanians, helped by some contingency forces of Hispanic soldiers.

    In the years of 188-187 BC, the Lusitanians and the Celtiberians attacked again the lands of the Roman allies in the Ulterior. Near the city of Hasta, they are defeated by Gaius Atinius, praetor of Ulterior, who afterwards captured this city which had supported the Lusitanians.

    A large army commanded by Lucius Quincy Crispin and Gaius Calpurnius Piso, governors of Citerior and Ulterior, respectively, was routed by Celtiberians and Lusitanians in the region of Toledo, in 185 BC. The Romans probably lost 5,000 men, but in the following year, they achieved a clear victory. This may have brought some tranquility, because there is only news of new skirmishes between the Romans and the Lusitanians in 181 and 178 BC, unfavorable for the latter.

    The Lusitanian raids reinitiated in 155 BC. Commanded by Punic and dragging their oriental neighbors – the Vetons – along, they attacked the Ulterior, inflicting a heavy defeat to praetors Manius Manlius and L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, who lost 6000 soldiers. Punic died in the expedition and was succeeded by Caesarus, who was defeated in a first skirmish, in 153 BC, by L. Mummius. However, in that very year, he achieved a surprising victory which caused Romans to lose 9000 soldiers.

    Another group of Lusitanians, whose leader was Caucenus, headed for Algarve – already integrated in the Ulterior province – taking Conistorgis, a city of uncertain localization. Afterwards, the Lusitanians went to the Moroccan territory through the Gibraltar strait, sacking and besieging the city of Ocile (Arzila). Mummius pursued and completely annihilated them.

    In 152 BC, Atilius Serranus defeated the Lusitanians again, taking their capital city, Oxthracas, of uncertain localization.

    In the following year, Servius Sulpicius Galba, the new Ulterior governor, achieved another victory for the Romans. Thrilled with the triumph, Galba pursued the Lusitanians, suffering then a heavy defeat, in which he lost 7,000 soldiers. In 150 BC, the Citerior governor Lucius Licinius Lucullus helped Galba, violently repressing the Lusitanians: in a first encounter he killed 4,000; afterwards he eliminated more 1500 Lusitanians, and he also made a lot of prisoners, selling them as slaves when they tried to cross the sea to North Africa.

    After this disaster, the Lusitanians tried to negotiate, and sent a group of ambassadors. These were well-received by Galba, who promised them lands distribution. The Lusitanians concentrated themselves in the places proposed by Galba, but after putting aside their weapons, they were besieged and killed, 8000 in number, according to Valerius Maximus. Apianus says that among the few ones who escaped there was Viriato.

    In 139 BC, Galba was judged in court because of his criminal behavior; however, he was absolved.

    Despite suffering all these reverses, approximately 10,000 Lusitanians penetrated Turdetania (Valley of the river Guadalquivir) in 147 or maybe 148 BC. Praetor Gaius Vetilius went to besiege them. The Lusitanians were predisposed to surrender themselves in exchange for lands, but at that moment Viriato came forth, opposing himself to the negotiations, recalling the Roman perfidy. Exhorting his companions to the fight, Viriato was elected leader of the Lusitanians and commanded the operations which allowed them to escape the Roman siege. Vetilius pursued the Lusitanians, but he was defeated near Tribola, being arrested and then killed. The Roman army – initially consisting of 10,000 soldiers – was reduced to 6,000 men when it retired to Carteia under the command of quaestor Gaius Vetilius, who sent an ally army of 5,000 Celtiberians against Viriato, unsuccessfully.

    Who was Viriato? Nothing is known about his ascendance, although his humble origin seems clear. Date and place of born are also unknown; we can only consider him a native from the region between the Douro and the Tagus. Literary sources describe him as a shepherd and hunter who, later, participated in robberies in rich settlements and expeditions against the Romans, thus becoming an expert warrior.

    In 146 BC, Viriato headed for Carpetania, and C. Plaucius Hipseus, successor of Vetilius in the government of Ulterior, went to fight him with an army of 10,000 infantry soldiers and 1,300 knights. Simulating an escape, which was a tactic adopted many times by the Lusitanians, Viriato managed to attract a part of the Roman army, approximately 4,000 men, who are severely punished. After this victory, Viriato crossed the Tagus, camping on the mountain of Venus (the mountains of São Vicente, north of Talavera), where he was attacked by Plaucius, who was defeated again. At that time, Viriato took the city of Segobriga and also won over Claudius Unimanus, praetor of Citerior.

    With all these Lusitanian victories, all the province of Ulterior – mainly the occidental regions – were seriously threatened. Aware of this grave situation, Rome sent in 145 BC a consular army of 15,000 infantry soldiers and 2,000 knights to the Ulterior, commanded by Quintus Fabius Maximus Emilianus, brother of Scipio Africanus.

    Viriato defeated G. Nigidius, successor of Unimanus in the Citerior, while Fabius Maximus Emilianus carefully avoided any decisive confrontation, restricting his activities to studying the reactions of the enemy and training his soldiers.

    In the second year of his mandate, Fabius defeated Viriato, helped by G. Lely Sapientae, praetor of Citerior, and then took a Lusitanian-friendly city and burnt another. Consequently, Viriato had to abandon the valley of Guadalquivir, sheltering himself in the city of Baecula, currently Bailéon.

    In 143 BC, the war extended to Celtiberia, whose oriental part was already dominated by the Romans, and where Viriato instigated the mobilization of the @#$%, the Bels and the Arevacs. Quincy, praetor of Ulterior, managed to win over Viriato, who strategically retreated to the mountain of Venus and successfully fought back, taking the Romans who had gone after him by surprise. While Quincy was running away to Cordoba, the Lusitanians took Tucci (current city of Martos, southwest of Jaén) and invaded the region of Bastetania.

    Sources do not refer important military operations during 142 BC. But, in the following year, Rome tried to eliminate the Lusitanian problem again, nominating Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus, from the house of Scipii, as the new proconsul of Hispania Ulterior. The new governor forced Viriato to abandon Tucci with an army of 18,000 infantry soldiers, 1,600 knights and 10 elephants sent by Micipsa, king of Numidia. After their retreat, the Lusitanians fought back, killing 3,000 Romans. Fabius Maximus Servilianus did not give up, and forced Viriato to back away to Lusitania, punishing the Lusitanian-allied cities in Beturia; however, when he went forward to Alentejo and Algarve, he was defeated and forced to retreat. Still in the same year, the Roman proconsul was unexpectedly besieged by Viriato in Erisane (maybe Arsa, in Beturia). Although the situation was entirely favorable for the Lusitanians, who were able to smash the Roman army, Viriato proposed the peace. An agreement – later ratified by the Senate – was established between the Lusitanians and Fabius Maximus Servilianus, in which the latter recognized the independence of the Lusitanians and declared Viriato to be “a friend of the Roman people”.

    The reasons of this pact are somewhat controversial. Perhaps it can be explained due to the situation at the moment: the Lusitanians were exhausted due to the war and this pact was the best opportunity to guarantee peace, maintaining a territorial independence recognized by the Romans at the same time.

    Quintus Servilius Scipio, consul in 140 [bC] and proconsul in 139 [bC], succeeded to his brother Fabius Maximus Servilianus in the province of Ulterior. Right then, the new governor tried to reinitiate the hostilities against the Lusitanians, with consent of the Senate, which considered the pact to be shameful for Rome.

    In 139, Viriato had to retreat from the cities of Beturia, such as Erisane, and headed to Carpetania, avoiding the confront with Servilius Scipio, who went on pursuing the Lusitanians, penetrating the region of the Vetons, and maybe even crossing the river Douro, entering the lands of the Calaics. During these military operations, Servilius Scipio built settlements near the current city of Cáceres – Castra Servilia – and near Sesimbra – Castra Caepiana.

    Meanwhile, the Lusitanians established themselves on the mount of Venus, where they were unsuccessfully attacked by Servilius Scipio.

    Viriato tried to establish peace again by negotiating with the consul of Citerior, M. Popilius Lenate, who forced Viriato to give him Roman deserters and hostages. It is believed that Viriato killed his father-in-law, Astolpas, at this moment, because he was among the hostages demanded by the Romans. Popilius Lenate cut the right hand of every hostage, and he made a new demand to Viriato: the deposition of weapons.

    The Lusitanian leader interrupted the negotiations and, maybe constrained by his soldiers, he tried an agreement with Servilius Scipio, sending three ambassadors – Audax, Ditalco and Minurus, from the city of Urso (Osuna) – who returned to the Lusitanian settlement and killed Viriato while he was sleeping.

    The Lusitanians organized extraordinary funerals in honor of their leader, thus narrated by Apianus: “(...) after magnificently dressing him, they burnt him in a very high balefire, sacrificing many victims in his honor. The infantry soldiers, as well as the cavalry ones, were running around the balefire, armed and in platoons, and worshipping him; and even when the fire was extinguished, they were still running around it. When the funeral ceremony ended, hand combats were celebrated on his tomb. Such a longing Viriato left behind himself!”

    The death of Viriato didn’t mean the end of the Lusitanians resistance. Thus, in that very year of 139 BC, the Lusitanians, led by Tautalus, successor of Viriato, unsuccessfully attacked the city of Sagunto. Later, they headed to the valley of Guadalquivir, where they were forced to make an agreement with Servilius Scipio.

    In 138 BC, Rome nominated Decimus Junius Brutus to be the consul of Hispania Ulterior. His mission was to dominate the central region of Lusitanian, because the Lusitanian raids had not ceased. The Roman general installed his settlement in Moron, at the right bank of the river Tagus. This operation base is probably situated in the area of Chões de Alpompé, Vale de Figueira, north of Santarém. Brutus also fortified Olisipo (Lisbon), surely to guarantee supplies for the army and maritime access.

    Knowing it would be difficult to dominate the Lusitanian hosts settled on the mountainous regions, unfavorable for Roman tactics, Brutus preferred to attack the Lusitanian cities. This strategy was totally successful, as it forced the sheltered guerrillas to come out in aid of their villages.

    In 137 BC, Brutus crossed the river Douro, marching northward up to the legendary river Letes (current Lima), which the Roman soldiers refused to cross, being afraid of losing their memory. In fact, there was an indigenous belief diffused among the soldiers that the waters of the river Letes caused total loss of memory – even their origins and their homeland – for those who crossed it. In order to get rid of this fear, Brutus was the first one to cross the river, holding a flag, then being followed by the whole army. Brutus continued to march up to the river Minho, but he has threatened by the Bracarii, who had taken hold of the supplies of his army, thus forced to retreat. On the 9th July 137 BC, the Romans attacked the Bracarii, razing their powerful army. Orosius wrote that 50,000 Calaics died in this battle and 6,000 were captured. During the return of Brutus to the settlements of Tagus, new rebellions happened, such as in Talabriga, a city localized between the rivers Douro and Vouga, which had to surrender after being besieged by the Romans, occurrence related by Apianus: “after incusing fear among them, and convincing them that he would do something terrible, Brutus content himself in playing with them. He took the horses, the wheat, and the public treasury from them, and also all common goods, and then he gave them the city back, against all their hopes.”

    Decimus Junius Brutus returned to Rome probably in 133 BC. During his government, he pacified Lusitania and inflicted heavy losses among the Calaics who were theoretically subjected to the Romans, despite maintaining their independence.

    The Lusitanian Wars ended with the expedition of Brutus. Actually, judging by the literary sources, peace prevailed for some years, since there is no news on confrontations in the Ulterior. Viriato’s death and Brutus’ actions must have been determinant for this tranquility.

  14. Lusitanians vs. Iberians

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Undo

    Lusitania – HIST. 1. Lusitania was the name given, generally, to the territory situated in the occidental end of the Iberian Peninsula, and which started in the North after the Durius (according to Pliny) and with “its flank to the North and his front to the Atlantic ocean”, in the brief description by Pomponius Mela. The name “Lusitania” arose from Lusus (the root Lus was quite common in Celtic territories, as A. Schulten pointed out). Thus, the country name derived from the onomastic vocable Lusus, just like all consanguinity and tribe names – mainly the tribe leader – derived from this proper name: Lusitania means “tribe” or “people of Lusus”. However, Lusus does not appear in any ancient text, despite the multiplicity of other names with the same Celtic root: Lusa, Lusatia, Luseous, Lusoius, Luseu, etc, or even Lusones in the indication of Leite de Vasconcellos, who considers Lus as a theoretical common root to Lusus, Lusones and Lusitania. The imposing certainty is this: names with the root Lus are common in Celtic countries; the Lusitanians – people of autochthonous root in this peninsular nook – formed, through crossing marriages, a group of tribes with the Celts, with Celt-Iberian characteristics and language, after the Celtic and Iberian invasions, in the beginning of the Iron Age. This explains the frequency of Celtic names in the ancient Lusitania. Every text which refers to Lusitania, its name, territory limits, geographic, historic and ethnographic aspects are from Greek and Roman classic authors and also from some writers born in Iberia, as the already quoted P. Mela. After the wars between Carthage and Rome and the ones with Viriato and his successors, the Romans kept the name “Lusitania” in the administrative division they imposed in the Iberian Peninsula.

    2. The geography of Lusitania originated a series of problems as to the exact limits of the territory. Strabo considered three well-determined regions in the West of the Iberian Peninsula: the Cineticum (Algarve), the Mesopotamia (area between the rivers Tagus and Guadiana), and the Lusitania itself or primitive Lusitania, between the Tagus and the extreme North of Galicia (Cantabria), thus occupying two wide areas, the Callaecia (Galicia) and the district between the rivers Tagus and Douro. Lusitania was split in two distinct zones: the southern one, soon dedicated to trading profits and contacts with the Mediterranean and the civilization; and the central and northern zone, the former rough and plain, the latter of a wrinkled orography, tortured by deep geologic eruptions, hard, mountainous and wild. As to limits, at the time of the castrum culture, the country was apparently situated between the river Guadiana, in the South, and the rivers Douro or Minho in the North. The Lusitanian homeland occupied the northern half, the mountainous region between Tagus and Douro (the current “Beiras”). Physically, the occidental area of Iberia not only shows a diversified physiognomy from North to South – divided by the valley of Tagus – but was also a rich area, as its rivers were praised because of their auriferous sands by classic writers like Strabo, Catullus, Ovid, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Juvenal, and others. Rivers were also important communication ways: Durius, Limia, Vacua, and Munda. Tagus, in the 1st century, was 20 stadiums wide (approx. 3700 meters) in its mouth. The river Minho could be sailed up to 800 stadiums. The southern region is plainer, and we can highlight the zones of Mesopotamia and Cineticum, the latter separated from the rest of the territory by two mountain ridges which establish the cut between the current Alentejo and the farthest meridional part of the country – mountains which are currently called Monchique and Loulé. The most important river was Anas, full of fish, which was the limit between Cineticum and Ager Tartessius. The Lusitania was a wide territory, which reaches the width of 3000 stadiums in the 1st century, as a country of many contrasts: promontories, bays, coves, wide beaches, rivers rich in fish. Strabo sincerely praised the fauna in every book he wrote about the Peninsula. The fauna was portentous in Lusitania: magnificent horses (similar to the Parthian ones), wild boars, harts, wolves, foxes, jennets, lynxes, goats, hares, rabbits, this latter so abundant that it brought grave consequences to Turdetania, destroying tree and bush roots. This is why the people called Hispania – that is Land of the Rabbit – to ancient Iberia. The Lusitanian west coast is described by authors like Strabo and Avienus, mentioning the indented littoral, rivers of wide and deep estuaries, protected coves and capes like Barbarion (currently “Espichel”), the Promunturium olissiponense, the Mondego cape, the Promunturium Sacrum and the Avarum. The territory was rich in ore: gold, copper, tin, silver and iron. In addition, there was the natural richness of equine, caprine, bovine and swine livestock; the medicinal waters which were the basis of the rude Lusitanian medicine. Quoting Polybius: “The well-tempered weather, the prolific animals and people and the fruits which never spoil the country.” The Romans, who established the administrative board of Iberia under Augustus orders, insert Lusitania in the Hispaniae Ulterior province. During the overcast times of the Low Empire, its name was not modified: Lusitania.

    3. The map of the distribution of people and tribes in the Lusitanian territory in the proto-historic epoch shows a stirring and colorful miscellany. The Conii or Cinets, who had contacts with the North – that is, with the Lusitanians themselves – lived in the Cineticum region and used a language with Greco-Punic-Tirsenic influences. The Vetons, who were related to the Lusitanians and were their allies, lived in the occidental Lusitania; the Turduli Veteres lived near the river Munda and in the country of Vacua. This tribe probably built the cities Eburobritium, Collipo, Aeminium, Conimbriga and Talabriga. The Transcudans and the Igaeditans lived between the Tagus and the Douro (After, the Roman city Egitania; now Idanha-a-Velha). Pliny also refers the Paesuri in the Douro’s south. Furthermore, an inscription in the bridge of Alcântara refers the Interamnenses, Talori, Arnui and Colerui tribes. The Celts, who probably found the cities of Lacobriga, Mirobriga, Anobriga, Arandis or Arani and Baesuris, lived in the Mesopotamia between the Tagus and the Guadiana. The Callaeci or Calaics and other celtici like Grovii lived from the river Douro to the North, beyond of the Lusitanian border (end of Galicia). There were also the Bracarii – ethnic groupings who lived in the mountains – the Leuni and the Seurbi. The Turodi lived in the wild region which is now the region of Trás-os-Montes. We presented here just a few tribes among the ethnic variety of Lusitania, showing the weak social unity of the country.

    4. The Lusitanians were the most important people, welded by abundant contacts and crossings with other tribes – invaders, most of the times. Concerning the archeological richness of Lusitania before the Iron Age, we can affirm that the history of Lusitania gains its originality with the Lusitanian people, although they had constantly been in contact with superior people and cultures of Mediterranean provenience: the Phoenicians of Tyro, who shored in the Mediterranean and Atlantic littoral of the Peninsula in the 12th century BC, sending their vessels to the mysterious reign of the Tartessians (South of Hispania); the Carthaginians, who occupied the area up to the North of the Tagus; the Greeks from Phocaea, with their characteristic littoral occupation or in the mouth of big rivers, in the way of the tinful areas of the northern Peninsula; the Romans, who intervene in economic businesses in the Peninsula after the wars with Carthage. During the 2nd Punic War, initiated in 219 BC, the Romans begin their fight to conquer Iberia and destroy Carthage. After a long period of fights, revolts, troop and population movements, the Lusitanians prepared their spectacular offensive. They advanced to the region of Betis, allied with the Vetons and other tribes. The Lusitanian war starts in 155 and the Viriatian war lasts from 147 to 138 BC. The Iberian Peninsula, which was a conquest desire for other civilizations since the early antiquity, suffered the harshest reverse of its agitated history: since 193 BC, the tribes of the Peninsula decide to initiate the war against the Romans in Betis.

    The Lusitanians, after the shameful treason of Galba (when 9000 Lusitanians were barbarously slaughtered and 20,000 were sold in Gaul as slaves), organized themselves around Viriato, and the following years were the hardest times for the Roman hosts: Galba, Lucullus, Vetilius, C. Plaucius, Fabius, Servilianus, Scipio, were defeated by the brave Lusitanian leader. The Lusitanians were the only Iberian tribe who maintained their freedom war for such a long time, with the peculiar characteristics we know. We call Lusitanians to the Iron Age group of tribes. They dedicated to hunting, a rudimentary agriculture (mainly the mountain tribes), shepherding, and fishing, but they also had an important economic life – which is proved by the existence of commercial cities like Moron – a rich agriculture in the low areas, an intense life of relation, an art, a bellicose and liturgical literature; they lived in walled cities on high cliffs for defensive reasons which are called castros or crastos, citanias or cividades (examples in Portugal: citania of Briteiros, Sanfins, Sabroso, Cividade of Terroso; castros of Santa Luzia, Castelo dos Mouros in Idanha-a-Velha, Monsanto da Beira, etc.). The houses were round, made of stone, covered with stems, some of them without windows and some of them rectangular. The circular houses sometimes reached a diameter of 5 meters (in the Citania of Briteiros). Walls reached 50 centimeters thick. The walls of big castros were polygonal or cyclopic – their circuit sometimes lengthened 50 meters to 1000 meters and was sometimes reinforced by a second defensive curtain.

    5. Comforts did not miss daily life: clothing, manufacturing of flax and wool clothes, leather, esparto, metal and ceramic (doria) objects, artisans, blacksmiths, millers, warriors, farmers, priests, housewives taking care of their children, toasting acorns and milling them to make bread, grinding corn with manual millstones, and a typically Iron Age loom in each familiar aggregate. They had varied food and multiplicity in living styles. Lusitanians lived according at least three living styles: mountain life, plains life, and littoral life; these two more dedicated to trading between near settlements and external trading with the Mediterranean, Northern Galicia regions, Betica and Turdetania. They exchanged products directly and with pieces of gold or silver, like money. Even coins were used in some southern cities, like Baesuris, Ebora, Ossonoba, Sirpens, Myrtilis and Salacia.

    6. The Lusitanian religion was polytheist. They believed in natural forces: they practiced physiolatry and magic impregnated by extraordinary beliefs, which are described by Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Avienus, Diodorus and others. They worshiped the rivers: Tagus, Mondego, Lima (Limia, Flumen oblivionis that is, River of Oblivion), the woods, the big promontories, the Moon, the stars and the winds (the Serra of Sintra was the altar of the Moon cult; according to Martian of Heraclea and Ptolemy, it was called the Serra of the Moon). They also had the main gods: Endovelico, Ataegina, Macario, Revalanganiteco, Ilurbeda and Trebaruna. The Lusitanian pantheon is full of earth and fertility gods. The woman and the earth were united in the cult of the holy fecundity, as in any primitive tribe. Warlike tribes worshiped the god of war and the gods of metallurgy were also worshiped in the whole territory. They practiced human sacrificing, but only with prisoners and war enemies. The dead were cremated, and their ashes were buried in little clay urns: cremation, dancing and singing, and a funereal banquet in the end.

    7. The auriferous richness of Lusitania originated the castro jewelry (*): brooches, bangles (**), pins, torques, bracelets, ear-rings and other rings, which were found in the castros of Lanhoso, Lebução, Paradela do Rio (Montalegre), Estremoz, Briteiros, and many other localities. Techniques: cold hammering and lamination, and the foundry; ornamentation techniques: the granulated, grained, or powdered, and ornamentation of pricks cut with chisel, with globules (spouting), as in the famous bracelet of Chaves. The following tools were found in excavations: hammers, anvils and chisels. The rude Lusitanian structures were modified with the Roman occupation. The Lusitanian-Roman epoch is a period of big agitation in social, economic and military life: mass migration of population who colonized regions outside the primitive Lusitania – like Valencia – and outside the Peninsula – like Romania; destruction of castros and annexed pathways; creation of roads, new urban centers over the remains of old settlements, monuments who attest the existence of a superior civilization. But what is remarkable is the predominant permanence of the Lusitanian facies in the Roman civilization of the Lusitania, although the history of the autonomous Lusitania ends in 45 BC. It becomes a Roman province in 25 BC, with precise borders in the river Douro, northward, and the Mediterranean, southward, with a wider territory than the one of Viriato’s epoch, and constituting an “imperatorial province”. With Claudius it was subdivided in Conventus: the Pacensis (seat in Pax Julia), the Scallabitanus (seat in Scallabis), and the Emeritensis (seat in Emerita Augusta). In Lusitania, Romans erect their essentially practical architectonical art, with monuments of big size, some of them beautiful and lasting: bridges, aqueducts, temples, construction of magnificent houses with marble, statuary, and inimitable mosaics – influenced by Roman and Greek artists who set foot on the Lusitanian land – which can be seen in many cities like Conimbriga, Vila Cardilio (municipality of Torres Novas), Torre de Palma, Pisões (municipality of Beja), Abicada (municipality of Portimão), Estoi (municipality of Faro), and greatly important cities like Olisipo [Lisbon], which was restructured, Egitania Emerida Augusta, Conimbriga, Pax Julia, etc. Concerning ceramic, we can notice that little plain or ornamented vessels and dolia in the Lusitanian castros. In the former, there is ornamentation in S’s, chess-pattern, and triangles, and also ceramic with stamped matrixes (rosettes, stylized palmipedes, etc.). Later, this ceramic was replaced by the magnificent arretine ceramic or with varied ornamentation of Gaulish or Italic importation. Not much later, Lusitanian potters managed to improve the manufacturing of terra sigillata, which was called Hispanic by convention. In jewelry, other examples of several origins cause modifications in the castro jewels. The Romans oppose their fine and perfect statuary – which can be seen in several museums – to the bellowers and rude statues of Calaic and Lusitanian warriors. In small-sized statuary, the quantity of ex votos and little worship figures exemplify the variety of Lusitanian cults and the perfect Roman assimilation of the polytheist religion of the Lusitania of castros (*).

    8. Roman Lusitania – Lusitania was one of the territories which resulted from the administrative division of the old province of Hispania Ulterior, made by Augustus. Before this division Hispania was constituted by two big provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, consequence of the Roman conquering effort, each one ruled by a praetor since the beginnings of the 2nd century BC. In this first administrative organization of Hispania, it is not easy to distinguish the military purposes from the mere administrative ones. Anyway, this first administrative division modeled the future initiatives of organizing the territory; in fact, the old republican administrative divisions are the basis of Augustus’ new territorial board. It is also necessary to understand that Hispania was homogeneous neither in physic geography nor in human geography, and the living style of the different tribes who habited there were very different; the urban civilizations of the Mediterranean littoral were culturally very distant from the semi-nomad people of the mountains, mainly dedicated to shepherding. When Augustus reorganized Hispania he was certainly thinking about practical economic situations, which would allow the Roman dominance in the territory, and not in the interests of the several tribes who lived there. The division of the Hispania Ulterior in two provinces, Betica and Lusitania, corresponded to a alleged military necessity – the territories where the presence of military effectives was necessary for the complete control of the region belonged to the Emperor; the Senate was responsible for the administration of the southern territories, which were conquered by senatorial initiative, and where the eldest Roman urban nucleuses were installed and flourished, being the presence of the armies already unnecessary. The borders of the Roman province were the Atlantic Ocean, as West and South limits, the course of the river Douro, as the North limit, and eastwardly the course of the river Guadiana – which washed the capital city, Emerita Augusta (the current Spanish city of Mérida) – by the Spanish table-land up to the interior course of the Douro, and then down to the sea. The borders of this Roman province were kept until the Low Empire, and not even the administrative reform of Diocletian, in the end of the 3rd century, inflicted significant changes in both Lusitania and Betica. Authors are not unanimous either about the exact borders of Lusitania or the date when Augustus administratively remodeled the territory. Discrepancies are partially due to a confounding of the alleged “ethnic unity” – the Lusitanians – with the Roman administrative region, and due to the nationalist exploration that has been being ideologically implanted in the national [Portuguese] historiography since André de Resende. In the border controversy, the Portuguese territory in the left margin of the Guadiana has been attributed both to Lusitania and Betica, according to different opinions. As for the date when the province was created, it is known that it occurred somewhere between 27 BC (accepting the testimony of Dion Cassius), to 16 BC – 13 BC, when Augustus returned from his second journey to Hispania.

    *The Portuguese adjective used was castreja, which is an untranslatable word and means “belonging or referring to the epoch of castros”. A castro was, as said earlier, a fortified Lusitanian settlement. (Translator’s Note)

    **The Portuguese word is víria, which means “bangle used by ancient warriors”. Hence the name Viriato, which meant “warrior who used a víria”. I do not know the English translation of this word. (Translator’s Note)

  16. Lusitanians vs. Iberians

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Oh, thank you... :shrug: As I've said, it is a honor for me, I've always wanted to participate in a project like this. And I like to be helpful B)

    Tomorrow I'm going to post the last translation of the Portuguese-Brazilian encyclopedia that I have to offer. If you want me to translate some other entries, please tell me. This encyclopedia is very complete (but sometimes a bit confusing! :P )

    Next in my "translation plan": my History of Portugal book.

  20. Lusitanians vs. Iberians

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Something about Viriato:

    Viriato – Lusitanian leader (2nd century BC). According to Diodorus Siculus, “he belonged to the Lusitanians who lived near the ocean”, that is, not in the oriental Lusitania – the Lusitanians habitat which, as Strabo said, was “hilly and rough” – but in the occidental part, conquered by them – facing the sea and “plain, except for some low altitude mountains” (which apparently excludes Serra da Estrela from his birthplace). Still according to Diodorus, “he was a shepherd since a child and accustomed to mountain life, overcoming the other Iberians in strength, speed and agility”. He was elected leader by the Lusitanian people after the loss which was inflicted by praetor Vetilius in the valley of Betis (Guadalquivir) in 147 BC, and he soon revealed himself “as a man with a greatly sharp astuteness, who went from hunter to brigand, and from brigand to general and emperor” – says Florus. That is, he was a victorious military chief, who quickly rallied a bandits’ gang around him, commanded them “always covered by ferrous armor” – according to Diodorus – being mostly admired not only because of his strength, but also because of the command skills he proved to have. Thus, he managed to successively win over the Romans, applying the escaping stratagem in order to force them to follow his own way, and then taking them by surprise, unseen, darting iron javelins with harpoon-shaped ends, which caused extremely grave wounds. Romans could not defend themselves, because Lusitanians promptly ran away mounted on very quick horses. The cruelty of these fights leaded the Romans to take actions which they own condemned as harsh and even disloyal. War lasted 8 years (147 – 139 BC), with successive losses of praetors, pro-consuls, and consuls. However, Viriato was constrained by the peoples affected by extremely grave depredations, and he was forced to send three ambassadors to Scipio, pro-consul of Ulterior. These ambassadors betrayed Viriato, killing him, leaded by a reward promise; in vain, because the Roman Senate did not acknowledged the signed agreements. He was an unquestionable historical figure – his activities are clearly documented – but nonetheless the legend laid hold on him, transforming him in a national hero, who defended the independence of his people. However, the truth is that Viriato and the Lusitanians he commanded lived on robbery and booty, prejudicing the laborious population of the country, dominating it by terror, without any patriotic feelings. And in their turn, the Romans – who wanted the re-establishment of peace, an essential condition for economic development – acted as liberators of the indigenous population, favoring the resurgence of their agricultural and mercantile activities, severely affected by the bellicose actions of the Lusitanian. Thus, Viriato was the leader of an aggressively dominating people, who gravely prejudiced the indigenous population with his violence and arbitrariness, and was far from protecting it from the Roman invasion.

  22. Lusitanians vs. Iberians

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Undo

    I've just read it in the encyclopedia...

    Quoted from the "Luso-Brazilian Encyclopedia of Culture":

    "(...)The Lusitanians were the only Iberian tribe which maintained their freedom war for the longest time(...)"

    Yeah, I guess that doesn't mean they were the last tribe standing... But it was this I meant to say.

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