Lusitania (Province)

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The Roman province of Lusitania
Location of the province of Lusitania in the Roman Empire
Notitia Dignitatum: chapter page of Vicarius Hispaniae , it shows the personifications of three Hispanic provinces: Baetica, Lusitania and Gallaecia. They are depicted with wall crowns on their heads; their tax liability is symbolized by the baskets. The vicarius , like the proconsul in Africa, had jurisdiction, as indicated by the writing utensils shown.
Map of the Lusitania

Lusitania was a Roman province during the imperial era . It roughly comprised present-day Portugal up to the Douro and parts of western Spain , in particular Extremadura and present-day Salamanca province .

Surname

The region was named after the Indo-European Lusitans , a group of pre-Celtic peoples who lived there. The etymology of the name of this people is unclear. The name could be of Celtic origin: Lus and tanus , "tribe of Lusus".

Roman province

Originally the Lusitans inhabited the area between the Tejo and the Douro (central Portugal), in the 2nd century they extended their settlement area to southern Portugal. In the republican times, Lusitania, as far as it was ruled by the Romans at that time, belonged to the province of Hispania ulterior , which comprised the south and west of the Iberian Peninsula . It was only Caesar who completed the integration of this region into the Roman Empire.

Due to the provincial reform under Emperor Augustus , Hispania ulterior was divided into two parts, Hispania Baetica (southeast) and Lusitania (northwest), the border running roughly along the river Anas (now Guadiana ). In the north and east, the Lusitania bordered the very large province of Hispania citerior . This border ran in the north along the lower reaches of the Douro; in the east, Lusitania also included the areas of the cities of Salamantica ( Salamanca ), Caliabria ( Ciudad Rodrigo ), Caurium ( Coria ), Norba Caesarina ( Cáceres ), Capera ( Cáparra ) and Caesarobriga ( Talavera de la Reina ). The new provincial division of the Emperor Diocletian in the late 3rd century apparently did not change the geographical extent of the Lusitania.

The capital of the province of Lusitania was Emerita Augusta (now Mérida ), a veteran colony founded by Augustus. The Lusitania was an imperial province and was subject to a governor of praetorical rank, while the Baetica belonged to the senatorial provinces . The Lusitania had three judicial districts: Emerita Augusta (Mérida), Pax Augusta ( Beja ) and Scallabis ( Santarém ).

The economic importance of the province of Lusitania lay among other things in its metal deposits, including gold in the rivers as well as copper and silver.

After Roman times

Even after the end of Roman times, the area kept the name Lusitania . Only with the founding of the County of Portucale under the House of Burgundy and its expansion in the course of the Reconquista in the 11th and 12th centuries did the name Portugal prevail. Using the ancient name, the French Emperor Napoleon wanted to establish a kingdom of Northern Lusitania in northern Portugal at the beginning of the 19th century .

Today the term Lusitania (adjective Lusitanian ) is used as a synonym for Portugal, cf. on this Lusitanism and Lusitanism .

literature

General, introductions

  • Jorge de Alarcão: Roman Portugal , 2 volumes. Aris & Phillips, Warminster 1988, ISBN 0-85668-290-X
  • Daniel Nony: The Spanish provinces . In: Claude Lepelley (Ed.): Rome and the Empire in the High Imperial Era, 44 BC. BC - 260 AD , Volume 2: The Regions of the Empire . Saur, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-598-77449-4 , pp. 121–150 (overview with good bibliography)
  • Antonio Tovar: Iberian Culture , Part 2: The Peoples and Cities of Ancient Hispania , Volume 2: Lusitania . Körner, Baden-Baden 1976

Organization and administration

  • Géza Alföldy : Fasti Hispanienses. Senatorial officials and officers in the Spanish provinces of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Diocletian . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1969 (pp. 131–148, 218–229 on the governors of the Lusitania)
  • Franz Braun: The development of the Spanish provincial borders in Roman times . Weidmann, Berlin 1909
  • Rudolf Haensch : Capita provinciarum. Governor's seat and provincial administration in the Roman Empire . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-1803-0 ( Cologne Research Volume 7)
  • Patrick Le Roux: L'armée romaine et l'organization des provinces ibériques d'Auguste à l'invasion de 409 . Boccard, Paris 1982, ISBN 2-7018-0002-1

Social and economic history

  • Jean-Gérard Gorges, Francisco Germán Rodríguez Martín (eds.): Économie et territoire en Lusitanie romaine . Casa de Velázquez, Madrid 1999, ISBN 84-86839-93-9

Web links

Commons : Lusitania  - collection of images, videos and audio files