Romans in Portugal

One of the interesting things about Portugal is that you stumble across Roman remains everywhere you go. We found a roman forum in Lisbon and the remains of  a Roman villa in Luz in the Algarve. Each time they were major archaeological sites but almost tucked away and forgotten. You have to think in other countries they would make more of these important sites. There was a small municipal museum in Lagos that had sections of roman villas and mosiacs casually displayed at the entrance. It felt more like an antique shop than a museum. Here in Luz overlooking the calm Atlantic I can picture the Romans at work. So I did some digging around the internet and found some history on the Romans in Portugal.

Roman Mosiac

Roman ruins

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The Roman Occupation of Portugal -

The modern name of Portugal was not used until the 11th century.

In 210BC the Romans entered the southern Iberian peninsula and quickly subdued the Mediterranean coast and the south of Spain and Portugal. In the central Iberian region they met great resistance and in 193BC the Lusitani rose up in arms. Based in central Portugal between the Tejo and the Lima rivers the Lusitani were known to the Romans as ‘Strabo’ “the most powerful of the Iberian peoples, who resisted the armies of Rome for the longest period”. Under the rebel leader Viriato, born in the area of Loriga in the Serra d’Estrela, they held up the Roman advance for 50 years, only finally losing in 139BC.

In 60BC Julius Caeser established his capital at Olisipo (Lisbon) and then built significant settlement at Ebora (Évora), Scallibis (Santarém) and Pax Julia (Beja).

Under the Emperor Augustus the Iberian provinces were reorganised in 27BC, with everything but the north of Portugal governed as Lusitánia. The Minho area formed part of another province which was added to northern Spain to become Gallaecia, with an important regional centre at Bracara Augusta (Braga).

The Roman influence was greatest in the south, where they established huge agricultural estates ‘litifundia’ (many of which survive today in the Alentejo).They introduced wheat, olives, barley and of course vines, to Portugal. The Romans ruled for 6 centuries under the emperors Tiberius, Trajar, Hadrian and Diodetian. They have left many roads and bridges which are still in use today, 2000 years later. The Portuguese language is heavily based on Latin, which was the language of Rome, and one of the biggest influences that survives today from the Roman Empire, through­out southern Europe.

The decline of the Roman occupation of Portugal echoed its decline throughout Europe. The Roman Empire was already disintegrating when the first Christians landed on the southern shores of ‘Lusitania’ around 200AD.

In the early 5th century Lusitania was attacked and occupied by the Suevi and the Visigoths (Germanic peoples), and in 410 Rome was sacked by the Visig­oths led by Alaric I.