Lusitania

The province named after the people who gave Rome its worst defeats in the peninsula, created only once they had stopped fighting. Lusitania covered most of modern Portugal south of the Douro plus a slice of western Spain, and Augustus separated it from Hispania Ulterior in 27 BC. The Lusitanians were not a state but a cluster of hill peoples whose economy included raiding the rich Guadalquivir valley, which is what brought Rome after them. The wars ran intermittently from the 190s BC. Their most effective leader, Viriathus, held out for eight years, destroyed several Roman armies, and forced a treaty recognising him as a friend of Rome; the Senate repudiated it and he was assassinated in his sleep by three of his own men who had been bribed. The consul Galba had earlier disarmed a group under a promise of land and then massacred them, and was prosecuted for it in Rome without being convicted. Once settled, the province was quiet and lightly garrisoned. Emerita Augusta, now Merida, was founded for veterans in 25 BC and has the best-preserved Roman theatre, aqueduct and bridge in Spain, all a World Heritage site. The province exported tin, gold, salt fish and horses that Roman writers claimed were sired by the wind. Olisipo, later Lisbon, held Roman citizenship. The Suebi established a kingdom in the northwest after 409. The name survives in Portuguese usage as a literary term for the country. Emerita was one of the largest cities in the western empire. Lusitanian auxiliary units served on the Rhine and in Britain. The province was governed by a legate of praetorian rank.

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